Historical Archives - Peter MacDonald Photo

The Peake Telegraph Station

Posted by Peter MacDonald
On August 13, 2012
2 Comments

140 years ago this building must have seemed like an outstation on the moon. Even today it takes a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get the last few kilometres to it. Back then the trip would have been of astronomical proportions. This is the Peake Telegraph station, constructed as part of a commutations network that crossed […]

Anna Creek Tombstones

Posted by Peter MacDonald
On August 6, 2012
1 Comments
Anna Creek Station

Looking at tombstones in the bush is an interesting pastime……there’s always a story behind every one. A case in point is the grave of Benjamin Daggett, accidentally shot in the kitchen of the Anna Creek station homestead in outback South Australia back in April 1883. “Erected by his friends and fellow workmen” says the inscription. […]

Gone to God

Posted by webmaster
On December 17, 2009
2 Comments

A painting by artist Bruce Swann caught my eye in his book, Swann’s Australia. It’s the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church at Dawson. I’m not familiar with the church, but Dawson is one of those tiny, almost forgotten townships north of Peterborough in South Australia. The thing that caught my eye was the architecture […]

Changing Times

Posted by webmaster
On December 13, 2009
0 Comments

Continuing on with Bruce Swann’s work, I was interested to see he’s sketched two historc buildings at Beltana in South Australia’s far north. Beltana is almost a ghost town these days but, for almost 50 years until the 1920s, it was a hive of activity because of the mining operations there and in the surrounding […]

Swanning through the Outback (2)

Posted by webmaster
On December 11, 2009
0 Comments

Bruce Swann’s many drawing on Outback stations from the Northern Territory, through South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia didn’t just cover the more imposing homesteads and woolsheds. He often sketched telling scenes that depicted life on these outposts of civilisation – stockyards, tack rooms, old carts and equipment, even outback racecourses and their […]

Swanning through the Outback

Posted by webmaster
On December 10, 2009
3 Comments

A couple of months ago I was given a book that has inspired a greater interest for me in the many ruins and old buildings of the Outback. It’s a collection of drawings, water colour and oil paintings of Outback homesteads, woodsheds and stockyards by South Australian artist Bruce Swann. It was given to me […]

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