PLEASE NOTE: If paying via purchase order, your 7-day rental period will begin when we approve your order. (Approvals are usually processed regularly during trading hours, but please allow up to two business days.) If paying up-front via credit card or PayPal, you will have access to stream the file in a matter of minutes, and your 7-day rental period will begin straight away.

You will receive an email (separate to your tax invoice) with a link to watch this video once your payment is received (or when we approve your purchase order).

Synopsis:

The Holtermann collection is one of the most important collection of photographs in Australia. Discovered in a garden shed in suburban Sydney in 1951, the cache of 3500 negatives proved to be an astonishing record of life on the goldfields in the 1870s.

Bernard Otto Holtermann, who made his name with the discovery of the world's largest specimen of reef gold in Hill End, used his wealth to employ Henry Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss to photograph the gold towns of NSW and Victoria for exhibition overseas.

Holtermann hoped that the photographs would encourage immigration to the colonies. Now in collection of the State Library of NSW, the photographs have been digitally scanned revealing details hidden for 140 years.

Curriculum Links:

The Holtermann Legacy is suitable for students studying in the following areas: