sketcher, was born in Bury St Edmunds, England, son of James Laing, an army contractor, and Elizabeth, née Rainbird, and possibly a relative of the prolific Melbourne architect, Charles Laing (1809-57). J.W. Laing apparently came to Victoria during the gold rush. In 1856 he drew a view of Kilmore, Victoria, engraved on copper by H.S. Sadd (National Library of Australia). Laing moved to Queensland about 1868 and travelled around the colony drawing pencil views of properties and buildings. Surviving drawings, all in the John Oxley Library, include: Spring Gardens – New Town, near Ipswich, Qld, September 1869[?] ; Cumnock Cottage, Gympie (1870); a view of the Pimpama Hotel (c.1873); the Clydesdale Sugar Mill on Doughboy Creek at Hemmant (February 1873); the Primary School at West Oxley (May 1873); W.H. Westaway’s property known as Meridan Plains (August 1875); Redhall, the residence of John Simpson at Caboolture; and Glastonville, William Turnbull’s residence at Glastonbury Creek (May 1877). A view of Eden station, Opossum Creek, is held privately.
Laing died, unmarried, at Tiaro, near Maryborough, Queensland, on 22 November 1877, aged sixty-six.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
