Design and Art Australia Online

professional photographer, was born at Sydney in 1840, eldest child of Walter William Thwaites and Jane, née McLean. Initially calling himself W.W. Thwaites junior to avoid confusion with his father (unsuccessfully), William – as he appeas to have been known – would have learned and practised photography at his father’s Hobart Town studio in the early 1860s. In 1865 he, his father and his brother Hector went to South Australia. While the others apparently worked in Adelaide, he became a travelling photographer. W. Thwaites junior’s first known studio was recorded at Mount Gambier that same year. The Messrs Thwaites arrived at Fremantle on 19 January 1867, but the Western Australian market was not large enough to support three professional photographers. After a couple of months William and Hector returned to South Australia, leaving in the Eliza Corry on 23 March. While Hector stayed on in Adelaide, William moved to yet another colony, setting up as a travelling photographer in Victoria. W. Thwaites junior was taking photographs at Heathcote in November 1867 and was reported to be doing 'good work’.

By 1870 William was in southern New South Wales, having now covered with his camera all existing Australian colonies except Queensland. He was taking photographs at Yass, Bungendore and Queanbeyan that year, renting the building next door to the Public School in Monaro Street, Queanbeyan for the month of September. (This was apparently Baxter and McDonald 's studio in 1868, according to Lea-Scarlett and Robinson.) Although primarily a portrait photographer, Thwaites’s only known souvenir of this visit is a view of the Royal Hotel at Gundaroo with the licensee Thomas Booth posed at the door. Eventually Thwaites worked in Queensland too, arriving at Dalby from New South Wales in November 1879 for a few weeks then presumably travelling around that colony. By 1884 he was back in New South Wales working as a photographer in Walker Street, North Sydney. In 1886-87 he was at Bowral and early the following year at Parramatta. This seems to have been his base, although he was apparently on tour when his father committed suicide at Parramatta in 1888. William’s wife, Alice, alone testified at the inquest.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011