Design and Art Australia Online

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• amrai June 8, 2016 ¶ John Holme Jones was born in London and arrived in Melbourne c1851. He was an architect and surveyor who initially worked in Melbourne. He left Melbourne c1861 for Ballarat and set up as a Surveyor in Sturt Street. The publicity of the "Sturt Street Jumping Case", where he and his business partner attempted to claim the property they were renting, perhaps caused him to take up photography. He sold a selection of photographs to the Kyneton Council c1862 and also produced "Jones Views of Australian Scenery" a collection of 120+ stereoscopic views of Victoria in 1862/3, before returning to Ballarat and resuming his career as an Architect. He was responsible for a number of projects in Ballarat including Winchester House in Sturt St, the façade of the Unicorn Hotel, and a wing of the hospital. His most well known achievement is the façade of the Ballarat Mechanics Institute. Controversy surrounding his directorship of a local mining company, and the collapse of the speculative "Sunken Ship Recovery Company", of which he was also a director (a company which had attempted the only know salvaging of a sunken ship with Hydrogen Gas), landed him in Melbourne Gaol. He then left Ballarat for Bendigo where he again pursued a career as an architect. Unfortunately, passing a bouncing cheque earned him time in Bendigo Prison. On release he took his architectural pursuits northwards to Deniliquin, Hay and Balranald. His design of the Deniliquin Town Hall and Ballarat Mechanics Institute earned him membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He eventually moved on to Sydney and then finally Brisbane where he died destitute in the 1890's. He was an architect, surveyor, photographer as well as a water colourist and amateur actor. He made a number of innovations in building construction and other fields.