John Hunter Kerr

John Hunter Kerr purchased Edgar’s Plains in 1849 from Abel Thorpe. The station was situated on the Kinypanial Creek, 15Km upstream from Lake Boort. Kerr’s most enduring and valuable legacy arose out of his fascination with photography. He at first experimented with the British Calotype process and quickly saw the camera’s documentary potential. He started taking photos around the station around 1853 when the new Collodion wet plate negatives using either salted paper or the albumen silver printing process. The exposure time could take several minutes. Kerr would have had to mix the chemicals for the photographic plates, apply them to the glass plates and then take the photo before the chemicals dried. Thirty two of Kerr’s photos of Aboriginal People survive, probably taken over a period of several years. Many are clearly posed photos as the process required, but they remain a rare visual record of the Loddon People of the early years of contact. Kerr’s photos are regarded as some of the earliest photographic records of Aboriginal People in their natural state. These images have been supplied by the State Library of Victoria as a gift to the Keeping Place and the Yung Balug Clan.
VENUE: Yung Balug Keeping Place, 3645 Boort-Pyramid Rd, Boort 0417 333 171.