Local Treasures: The Athel D’Ombrain Collection

Athel D'Ombrain

Day Shift – 15/11/2011 – 02:10 PM – forthcoming
Presenter: Carol Duncan
Interviewee: Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, Newcastle University

University of Newcastle Archivist Gionni Di Gravio discusses the recent digitisation of the Athel D’Ombrain Collection comprising of over 2,500 negatives, and talks about his life and extraordinary contribution to the Hunter Region.

Broadcast Notes:

The Athel D’Ombrain Collection was deposited with the University of Newcastle Archives in 1982.

The following notes are from an 1981 article in the University News entitled “University Post” (Vol. 7 No. 12 July 1981 p.[3]) supplemented with further notes from a variety of websites. He left an incredible and varied legacy in the wider Regional community. These photographs are an outstanding document of his life’s work and contribution to the natural world,  history, architecture, science and art. They document many historical buildings throughout the Hunter Region, prior to restoration. They also document buildings and structures no longer extant.

The negatives were digitised by Sharon Mee and Michael Sherriff, and both should be congratulated for scanning the two and a half thousand odd negatives that are very challenging to handle. Sharon is currently uploading the negatives to our flickr site here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627892125061/

Here is a selection:

Athel D’Ombrain A.M. (1901-1985) was a photographer, optician, naturalist, author, cricketer, pioneer angler, game fisherman and historian.

He was born in Casterton in the Western District of Victoria in 1901. His father, a general practitioner, was one of the pioneer ornithologists of Australia, and had helped in the formation of the Royal Australian Ornithologists’ Union. It was through his father, and the excursions they shared together, that Athel learnt about the natural world. His interest was further developed by living on the north shore in Sydney at a time when the suburb was sparsly settled and a fine place in which to study birds and animals.

He attended Shore College, Sydney between 1913-18. After being educated at Shore, and realising that his interests were not academic,  he later studied agriculture at Hawkesbury Agricultural College, and worked on the land at Somersby, garnering much success as a citrus-grower. He was part winner of a Wembly Medal and winner of several prizes in local citrus shows.

Athel had also studied optometry and when his brother, Arthur, an opthalmic surgeon, said he should move to Maitland and work with him as a manufacturing optician he said he would. In 1929 he moved to Maitland to work as an optical dispenser at his brother’s practice, and for over 20 years was associated with his brother in Maitland, and later for some years in Newcastle.

Athel was a well respected cricketer with the Northern Suburbs Cricket Club. Known as ‘Dorn’ to his fellow cricketers, his first A Grade season (1929-1930) marked the beginning of an association with the Club that would last over fifty years.

Besides playing, he was also served as Secretary from 1930-36, and later conducted Coaching Classes. In recognition of his long playing and administrative services, he was made a Life Member of the Club in the early sixties and Patron from 1968.

In 1934 he, along with Wallace Fitness, approached the secretary of the Hunter River Agricultural and Horticultural Association Show Society, asking whether they could display some local photographs in the Fine Arts Pavilion at the 1934 annual Maitland Show. The request was accepted, and so was founded the Maitland Salon of Photography.  In 1946 Maitland Salon became an Australian Photographic Society approved Salon and then in 1958 became an International Salon with approval from the Photographic Society of America and finally in 1982 the federation International De L’ Art Photographique granted its patronage.

In February 1936, he married Esma Drew, of Clarencetown, by whom he had a son, Robin, who later became a Technical Officer in Chemical Engineering. Esma died in May 1980.

Around 1950 Athel retired from optometry and became a photographer for The Maitland Mercury. After the 1955 flood hit his home he left the newspaper and established a commercial photographic business in Maitland. Concurrent with these activities he was a “photo-finish operator” at the Maitland Showground and a stringer cameraman.

Through the efforts of Athel and Newman Silverthorne, the Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club was formed with Headquarters at Bundabah on the northern side of the Port. In 1935 the fishing enthusiasts built a clubhouse at Shoal Bay. “There was not one house at the bay at this time – nothing but bush”, he says. The Fish Club was taken over by the Army in the Second World War, following which it was incorporated into the Country Club Hotel. He was renown as a pioneer angler who adopted a scientific approach to the sport and who was very successful in the post war years. He is credited with devising the now widely accepted tag and release concept for big game fishes, commencing his first experiments in 1938.

Athel was an expert naturalist especially on Port Stephens and its flora and fauna. For example, he visited Cabbage Tree Island regularly for 44 years observing and banding the sea bird called Gould’s Petrel. The island is the only known nesting place of the species.

He also enjoyed looking at the birds in the wetlands at Hexham as he travelled between Maitland and Newcastle in the train. Previously he had contributed several articles to the Newcastle Morning Herald. In 1965 he wrote a piece about the birds at Hexham, which came under the notice of the Herald’s Editor at the time, Mr E.K. Lingard, who liked the story so much he asked Athel to write a weekly column. For some time he became a Saturday correspondent for The Herald. He also authored a number of published books, ‘Game Fishing Off the Australian Coast’ and ‘Fish Tales’, and an unpublished account of Gould’s Petrel, called ‘North East of Toomaree’, and an unpublished autobiography

His newspaper articles and books contributed a great deal to the unfolding of the wonders of nature. Moreover, he was continually identifying specimens found in the bush and backyards for individuals.

On the 9 June 1975, in recognition of his service to photography and the study of nature, he was awarded Member of the Order of Australia.

In 1981 he was invited to become a Convocation Visiting Scholar at the University of Newcastle, the third to hold the position since its inception in 1977.

As a result of his photographic work over many years, he amassed a monumental collection of photographs relating to the Hunter Valley. One of his roles as Convocation Visiting Scholar was to work in association with Denis Rowe (University Archivist) in the Archives in the Auchmuty Library, cataloguing his photographs and organising the articles about nature that he had written for the Newcastle Herald.

