Lighting in Early Australia

A typical domestic scene of a squatter’s timber shack has been captured by many colonial artists such as S. Prout, S. T. Gill and other notables. The paintings generally show a group of people, usually men, sitting in front of a large walk-in fireplace which is lit by a blazing log fire. Occasionally a candle stuck into an empty bottle is seen on the table in the plainly furnished room or the most basic lard impregnated cloth lights might be seen on the hearth in the flickering light of the fireplace. Most of the early working men’s huts, were equipped in this fashion; a more decorative interior with lined walls, blinds and oil cloth or matting floor usually indicated the presence of a woman in the home.

When settlers arrived with their wives, cash and possessions, interiors showed a marked improvement in elegance and comfort. As soon as they were able, the settlers built more substantial houses replacing the tents and bark huts or upgraded and improved upon existing houses. By 1822 Sydney had 59 stone, 221 brick and 773 wooden residences and by 1841 the statistics showed that there were 769 residences in Melbourne.

Interiors were made practical and comfortable, following the dictates of English trends and, except for the very rich, lighting was not a priority. As late as the 1830s, Louise Anne Meredith gave a bleak description in her letters of home lighting in the colony ‘where candles are not attainable, a light is procured by a bit of rag rolled up stuck into an old cup or pannikin full of dripping and lighted. Homemade mould (tallow) candles are generally used in houses where wax-lights are dispensed with, and certainly vary more in quality than any other article of domestic manufacture.’

Later drawings of the interiors of wealthy settlers’ residences attest to this dismal picture of domestic lighting. There was small consolation in the fact that the general quality of light fittings and equipment had significantly improved in standard.

Finely crafted candlesticks and custom made blinds were now proudly displayed in parlours, replacing the bottles and tin pans that were used in the kitchens cum dining rooms in previous decades. S. T. Gill’s interior watercolour of the Noufflard’s house in Bligh Street, Sydney in 1856 depicts a scene common to many early Victorian homes.

The drawing room or parlour is lit by a pair of tall elegant candlesticks placed on a central table around which the family and friends would gather at night to read, write, play instruments or socialise. Often a vase of flowers would be placed in the centre of the table in an arrangement to complement the candlesticks. Sometimes an additional pair of candles would illuminate a piano on which a member of the family would play.

In wealthier homes the number of candlesticks might be increased to include a pair of candlelabra on the overmantel of the fireplace; alternatively an additional pair of two- or three-branched candle wall sconces might be positioned on either side of the sideboard, chiffonier or mirror hung over the fireplace in either the dining or drawing rooms. The rest of the house would be in darkness except, perhaps, for the entry hall where an enclosed hanging lantern would burn one or more candles to illuminate the way for visitors. A candlestick would have been taken to light the way to the bedroom, but these were not kept in bedrooms; they were brought to the kitchen each morning to be trimmed and maintained. The article brought to you by laser hair removal services.

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