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Lightship BRAMBLE anchored at Sow and Pigs reef, Sydney Harbour
Lightship BRAMBLE anchored at Sow and Pigs reef, Sydney Harbour

Lightship BRAMBLE anchored at Sow and Pigs reef, Sydney Harbour

Photographer (1869 - 1959)
Date1890-1912
Object number00017018
NamePhotograph
MediumSilver gelatin print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 120 x 162 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Piers Jones
DescriptionThis photograph depicts the lightship BRAMBLE at Sow and Pigs Reef in Sydney Harbour. The headlands are visible in the distance. The first lightship placed at the reef in 1836 was the schooner ROSE. In 1856 the lightship was replaced by HMS BRAMBLE, which was in turn replaced by this lightship (BRAMBLE II) in 1877. In 1912, an acetylene gas light buoy was used instead.HistoryThe BRAMBLE lightship replaced the original HMS BRAMBLE placed at the Sow and Pigs Reef in Sydney Habour. The HMS BRAMBLE was moored there from 1856 to 1877. The BRAMBLE in this photograph was there from 1877 to 1912. With the lack of housing on South Head, it can be assumed that the image dates before the turn of the century. As Hornby Light was completed in 1858, this image must date after then. Harry (Henry) Brisbane Williams was born in 1869 in Brisbane, Queensland, and later lived in Balmain and Point Piper - both on Sydney Harbour. Williams was an enthusiastic amateur boater, and took his motor launch SABLE on numerous excursions around Sydney Harbour and the Lane Cove River. He was the photographer for the Water Board of New South Wales, and was a keen amateur artist - becoming friends with a number of prominent Sydney artists including Alfred Coffey. Williams' photographs held in the museum's collection date from the 1890s into the 1950s. His images depict a range of vessels, from passenger ships, cargo ships, Royal Australian Navy vessels, United States Navy battle cruisers, yachts, motor launches, sailing ships, tugboats, ferries, row boats and even paddle steamers on the Darling and Murray Rivers. Williams captures a range of social activities, including Fleet Week celebrations, rowing sculls, surf life saving, picnics, pleasure cruising and swimming. He also photographed a range of ship building activities, dry docks, slip ways and waterfront construction. SignificanceThe Harry Brisbane Williams photographic collection provides an interesting record of a range of activities on Sydney Harbour from the 1890s into the 1920s. An enthusiastic amateur boater and photographer, Williams’ photographs capture a range of subjects – pleasure cruising on his motor launch on the Lane Cove River, yachting on Sydney Harbour, foreshore social activities, surf lifesaving, cargo ships, battle cruisers of the United States fleet, model yachting and the shipbuilding industry. In particular, they are a wonderful personal record of the new phenomenon of leisure motor boating in the early twentieth century.