illustrator and settler, was born on 20 November 1820 at Dunlavin, County Wicklow, Ireland, son of James Fenton. He arrived at Hobart Town on board the Othello in February 1834 with his siblings and widowed mother, his father having died on the outward voyage. In 1840 he settled in the heavily timbered region of the Forth River estuary on the north coast of Van Diemen’s Land and began to clear the forest by ringbarking, supposedly being the first Australian to apply this technique. During the Victorian goldrush, Fenton found a ready market for his timber in Melbourne’s canvas townshi
As well as developing a thriving timber export industry, Fenton found time for sketching. Some of his Tasmanian views were reproduced in the Illustrated Melbourne Post in the mid-1860s: Devil’s Punch Bowl, Tasmania (18 October 1864), Torquay, Tasmania (25 January 1865, engraved by F. Cubitt), The Estuary of the Forth, Tasmania (18 February 1866, engraved by S. Calvert ), and View on the Forth, Tasmania (20 July 1866, engraved by R. Bruce). Later, after his retirement, Fenton wrote A History of Tasmania (Hobart 1884) and Bush Life in Tasmania Fifty Years Ago (Hobart 1891). He died on 24 June 1901. His wife Helena Mary Monds, whom he had married in 1846, had died in 1892; they had three daughters and one son.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
