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Images of Tasmania as collected by Colin Dennison : University of Tasmania Library Special & Rare Collections
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The collection features photographs taken by Hobart photographic studio Beattie’s Studio, also known as J.W. Beattie, for the Electrolytic Zinc Co. at the company’s Risdon smelter between 1920 and 1940. The collection depicts construction of new facilities at the factory complex. The first sod was turned on the zinc smeltering plant at Risdon on the western shore of the Derwent River on 16 November 1916, and a test smelter called the 250 lb plant was opened in 1917 to produce 250 lb of zinc a day using the recently developed Roast-Leach-Electrowin (RLE) process of extracting zinc through electrolysis. Electrolytic Zinc’s office occupied the former Derwent Inn. The larger 10-ton plant opened in January 1918 and the 100-ton plant opened in November, 1921. This collection of photographs depicts the phases of construction of the 100-Ton Plant, further expansion of the smelter and decomissioning of some of the older equipment at the zinc works. Beattie’s Studio was a photographic studio founded by Scotsman John Watt Beattie (1859-1930), who began exhibiting photographs soon after his arrival in Tasmania in 1878.
Interview with Colin Dennison dated 25th August 2018. Interview conducted by Ben Ross (www.oralhistorycompany.com) concerning Colin’s lifetime of collecting photographs, postcards, stamps and other historical resources. Colin donated the collection to the University of Tasmania Library Special & Rare Collections.
This collection is a sample of images of Queenstown, Zeehan and Macquarie Harbour, sourced from the Colin Dennison image collection. Most of the images were originally created prior to 1956 and have been sourced from private Tasmanian collections. Most of the images have been obtained by scanning photographs either donated to or purchased by Mr Dennison or copied by him with the permission of families, one or more of whose members took the photographs. Some of the images can be identified as copies of original images created by government departments which were discarded and destroyed.
Photographs taken by Greg Dickens, many depicting railway lines and sidings, ships, historical buildings, rural scenes, churches and infrastructure throughout Tasmania.
Photographs collected over several years by Graeme Raphael, a beekeeper and state government apiary officer, councillor of the Oatlands Council and later Southern Midlands Council and founding member of the Oatlands District Historical Society.
