John Watt Beattie

John Watt Beattie (15 August 1859 – 24 June 1930) was an Australian photographer.

Photograph taken in Fiji by John Watt Beattie, early 20th century

Beattie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1890. He was appointed Photographer to the Government of Tasmania on 21 December 1896. He did extensive photography around Tasmania, as well as in the Central Highlands and on the West Coast of Tasmania. He was employed by the North Mount Lyell Company to photograph between Gormanston, Tasmania and Kelly Basin in the 1890s.

Beattie travelled with lantern slide shows on various subjects – A trip through Tasmania, From Kelly's Basin to Gormanston as well as Port Arthur and Tasman Peninsula[1] His photographic images of places such as Port Arthur and the Isle of the Dead were used as postcards in the early twentieth century.[2][3]

Beattie's work was notable in that it crystallised around a Romantic tradition that promoted a sympathetic orientation to the natural world. His sublime pictures of Tasmanian wilderness and Port Arthur in particular helped settlers and activists argue for the protection of nature through the 1890s and into the twentieth century. [4] [5]

In the 1890s he also prepared composite pictures of the Governors of Tasmania 1804–1895, as well as Parliamentarians of Tasmania 1856–1895.

He also travelled to Norfolk Island and did photographic work there as well. He died in Hobart.

See also

• Photography in Australia
• Cinema of Australia
• William Bland
• Jeff Carter (photographer)
• Jack Cato
• Maggie Diaz
• Ken G. Hall
• Frank Hurley
• Charles Kerry
• Henry King (photographer)
• David Perry (Australian filmmaker)
• Ruby Spowart
• Mark Strizic

References

1. p.6 and 7 of Tassell and Wood
2. Jones-Travers, Jennifer K. (2016). "Historical Archaeology of Tourism at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1885-1960". Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University: chp 5.
3. Beattie, John. W. "Among the Tombs, Dead Island, Port Arthur". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
4. Hore, Jarrod (2017). "'Beautiful Tasmania’: environmental consciousness in John Watt Beattie’s romantic wilderness". History Australia. 14 (1): 48-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2017.1286710
5. Hore, Jarrod (2 March 2017). "'Beautiful Tasmania': environmental consciousness in John Watt Beattie's romantic wilderness". History Australia. 14 (1): 48–66. doi:10.1080/14490854.2017.1286710.

External links

• Australian Dictionary of National Biography entry
• Journal of a Voyage to the Western Pacific in the Melanesian Mission Yacht Southern Cross 25 August-10 November 1906
• Catalogue of a Series of Photographs Illustrating the Scenery and Peoples of the Islands in the South and Western Pacific. Photographed and Published by J. W. Beattie, 1907.
• Photograph of Beattie late in life
• Works by Beattie are held in the collection of Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira

Further reading

• Tassell, Margaret and Wood, David (1981) Tasmanian Photographer – From the John Watt Beattie Collection – From the Collections of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery South Melbourne, Macmillan Company of Australia. ISBN 0-333-33737-9.