sketcher, was born in County Antrim of a wealthy Northern Irish family and he remained an idle gentleman all his life – a rare and normally transitory species in early colonial Australia. Thomson was no exception. After visiting Victoria in the late 1830s, he returned home with two Aboriginal clubs, a map of Port Phillip and two watercolour sketches he had drawn on his visit. He donated them to the Ulster Museum in 1843. One sketch is labelled Travelling at Port Phillip, July 12th 1836 ; the other is a portrait of William Buckley, the 'wild white man’ convict who lived with the Port Phillip Aborigines for thirty-two years until July 1835 and who was still a curiosity when employed as an interpreter for John Batman in 1836. Three etchings of Aborigines by Benjamin Duterrau are also in the collection.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
