Thos Nevin at H.M. Gaol 1860s
Archives Office of Tasmania
Reference: PH30/1/3661
Title: Campbell Street
Subject:backyards, churches, courthouses, houses, jails, landscapes, roads & streets, streetscapes
Locality:Campbell Street, Campbell Street, Hobart
Date:1870
Caption: View of Campbell Street, at the Melville Street intersection, taken from the Domain.
The Archives has mistaken the street rising vertically in this photograph to be Melville St, Hobart, when it is in fact Brisbane St (see map below) at the northern end of the old Hobart Gaol site. The tower of the Penitentiary Chapel, which is now a National Trust property, is the key landmark (building E on the map). The AOT dates the photograph (unattributed) to 1870.
Melville St is further to the left of the Chapel, on the other side of the site, and ended abruptly at the Governor’s Quarters (building G).
Photo taken of map pasted to a window at the Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, Campbell St. Hobart. © The Nevin Family Collection 2008 ARR.
The photograph (below) was taken by Thomas Nevin in July 1868 on a day of heavy snowfall.
‘Melville St West Hobart under snow’
TMAG Collection Ref: Q9134
Nevin exhibited the Melville Street photograph at the Wellington Park Exhibition, Hobart, in July 1868. It was reproduced in the publication Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 1995:82).
His location for the capture was on the second storey of the Governor’s Quarters. His camera captured the right side of Melville Street, and a wider vista of Mount Wellington to the north west. This photograph suggests Nevin’s association with the Hobart Gaol administration began in 1868 or even earlier while apprenticed to Alfred Bock (the likely photographer of several stereographs of the Gaol’s courtyard ca. 1860 – see below), and that association continued throughout the 1870s while contracted to the Police Department as prisons photographer. His studio, The City Photographic Establishment, was located one block away, close to the corner of Melville and Elizabeth Streets directly to the west. His younger brother Jack Nevin was a salaried employee of the Hobart Gaol H. M. Prisons) at various times during the 1870s and 1880s, and acted as his assistant.
Source: eHeritage images, State Library of Tasmania
Title: The Gaol Governor’s House which blocked Melville Street.
Photographer: J. Hutchinson
Date: 1961
Notes:Monochrome photograph laminated over a white cardboard mount. The prison walls of the Hobart Penitentiary flank either side of this two storied house. The road surface in front of the house is uneven and unsealed. The house was in use in from the 1850s until November 1960. It was demolished in 1963.
Ref: PCH_00005
It was from this building, which by 1900 was called the Superintendent’s house, that Nevin took the Melville St. photograph. The public entrance to this building was from Melville St, which terminated at its front gate (photo above), rather than the Gaol’s entrance in Campbell St (photo below).
Archives Office of Tasmania
PH30/1/3691
Title: The Superintendent’s House
Subject: architectural styles, buildings, gaols, official residences, prison officers, prisons, residences, residences, official
Locality: Campbell Street, Campbell Street, Hobart
Date: 1900
These identification photographs of convicts were taken by the Nevin brothers at the Hobart Gaol. The poster is now for sale at the Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site.
PAHSMA accreditation printed on lower left border:
Produced by Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority,
with photographs (circa 1870) from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection
Poster of Thomas Nevin’s identification photos of convicts, 1870s
Photo © The Nevin Family Collection 2008 ARR.
ADRI: AUTAS001124851627
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001124851619
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001125299420
- Prison sites & views
- Governors & government
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