Having travelled extensively in the Country of my birth. I felt as a photographer I would like to show a side of Australia that tourists rarely see. The working and gritty side of a commodity driven country.
I have used black and white for strength. I see much of Australia as time warped in the 19th century. Much of the attitude beyond the populated coastal regions is early 20th century to early post 1945 the 50s and 60s.when I left Australia the first time the population had not yet hit 10 million. Today it borders on 25 million and should continue to grow exponentially. However still most new comers cling to the coastal regions like clinging to the gunnel of a boat. Little effort has been made by successive governments to develop the interior of this vast continent Island for community growth. The only development has been to plunder one of the world’s great commodity reservoirs. Many will say irrigation is a problem however Australia has one of the great sweet water catchments of the world in the Great Artisian Basin covering in excess of 1/3 of the country.
Still many commodity industries are producing as they have for the last 150 years through the blood sweat and tears of hard yakka (yakka australian for work). As an example Australia produces 1/3 of the world’s wool this wool is of the finest micron quality. Shearing still takes place in the shearing shed on the sheep stations as it has for 150 years. Many commodities are mined in small holdings by sweating miners sometimes working in dangerous conditions.
I hope these images will give an idea of the hard yakka and gritty side of survival in the outback that still exists today. A world not totally based on ‘Information Technology’.
Tradition housing dating to the 1800s
Tradition 1800s town centre similar to USA of same periodThe Church Silverton nr Broken HillClunes VictoriaThe DunnyThe PubLion of Waterloo Pub Wellington NSW again high pitched roofTown Centre Silverton NSWSilverton NSWChurch and Chair SilvertonThe car a Ford 60sHistoryThe BarThe Indian Pacific Railway Trans Australia Indian to pacific OceansThe prospectorThe indigenousThe mineThe MinerA MinerSmoko in the MineMiner at SmokoCowboy Jimmy a MinerFace of a ShearerA ShearerThe ShearerPortrait of an AustralianKelpie the working dogDrover and CockyCocky PosingDroving
The Engine Boys ToysJust SmokoOn the StandShearing the JumbuckShearer Jumbuck and SmokeShearer and Jumbuck
In the Shed
Hard Yakkahard Yakka on the StandShearer Yakka with the JumbuckThe DroverCocky PosingYakka on the StandBroomy in the ShedBroomy and yakka at the TableCocky restingCocky and flea Taxis KelpiesAt the TableChecking the Wool at the TableYakka
Sarah Goodall Deputy Head of Mission Australian Embassy of Athens Greece opening the Athens exhibition of works by Aussie photographer artist Shane Aurousseau. The exhibition of images taken around the sheep breeding region of Condobolin central NSW and based on the poem by AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ the setting for the poem being the overflow on the Lachlan river at Condobolin.AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson also attributed ‘The Man from Snowy River’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda. The exhibition supported by the Australian Embassy of Athens and sponsored by Canadian investment company Syracuse Main Inc. and the fine art paper company Innova art.
Below: Link to article on Exhibition of work by Artist Photographer Shane Aurousseau Athens.
The link below also carries a potted history of AB “Banjo” Paterson the creator of “Clancy of the Overflow” “The Man from Snowy River” and “Waltzing Matilda”
‘IANOS CAFÉ’ Exhibition of work by Photographer Artist Shane Aurousseau
Photography exhibition
IANOS and Canadian investment company «Syracuse Main, Inc. and Innova Fine Art Paper proudly present at IANOS CAFÉ a photography exhibition by Australian Photographer Artist Shane Aurousseau. A photographic journey through the sheep breeding region of Condobolin Central New South Wales and the vast rural areas of Australia where his lens recorded the hard work ( in Australian,” hard Yakka) of Australian sheep shearers collecting the wool from the world famous Merino sheep.
The exhibition on 1 5/9/2016 at 20:30 with musical quartet Jazz.
Duration: September 15 – October 1 5, 2016.
With the support of the Australian Embassy in Athens
Sponsored by: Syracuse Main, Inc.
Innova Fine Art paper
About the exhibition and the artist:
Condobolin (Central NSW) on the Lachlan River, is the setting for the poem ” Clancy of the Overflow ” by Banjo Paterson, one of the most important works in Australian literature. Banjo Paterson also the author of “The Man from Snowy River” and “Waltzing Matilda”, The Man from Snowy River was the basis for two movies one a Hollywood blockbuster.
Shane Aurousseau an Australian photographer who has worked as a creative director and photographer in some of the largest advertising agencies in the world, in Sydney, Amsterdam and London and for clients such as Time Magazine, Time Life Books, Michelin, Chrysler, the AA (Automobile Association) and some of the leading bank and investment funds in the world.
