Reading Location Clues: The View from Monument Hill, Castlemaine

 

This historic photo of Castlemaine, one of the Rose Series (taken between ca.1906 and the 1930's) was posted on social media some time back. Recently I looked at it again and my attention was caught by the title 'VIEW FROM MONUMENT HILL, CASTLEMAINE, VIC'. If the Burke and Wills monument in Wills Street on, appropriately enough, Monument Hill, is in the distance, then how could this photo be taken FROM Monument Hill.

    I started off thinking that the photo might well have been taken from a high point to the south of Monument Hill and we're looking northwards. This seemed to match fairly well because, isn't that Happy Valley Road (known to be east of Monument Hill) leading off to the hills in the distance? The only problem with that theory is that there is no high hill, to the south east of Monument Hill, at least not at the distance suggested  by the photo. It wasn't long before others pointed out to me that in fact the view could only be towards the south east with The Monk (a high point and a local landmark) dominating the distant line of hills.

    It turns out that the photographer took this photo from a point near Templeton Street East, a short extension of Templeton Street, which arcs around the peak of a hill. Whether this vantage point forms part of Monument Hill is up for debate but at least I was able to finally place where the photographer must have stood back in the early years of the 20th century.

    Here's the above photo with some landmarks.

    Here's how the view looks today. One hundred years might have elapsed since the above photo was taken, nevertheless it's remarkable how the view has been transformed. The Burke and Wills monument is now hidden  by trees.

    Using an aerial photo from 1945 as a base, here's the angle of view captured in the original photo.

    This experience shows that it's not always easy to work out the direction of view of some historic photos. In addition it proves that it's wise to take note of dissenting voices when reading the location clues in historic photos.

    Incidentally, perhaps the hill at Templeton East Street was a popular spot for photographers to stand. Here's a section of a panorama of Castlemaine looking south (between 1891 and 1900 according to the State Library of Victoria). It looks very much like the same vantage point.