painter, professional photographer, showman, author, balloonist, traveller, reporter and merchant, was reputedly a wealthy merchant in the West Indies until bankrupted by his addiction to travel. Receiving the news while roaming around Egypt, Moon deposited his wife and son in England and came to New South Wales in 1852 to recover his fortune. In Sydney he exhibited a painted panorama showing aerial views of exotic places he claimed to have sketched during ascents made with prominent balloonists, accompanying this with a descriptive lecture and a number of songs – mainly of his own composition. He then took his show to the goldfields, being at Castlemaine, Victoria in 1855 with his 'Aerial Sketches, and Scenes taken from the Car of a Balloon, at Home and Abroad’ which, he advertised, was now 'illustrated by a series of beautifully painted views of London, Paris, Switzerland, Egypt and Sydney. In the course of the evening a novelty will be introduced in the person of a little Dwarf who will sing one of the most popular songs of the day.’
Apparently having exhausted the possibilities of this 'Musical, Pictorial, and Descriptive Entertainment’, Moon settled at Maldon (Vic.) and tried a variety of occupations. While employed as a reporter on the local newspaper in 1860, he delivered a lecture titled 'An Evening with the Comic Authors of England and America’. In 1861 he was in the news for having succeeded in shooting 'a “glutton”, a somewhat rare animal, very similar in appearance to a “tiger cat”. It has most formidable tusks, and measures 2 feet 9 inches from nose to tail.’ In 1863 he was appointed librarian of the Maldon Athenaeum and the following year published a local guide, history and business directory, Tarrangower, Past and Present , still a most useful source on the town.
In 1866 Moon set up as a photographer, taking both speculative and commissioned views in and around Maldon. In 1867 he opened a portrait studio, prompting a local wag to observe that the quality of Maldon photographs was high because both sun and Moon contributed to their production. Examples of his photographs are in the La Trobe Library.
Throughout these years Moon harboured some intention of returning to his family and regularly corresponded with his wife until learning by chance – from a copy of the London Times – that she had obtained a divorce on the grounds of desertion, falsely stating that he had not communicated with her, and had remarried. The news seems to have exacerbated a chronic lung complaint. He died in the Maldon Hospital in 1868, aged fifty-two.
- Writers:
- Lewis, Miles
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