He has designed CD covers and produced photographs for major record label companies promoting well known international artists including one Eurovision winner. His works have been published in magazines in London and around the world. His images of London have been used on posters and postcards marketed throughout the capital city including the main tourist shops of London’s dynamic West End. He has exhibited his works in London, Sydney, Amsterdam and Madrid (Madrid sponsored by the ‘American Women’s Association’).
He currently lives in London. He studied art, photography and psychology in Australia and Britain. Shane travels regularly photographing the world we live in and its incredible diversity of life. His works reflect the entire spectrum of life in deprived neighborhoods of large cities, social commentary, landscapes and life in remote, rural areas of Australia, portraits of friends and strangers
His photographs can be described as journalistic. In recent years much of his time is spent in the Australian Outback capturing the hard work (‘hard Yakka’ in shearing OZ speak) of the ‘sheep shearers’ and’ miners’ in the gold and Opel fields of New South Wales.
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent him a letter
Just ‘on spec’ addressed as follows ‘Clancy of the Overflow’
Banjo Paterson
Hard yakka in Condobolin images Shane Aurousseau (Shane A)
The Shed Condobolin Images Shane A
The Drover Condobolin images Shane A…and more hard Yakka Condobolin images Shane AShearing the Jumbuck Condobolin images Shane Aand now Smoko images Shane ACocky at Smoko images Shane AMore hard yakka images Shane AMore Yakka image Shane A
The Cocky or the boss on a sheep station, the shearers and hard work or hard Yakker in the shearing shed. The kelpies the working dogs of the Australian sheep stations, backing dogs that only need a quick command in order to know exactly where the drover wants the mob to go. Drovers and Cockies will tell you that a dog is worth two men. Australia still rides home on the sheep’s back producing over one third of the world’s wool and the finest micron level from Merino Sheep. I have had the fortune to spend some time in Condobolin, roughly the centre of New South Wales (NSW). An Uncle was the Cocky at a sheep station called Rosalind close to Condobolin.
Condobolin believed to have evolved from the aboriginal word Cundabullen (Shallow Crossing). explored in 1817 and established by 1844. Close to Condobolin is the ‘Overflow Station’ the setting of the poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’. by the creator of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and the Man from Snowy River – Banjo Paterson. ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ part of an Australian’s schooling.
The Drover and the Cocky – Image Shane A
Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton “Banjo’ Paterson (1864-1941). Poet, ballad writer, journalist and horseman.
‘Banjo’ Paterson, known as Barty to his family, was born Andrew Barton Paterson at Narrambla, near Orange on 17 February 1864. His parents, Andrew Bogle and Rose Isabella Paterson were graziers or Cockys on Illalong station in the Yass district. Some say Yass is the finest wool grazing in the world, certainly in Australia for the Merino sheep.
Paterson’s early education took place at home under a governess and then at the bush school in Binalong, the nearest township. From about the age of ten years he attended the Sydney Grammar School. He lived with his grandmother in Gladesville and spent the school holidays at Illalong station with his family.
After completing school the 16-year-old Paterson was articled to a Sydney firm of solicitors, Spain and Salway. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1886 and formed the legal partnership, Street and Paterson. During these years Paterson began publishing verse in the Bulletin and Sydney Mail under the pseudonyms ‘B’ and ‘The Banjo’.
In 1895, at the age of 31 and still in partnership with Street, Andrew Barton Paterson achieved two milestones in Australian writing. He composed his now famous ballad ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and his first book, The Man from Snowy River, and other verses, was published by Angus & Robertson, marking the beginning of an epoch in Australian publishing. This hallmark publication sold out its first edition within a week and went through four editions in six months, making Paterson second only to Kipling in popularity among living poets writing in English. His poetry continues to sell well today and is available in many editions, some of which are illustrated.
*Biography courtesy of the Reserve Bank of Australia
More hard yakka – Image Shane ASmoko Image Shane A
Clancy of the Overflow – Banjo Paterson
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
‘Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
‘Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.’
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving ‘down the Cooper’ where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal —
But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of ‘The Overflow’.
Banjo Paterson
Droving Shearing, hard yakka
Portrait of a Shearer – image Shane AAnother Portrait of a Shearer – image Shane AThe Jump a Kelpie hard yakka – Image Shane ADroving with Backing Dog – Image Shane AHard yakka – image Shane AMore hard yakka – image Shane A
Sheep country Indian Pacific Railway Trans-continent at Condobolin – image Shane A
