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professional photographer, was said to be aged sixteen when he arrived at Moreton Bay (Brisbane, Queensland) in 1849 with other Fortitude immigrants brought out by Dr J.D. Lang. The Challinor family, including his mother, aged forty, and younger sister Emily, settled in Ipswich. So did his cousin Dr Henry Challinor, the ship’s surgeon-superintendent, then aged about thirty-five. The Challinors were particularly remembered by the later photographer Thomas Mathewson , who refutes the common assumption that Miles (as he was known) was the doctor’s son by stating: 'A Cousin of the Doctor’s acted as Dispenser in 1854; a few years later he took up photography and had a very fine studio built at the rear of the Doctor’s brick building where he photographed many notables. He afterwards went into cotton growing on Warrill Creek, and finally became Clerk for the Esk Shire Council.’

At Ipswich in 1860 Miles Challinor was advertising collodiotype, melainotype (tintype) and daguerreotype portraits and stereo views. No extant views, however, are known. In 1861 he showed Views of Brisbane, Aborigines, &c. and four Photographic Views of the City of Brisbane and its Environs at the Queensland Exhibition held in preparation for the 1862 London International Exhibition. Together with Joseph W. Wilder , he received an honourable mention 'for excellence of photographs’.

Challinor’s interest in subjects other than portraiture is also indicated by his advertisement in Pugh’s Almanac for 1858: 'M.C. has on hand some beautiful views of Ipswich, groups of blacks &c., suitable presents for friends in England’. By May 1858 he was taking outdoor group scenes, attested by a newspaper account of his photograph of Aborigines assembled at the Ipswich courthouse to receive their blankets: 'The picture is very distinct, and takes in much of the surrounding scenery’. Both Challinor and W.T. Bennett were producing portraits of Aborigines as exotica when this practice was becoming fashionable throughout the colonies; Challinor is notable as being the first photographer of the Morton Bay Aboriginal people. He sent these images overseas from the late 1850s onwards along with views of the new colony of Queensland. He was the first established and longest-serving professional photographer in the region, working in Brisbane Street, Ipswich from 1857 to 1864, when he sold his photographic equipment.

Writers:

Fisher, Rod

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

1989