Agent TypeFamilyActivities & OccupationsEngineers, electricalMining managersMinersHistoryIn 1900, 27 year old John Avery purchased a half plate camera: a Thornton Pickard "Ruby" outfit No. 2 with accessories including a stereoscopic facility. From 1902 to February 1909 he worked at Cassilis, a gold mining township near Swifts Creek in Gippsland, Victoria. His initial duties appear to have been performing assays to monitor the constantly changing processes being used by the Cassilis Gold Mining Co No Liability to extract the gold from very complex ores. He also acted as assistant manager from time to time.
By 1905 the Company was having difficulty obtaining sufficient firewood to fuel its roasting furnaces and steam boilers. In 1906 a decision was made to convert all the mechanical drives to electricity to be supplies by a hydro-electric scheme based on the Victoria River 25 km away. In the Company's reports this proposal is attributed the the General Manager, Mr Francis James Coote, who had studied engineering and surveying in New Zealand. A detailed specification for the hydro-electric plant was issued in March 1907 and commercial operation started in August 1908. However, by December 1908 the water flow in the Victoria River was insufficient to meet demand, a situation repeated every successive summer. The Company had to reduce its mining activities as the steam power plant had been dismantled. The mine closed in 1916.
John Avery left Cassilis in February 1909. Importantly though, John had used his high quality camera to take many technical photographs of the construction of the hydro scheme as well as pictures of local people and scenes. He retained his personal annotated copy of the specification for the hydro-electric plant, engineering drawings and documents. These photographs and documents were passed to his son John David Avery and, following his death in 1996, to his grandson Mark Avery. They were used by engineer and industrial historian, John McCutchan, in 1979 to study the Cassilis hydro-electric scheme which he realised with the first significant one in Victoria. The study contributed to the creation of the Victoria Falls Historic Area managed by Parks Victoria.
The photographic plates and documents were gifted to the University of Melbourne in 2007.
Source: J McCutchan, The Avery Photographs - a remarkable collection which has survived for 100 years, Draft Press Release July 2008.
