sketcher(?), lithographer and copperplate printer, came free to New South Wales in 1834, arriving from Gravesend, London, on board the Bristol on 12 June. From 1835 he was listed as a lithographer of Phillip then Hunter streets, Sydney. As J.G. Austin he published A Series of Twelve Profile Portraits of the Aborigines of New South Wales in 1836, advertised in the Sydney Times on 12 November as being available from his premises at 12 Bridge Street, Sydney. At the same time he advertised 'profiles drawn on stone as remembrances for friends’ for £1 full-length and 10s 6d half-length. As many copies as desired could be produced. He also published a caricature titled A Review of the 4th Estate in the Colony of New South Wales—April 1835 and a life of the Jamaican ferryman Billy Blue (1835) which contained a lithographed portrait of Blue and a Drawing of his House and Grounds on the North Shore.
Austin’s well-known collection of views of Sydney streets and buildings, Lithographic Drawings of Sydney and its Environs in 1836, was printed after sketches by Robert Russell. No original artist was identified on the prints but some of Russell’s preliminary drawings survive in a sketchbook (ML). Austin’s original contribution to other prints he published has not been fully determined; some, possibly all, were certainly after drawings by others. The Profile Portraits were made from pencil sketches by William Henry Fernyhough, who is known to have done other work for Austin. In 1838 J.G. Austin sold his lithographic equipment to Raphael Clint and afterwards continued far more modestly. A plan showing the site of the new Government House, Sydney, was published by him in 1840; in 1842 one J.G. Austin surrendered an insolvent estate. A large part of Austin’s business was always purely commercial; he did all types of printing and sold stationery as well as offering profile portraits at his Bridge Street shop.
J.G. Austin seems to have been related to the sketcher and surveyor Robert Austin. He should not be confused with the Dublin convict goldsmith and colonial banknote engraver John Austin (1762-1837) who, transported to New South Wales on board the Minerva in 1800, received a free pardon for setting a gold seal with the family arms and for other 'trinkets’ made for Anna Josepha King, wife of Governor Phillip Parker King. They were connected, however; J.G. Austin lived with John Austin at 16 O’Connell Street after he arrived in the colony until moving to Jameson Place, George Street, in April 1835, and Roger Butler states that J.G. Austin married John Austin’s daughter.
- Writers:
- Neville, Richard
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
