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England 1832–1852, Australia 1852–1856
England 1856/1857, Australia 1857–
1871, England 1871–1878
Richard Daintree (1831–1878) was a pioneering geologist and photographer who played a significant role in the early documentation and promotion of Australia, particularly Queensland.
Born in Huntingdonshire, England, in 1831, he was a farmer's son who attended Christ’s College Cambridge before leaving for the Victorian goldfields in 1852. He joined the Geological Survey of Victoria in the mid-1850s. He later served as the government geologist for North Queensland starting in 1867/1868. He returned to England in the mid-1850s to study at the Royal School of Mines Laboratory and it was around this time that he took up photography.
Daintree pioneered using the camera as a tool for geological fieldwork and was one of the first to use photography for large-scale promotion. |
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In 1857, he partnered with Antoine Fauchery to publish photographic albums titled Australia, and they opened a studio in Melbourne in 1858. His work included important early images of Victorian Aboriginal people. exhibitions of Geological Survey photographs and mineral samples.
In 1864, he took up pastoral leases near Townsville and formed a partnership in Maryvale station. In 1872, he was appointed Queensland’s Agent-General in London. He used his photographs and mineral samples at international exhibitions in London, Vienna, and Philadelphia to promote emigration to Australia.
Although the Daintree area was named after him in 1873, he never actually visited the region. He resigned from his position as Agent-General in 1876 due to health issues and was created a CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George). After wintering in France for his health, he died in June 1878 in Beckenham, Kent, and was buried near Cambridge.
much of the above text was sourced from the Douglas Shire Historical Society (Queensland)
and the Dictionary of Australian Artists, editor Joan Kerr.
Lettice Agnes Daintree
Richard Daintree married Lettice Agnes Foot on 1 December 1857 in Melbourne, Victoria. Lettice was the daughter of Henry Foot, a surveyor of Brighton.
The couple later moved to Queensland and then moved to England when Richard Daintree Queensland’s Agent-General in London. They had a family of eight children, consisting of two sons and six daughters. Lettice survived her husband, who died of tuberculosis in in England in 1878.
Lettice was born 20 Jul 1837 in Hythe, Hampshire, England and died 26 Oct 1915 at age 78 in Tiverton, Devon, England. |
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Richard Daintree's Chronology
1832: Born Huntingdonshire, England
1851: Educated at the University of Cambridge, UK
1852: Travelled to Australia - gold prospecting in Victoria
1854: Assistant geologist, Geological Survey of Victoria
1856: Returned to England - studied assaying, metallurgy, and photography at the Royal School of Mines, London
1857: Returned to Victoria, photography studio partnership of Fauchery & Daintree, Collins St, Melbourne
1857: Marries Lettice Angans Foot (known as Agnas)
1859: Fauchery leaves Australia for Philippines and China
1859: Field surveyor, Geological Survey of Victoria
1864: Daintree moves family to Maryland with the Hann Family pastoral property in Burdekin district, Queensland
. Daintree continued pioneering work in geology, prospecting and photography
1868: Geological Surveyor for the northern part, Queensland Public Works Department
1871: Commissioner in charge of Queensland's contribution to the 1871 Exhibition of Art and Industry, London
1871: Moved to United Kingdom
1872: Agent-General for Queensland
1876: Resigns as as Queensland Agent-General
1878: Dies Beckenham, Kent
1878: Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)
Return to Daintree main page with resources links
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