He continued to write his columns up until a few months prior to his death at age 83 in 1985. According to his son, Mr Robin D’Ombrain, he wrote a total of 995 articles for the Newcastle Herald.

He was a member of the Royal Australian Orthnologist’s Union, an Associate of the Australian Museum and a Member of the Order of Australia.

ICAM Australasia Meeting Melbourne 2011 – Report

Dome of the State Library of Victoria

On the 28 October 2011 we attended the Annual Meeting of Icam Australiasia in Melbourne. The University of Newcastle was represented by Gionni Di Gravio, University Archivist and Chair of the Coal River Working Party and Ms Ann Hardy, Secretary of the Hunter Branch of the National Trust, post graduate scholar at the University studying the historic  James Fletcher Hospital Site and member of the Coal River Working Party.

What is Icam?

icam is the international confederation of architectural museums and an organisation of architectural museums, centres and collections. It is dedicated to fostering links between all those interested in promoting the better understanding of architecture. In 2010 the Architecture Museum University of South Australia became the inaugural Australian institution to participate in a conference of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM).  At the invitation of the ICAM Board, the Museum hosted a seminar at UniSA for colleagues from Australasian institutions holding collections of architectural records. This was the first time representatives of these collections had met as a group and engaged in formal discussions. We agreed to continue the collaboration, and to form ICAM Australasia.

Why were we invited to attend?

Our University holds significant holdings of architectural plans, of particular importance is the Pender Archive representing three generations of architects, one of the largest and most comprehensive architectural collections in the country.

What was discussed?

Morning Session was held at RMIT University. Welcome from Harriet Edquist, Officer in charge of the University Design Archives.

Update from Christine Garnaut, Convenor of icamAustralasia

What do we want to achieve and what are we are able to achieve as a group bearing in mind the charter for ICAM is:

• Preserve the architectural record
• Raise the quality and protection of the built environment
• Foster the study of architectural history in the interest of future practice
• Stimulate the public appreciation of architecture
• Promote the exchange of information and professional expertise

- resourcing issues, community engagement, getting collections out there – exhibitions,

- interesting to learn of the archives of Mervyn Ashmore Smith (11/12/1904–14/3/1994), a Collection held in the Museum in SA. Melvyn Smith was an architect and town planner here in Newcastle up until 1953.

- Viewing of the RMIT Design Archives with Harriet Edquist, Building 15. Highlights included the Romberg Archives – designer of the Administration building at Newcastle, and lecturer at the University of Newcastle.

ACTIONS:

1) Collate our architectural related collections, research output and community contacts – such as Pender, Morton, University, subdivision plans, various architectural projects and mapping across the plan collections, South Maitland Railways (SMR), Les Reedman’s work, Professor Barry Maitland, Bob Donaldson, Ross Deamer, Snowball and other photographic Collections with emphasis on built environment, Architectural firms, involve Architecture staff and students, papers, theses etc.

2) Provide a historic context grid for these collections, e.g. Google Earth mapping of information, utilising subdivisions, photographs to provide context of plan with the historic landscape of the time, Russell Rigby’s overlays.

3) Pull together this architectural related archive into a single portal, incorporating links with our local community networks in the Hunter Heritage Network and National Trust, to provide a Hunter Branch chapter to link in with icam Australasia. Such items include the following:

We have also begun the scanning of the Pender Archive, they will be included here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627165745889/

Other digitised map/plan/built environment related collections of possible interest include:

Mahlshedt and Gee Surveyors – Newcastle – Jan 1886
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627126833932/

The Northumberland and Permanent Building Investment Land and Loan Society
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627009132400/

Map Treasures (General scans of interest from across the collections)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627003398259/

The Athel D’Ombrain Collection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627892125061/

4) Promote ongoing activities such as National Trust walks AAA walks http://www.thelockup.info/architecture-walks/ , collaborations between Coal River Working Party and Faculty of Architecture and other areas of the University relating to built environment, adaptive reuse, artistic collaborations e.g. http://www.thenovocastrianfiles.com/2010/07/aa-co-mine-managers-house-1849.html

Following lunch we made our way to the afternoon venue which was the Rare Printed Collections Meeting Room in the State Library of Victoria.

- Welcome from Mary Lewis followed by a session of short presentations followed by discussions convened by Helen McLaughlin

T & G Building Plans

- Professor Miles Lewis, Faculty of Architecture Building & Planning, University of Melbourne.  “Proposal for a short course for Curators: Collecting and interpreting architectural drawings”.

- Peter Johnson, Architect & Heritage Consultant, member of the AIA National Heritage Taskforce. “Proposal to establish a process for Institute State and Territory Chapters to more effectively assist cultural institutions to collect and archive documents of notable Australian architects”.

Topics for further discussion:

Promote the exchange of information and professional expertise:

e.g. Brainstorm ways in which we could engage more actively with each other and also engage researchers with the collections that we hold.

e.g. Discuss whether or not to link to established groups like Museums Australia or the Australian Society of Archivists through their special interest groups.

Foster the study of architectural history in the interest of future practice:

e.g. Discuss whether or not it is worth organising a special session/track of papers at a SAHANZ conference. (The 2012 conference is at University of Tasmania, Launceston, 5-8 July; abstracts are due by Monday 14 November)

Preserve the architectural record

e.g. Discuss implications of digital records and evolving platforms.

Raise the quality and protection of the built environment

e.g. How might we engage with this issue?

Stimulate the public appreciation of architecture

e.g. through our websites and collective activities such as exhibitions

Mary Lewis with participants