Ballaarat Post Office & Township. Ballarat Victoria STGill c1857

by Gill, Samuel Thomas

S.T. Gill antique print of Ballarat Post Office & Township from Government Enclosure (with a crowd of people outside the Post Office waiting for the distribution of mail, and a few military gentlemen lounging around the fence of the government enclosure.

Original steel engraving by James Tingle after the sketch by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880) for Victoria Illustrated published Melbourne circa 1857.

Born in Somerset, England, S.T. Gill was educated at a Plymouth school maintained by his Baptist minister father, Reverend Samuel Gill and his mother. He then received tuition at Dr Seabrook's academy. Gill received some instruction in drawing from his father who was an amateur artist, and found employment in London as 'Draftsman and Water Colour Painter'.

At the end of 1839 ST Gill arrived in South Australia with his parents and brother and sister, aboard the Caroline. The following year he set up a studio in Gawler Place, Adelaide, and produced portraits of "human beings, horses and dogs, and sketches houses". In 1846 he acted as unpaid draftsman on J.A. Horrocks's exploring party which reached the country at the head of Spencer Gulf.

In 1852 he went to the Victorian goldfields - but had more success with his character studies of life there which were published in 1853. During the 1850s S.T.G. (as he is often called) had a studio in Collinls Street, melbourn. Victoria Illustrated, a book of steel engraving after his drawings was published in 1857.

The engraving is the full published size of 20 x 28cm (8" x 11").