Gill City Terminus of the M.& H.B. Railway 1854 {1868} SLV [PR]

Gill, S.T. (1818-80; English/Australian)
The City Terminus of the M. & H.B. Railway Compy 1854
Lithograph, 18 x 26 cm
Acquired 1868 (gift of John Pascoe Fawkner?)
State Library of Victoria (H4025)

This impression is almost certainly identical with one recorded as donated to the Melbourne collection in 1868 (probably by Fawkner).

It presumably comes from Sketches in Victoria, a series of 29 lithographs by Gill published by Blundell & Co., Melbourne, 1855-56 (this print is numbered 14 at top left). Another, better impression was accessioned in 1934.

In September 1854, during the early years of the Victorian goldrush, the Melbourne & Hobson’s Bay Railway Company opened Australia’s first train line, carrying passengers and freight over the 4 kilometres between Sandridge (Port Melbourne) and Flinders Street: see Carroll in Brown-May & Swain (2005).

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

For the impression shown here, see SLV catalogue (H4025); cf. SLV H12609 (accessioned 1934)

For the railway information noted, see the entry by Brian Carroll in Brown-May & Swain Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2005), p.588