Fred Kruger

From the earliest days of European settlement, artists recorded the environment in which they found themselves and often their sketches, paintings and later photographs included the creeks and river systems of the regions they visited or in which they lived. This was also true of the Barwon River catchment. In the earliest days of settlement, artists such as George Alexander Gilbert, Samuel Thomas Gill, Charles Norton, Louis Buvelot, Eugene von Guerard and a host of others, recorded their surroundings and in the process created some of the region's best known artworks.
By 1879, a noted landscape photographer by the name of Fred Kruger had established himself in Skene St, Newtown and was rapidly becoming known about Geelong. In November he was invited to photograph the opening of the new Corio Bay Rowing Club boat shed, located near the Yarra Street Pier (Geelong Advertiser, 29th November, 1879). The following month, he was commissioned to photograph both the exhibits and the building when the newly-erected Geelong Exhibition Building hosted an Industrial and Juvenile Exhibition, boasting some 30,000 exhibits.

Geelong Exhibition Building, Fred Kruger (1882), Image held by the
State Library of Victoria

Over the course of the next eight years, Kruger contributed greatly to the photographic record not only of Geelong, but the entire region, including the Barwon, Leigh and Moorabool Rivers. So who was Fred Kruger?
 Johan Friedrich Carl Kruger was born in Berlin, Germany on 18th April, 1831 to a working-class family and as a young man, went into business as an upholsterer. By April, 1863 when his wife Auguste Wilhelmine Elisabeth Bauman and their three year old son Hans arrived in Victoria on the ship Macassar, Kruger had already settled in Rutherglen where he was a partner in his brother's furniture business which had operated since 1854. Soon after their arrival, a daughter was born to the couple and Kruger became the sole owner of the business which he sold before moving to Taradale where he established himself as a cabinet maker.
The births of two sons were registered at Taradale in 1866 and 1867 but the family did not remain long in the area, instead moving to Melbourne where Fred established a photography business in Carlton, later moving to Prahran then Preston. He soon developed a reputation as a landscape photographer, winning awards both internationally and in Australia as well as receiving acclaim for his photos of indigenous Australians.
Auguste and Fred went on to have a further six children, all born in Melbourne however at least five of their nine Australian-born children died as infants in their first year of life. Then, some time during the late 1870s or early 1880s Kruger and his remaining family moved to Geelong where they lived in Skene St, Newtown.
During his time in Geelong he took numerous photos of local scenes, travelling also to surrounding towns including Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale, Ballarat, Werribee, Winchelsea, the Otways and many places in between.

The Leigh River, near Inverleigh, Fred Kruger, 1882. Image held by the State
Library of Victoria

In order to make a living, Kruger accepted commissioned work both from the government and local landowners who wanted a visual record of their estate. He is also known to have taken photos of the Barwon in flood as well as shipwrecks off the coast at Point Lonsdale, as images of such events were popular with the buying public.

Kruger's 1881 Photograph of the paper mill at Fyansford. Image held by the
National Gallery of Victoria

I suspect, but do not know, that Kruger's photo of the paper mill may have been taken not long after extensive flooding hit the region. Kruger's photo above shows the ana-branch which connects the Barwon (left) to the Moorabool (right) a short distance above the confluence of the two rivers. Between the river and below the ana-branch is the almost completely denuded Redgum Island. In my image below, the course of the now tree-lined ana-branch runs through the middle of the shot with the lines of the rivers just visible to either side as an indentation in the trees.

A similar view of the paper mill taken May, 2016. At the time, I had no idea
I was standing so close to the spot where Kruger stood some 135 years
ago to take his photograph

In addition to a number of photographs taken near Batesford and the now non-existent town of Viaduct on the lower reaches of the Moorabool, Kruger also visited both Lal Lal Falls and the nearby Moorabool Falls in 1882, perhaps on his way to Ballarat.

The Moorabool Falls on the Moorabool River near Lal Lal, as seen by Kruger
in 1882. Image held by the State Library of Victoria

Moorabool Falls, April, 2012

On the 15th February, 1888, after contracting peritonitis, Fred died at the home of his son in the Melbourne suburb of Surrey Hills. His wife Auguste lived a further 25 years, dying at Preston in 1913. Over the years, his photographs have remained popular and as recently as 2012, the National Gallery of Victoria who hold a large number of his photographs, hosted the "Fred Kruger: intimate landscapes" exhibition. An earlier exhibition was held in 1983. Many of his works can also be found in digital format across the Internet.

Mosaics on the Barwon

According to Wikipedia:

...the word mosaic is from the Italian mosaico deriving from the Latin mosaicus and ultimately from the Greek mouseios meaning belonging to the Muses, hence artistic.

As an art form, mosaics have been around for thousands of years. The earliest known mosaics, dating to the third millennium BC were located in a temple in Mesopotamia. Both the Romans and Greeks used mosaics on the floors and ceilings of their villas whilst eastern and western Christians, Jews and Muslims all used mosaics to adorn their various places of worship.


The use of mosaics has continued to the present day where they often take the form of public artworks. Conveniently for the topic of this blog post, the Barwon also boasts some modest mosaic pieces in the form of a large structure near Fyans Park as well as some drinking fountains which have been given the mosaic treatment at a couple of points along the walking/cycling path.

Mosaic-coated drinking fountain near Breakwater
depicting the bull-rushes found along the river

A second fountain at Fyans Park

Mosaic structure at Fyans Park

In recent times, working with mosaics has also become popular as a leisure activity with classes being offered to cater for a wide range of tastes and abilities. For the last few years, mosaic artist and teacher, Rosemarie Kviz has conducted classes in her studio at the Old Fyansford Paper Mills, Lower Paper Mills Rd in Fyansford.

Mosaics at The Mill, June, 2015. Piece by Rosemarie Kviz

In 2015 I attended an open day at the Mill and saw the work of Rose and her students. It took almost a year however, before I finally took the plunge and started attending classes myself.

The view of the Barwon from the classroom at The Mill

So, for about a year now, I have been mosaicking everything from flat plywood pieces to candle-holders and even a mannequin. My starting point was - unsurprisingly - a view of the Barwon River.

On the Barwon looking south towards
the Barrabool Hills

My second piece was also a Barwon scene, this time a depiction of the ruins of the Carrah Flour Mill on the north bank of the river about 3km south of Inverleigh and the topic of a previous blog post.

Ruins of the Carrah Flour Mill near
Inverleigh

My third - and to date final - Barwon piece portrayed one of the many Rainbow Lorikeets I have seen along the river over the years.

Rainbow Lorikeet on the Barwon

Whilst mosaics have traditionally been created by arranging tiles to create an image, in the computer age it has become possible to create digital mosaics and some time before I began creating physical mosaics, I also dabbled with creating a photographic mosaic. Realising I had amassed somewhere in the vicinity of 14,000 photos of the Barwon River (significantly more some two years down the track), I decided to see if it was possible to create a digital mosaic which used as many as possible of my Barwon photos.
After a significant amount of time spent editing, manipulating, finding the right program and finally compiling, I had created a digital mosaic composed of 10,000 unique photos, each in some way related to the Barwon.

Digital mosaic created using the AndreaMosaic

The end result was a 150cm x 106cm version of the above image which now hangs on my wall. Each "tile" in the photo mosaic is a high definition 15mm x 10mm image visible to the naked eye. The windmill in the image was situated slightly downstream of Wilson's Rd, St Alban's Park however, it now lies in pieces on the ground.