The Legend of the Lake

Tony Brown and Gillian Winter’s new book ‘First views of Lake St Clair’ is a wonderful collection of art work, articles, photos, scientific notes, a little mystery and even the utilisation of some detective work, all about the artists that first gave their impressions of this beautiful part of Australia. What makes it more interesting is that this art book is written by authors coming from very different disciplines. Tony is from a geologist background and Gillian, from that of an historian. The presence of these disciplines in writing about artists gives additional substance to what is a wonderful story of the artist as explorer.

There is a Lake St Clair in North America lying between Ontario and Michigan, it is named after Clare of Assisi, the saint of poverty. Its ironic that a lake bearing the name of the saint of poverty is full of the most wonderful riches of the natural world, of course our own lake is in fact named after a Scottish family so does not have the connection or reference to the Italian saint but it’s a nice allusion to make anyway!

Like a wonderful fairy tale this book about Lake St Clair itself has elements of horror and beauty. For the horror read about the explorers being told ghost stories of the escaped convicts who were caught and remained in the wilderness traps. For a mixture of horror and beauty read about the so called dead forest of Marlborough that in one night was reduced to a forest of ghost trees. Tony’s geologist background can tell us that it became so through the amazing phenomena of a single night’s severe frost but maybe we would prefer to think it was magic.

The book centres around the story of two protagonists, artists of different mediums, John Skinner Prout and Morton Allport. Although they were not literally the first Europeans to see the lake (Jorgen Jorgenson the Danish explorer, one time identifying himself as the king of Iceland was said to be the first European to see the lake but it was later deemed he took the route to Lake Barbara and not Lake St Clair after all) . Prout and Allport’s recording of it in sketching and photography respectively are the the first telling depictions of the area. Perhaps the amazing thing about it is these men of civilised manners were so keen and eager to experience what was an uncivilised area at that time and did so making light of their difficulties. In essence they were explorers as well as artists.

It is generally agreed that the first record still in existence of the area was provided by Prout and his watercolours and Alllport and his dry plate photography.

It was surveyor general George Frankland who named Lake St Clair in 1835 and its surrounds using classical names, an example of which is Mount Olympus. It was Frankland’s visit and influence that convinced Prout to visit Lake St Clair.

Prout was born in England to a father who was a musical instrument maker. Prout’s uncle was an artist. Prout emigrated to Australia and became a drawing instructor working at the Sydney Mechanics Institute and doing a variety of things including making sets for theatre.

The reasons behind his settling in Australia were bought on by the recession in England. he adored the wilderness ,yet his time here was was touched by sadness when his son Frederick was killed by boulders while playing at the Hobart rivulet.

There is a connection between these two men who were so instrumental in recording images of lake St Clair. Drawing instructor Prout would be asked by Morton’s mum to train her son in art. Mary also Morton’s art teacher was an accomplished artist herself, in fact Australia’s first professional artist who specialised in miniatures. Morton and Prout would continue to keep in contact throughout their lives and it was Prout’s trip to lake St Clair that encouraged Morton to also visit the area.

Morton was never satisfied or confident in his abilities in sketching so he turned to photography which he believed equivalent to sketching. As well as being an artist Morton was also a scientist and so offered observation and close analysis of the things he saw in his travels as well as representing them artistically. Morton was instrumental in forming the salmon ponds and introducing English flora and fauna to the colony as well as being supportive of the botanical gardens.

The detective story in this piece comes about in the mysterious figure of Paul Richolet, an Englishman who also claimed to have taken the first photographs of theLake St Clair area in 1862. Yet his name is surrounded in cloak of mist thicker than that on a Tasmanian winter day, no record of his visit or arrival on ship has ever been found.

Many believe Richolet was a non de plume for Morton as their writing styles are very similar. It may be a case of horses for courses with Morton’s other reporting being a more family friendly description of events of the expedition while the reporting of Richolet with it’s technological slant is more geared towards a photographic journal.

This book is a wonderful presentation and multidisciplinary approach in the study of an area which reinforces to us the beauty of Tasmania.
Paula Xiberras