Design and Art Australia Online

photographer, medical doctor and natural history collector, was the doctor on Alfred Howitt 's 1861 expedition in search of Burke and Wills. Bonyhady reports:

When Welch [ Edwin Welch ] began losing sight in one of his eyes, James Murray became the party’s photographer in addition to serving as its doctor and geological and botanical collector. Over the remaining 11 months, Murray used the party’s remaining 42 plates. He took most of these photographs at Cooper’s Creek, “all the points of interest… where the stirring scenes had occurred”. But when he accompanied Howitt beyond Cooper’s Creek in mid-1862, he also photographed particularly remarkable scenery. When he returned to Melbourne at the end of the year, Murray admitted that he was not sure whether these plates “had been taken successfully or not” but stressed that he had taken “every precaution” with them. The Exploration Committee expected the plates to prove “very interesting”.

None survive. Welch recorded that they were all ruined “by the unpardonable curiosity of a foolish old man” taking them to Batchelder and O’Neill to be developed who opened them in the sun en route to see what they were like.

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Writers:

Bonyhady, Tim

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011