Identified as a Port Darwin native , this is one of 51 photographs in an album compiled by French naturalist Philippe Francois (1859-1908), who visited Australia in 1888 , which is on sale by Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne , for $30,000.
Francois passed through Victoria and New South Wales on his way to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides where he carried out research into coral reefs . He made a return voyage there in 1893-l895. Taken by commercial photographers, the collection includes Australian Aborigines, Victorian goldmines ,wool transport on the Murray River , views of Melbourne and Sydney . A large part of the natural history specimens and ethnographic artefacts built up by Francois were bequeathed to French institutions .
