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Photos show Brunswick in its early days

Hundreds of images are now available for public viewing online

This photo from the collection shows workers from Hainsworth’s quarries in East Brunswick. The quarries were located on Glenlyon Road, near the current location of Fisher Reserve. The year the photo was taken is not known.

Brunswick Voice


HUNDREDS of rare images of Brunswick in the 19th and early-20th centuries are now publicly accessible following a major digitisation project by the Public Records Office Victoria.

The 477 images, some dating back to the 1830s, are from a collection originally compiled by the Brunswick Historical Association for celebrations in 1939 of the centenary of the first European settlement in the area.

The images were first used as part of a “slide night” on August 27, 1839.

After the event, the images were donated to the Brunswick City Council before eventually making their way to the PROV, which holds the Victorian government archives.

The photos in the collection — most of them black and white, but a smattering colorised — capture various people and places, drawings and reports, including street views and sporting teams.

Bushranger Steve Hart – a member of the Kelly Gang who was killed in the siege of Glenrowan in 1880 – is among the photo subjects, although his connection to Brunswick is not known.

Another of the slides says that Brunswick was named after Robert Brunswick Smyth, the first commander of the mounted troopers of the colony of Victoria.

The full collection is available to be viewed on the PROV website.


View a slideshow of some of the images


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