Developing career after shipwreck

In a small park beside the old Pacific Highway on the Northern Rivers, heading into Brunswick Heads, a few headstones are nestled in what is known as Pilgrim Memorial Park Cemetery. One of these headstones bears the names of some members from the Forbes family.

The headstone of John Dawson Forbes at the Brunswick Heads picnic area. Photo Samantha Elley

John Dawson Forbes is the patriarch at the top of the headstone and is responsible for some of the city of Lismore' s earliest photographs. Forbes was born in 1840 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and arrived in Brisbane, Australia, in 1866. He had already travelled to China with his uncle, who was captain of a sailing boat. When he sailed to India on the SS Jason, as chief purser, it was the largest steamer of the time.

Unfortunately, the steamer was wrecked off the coast and, from his son's account, he spent 11 days on a raft before hitting the mainland of the sub-continent. From there he travelled around India for some time.

When John arrived in Australia, he had a number of jobs, including cedar-getting, before he married Catherine Hewitson in Casino on the North Coast. But it was for his photography that Forbes is best remembered.

John Dawson Forbes' photo of Molesworth Street, Lismore showing Hunts Saddlery. Courtesy Richmond River Historical Society.

He used a process called collodian or 'wet plate' photography, a technique invented by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. The process involves adding a soluble iodide to a solution of cellulose nitrate and coating a glass plate with the mixture.

It was this technique that Forbes used to capture scenes around Lismore and he became known as the first permanent photographer in the area.

John Dawson Forbes' photo of the north side of Woodlark Street, Lismore. Courtesy Richmond River Historical Society.

Although it isn't known what business he was running, Forbes got himself into trouble in 1890 when he was declared bankrupt. Some time after that he moved to Brunswick Heads where he retired and built a boat.

He died in 1921 and is buried with Catherine and two of their younger children who predeceased him.

This story was first printed in The Northern Star, September 17, 2016.

References

• 'Forbes in Australia', Re: Forbes in Aberdeenshire - Genealogy.com, accessed 2nd May ,2025

• 'In Bankruptcy. Re John Dawson Forbes, of Lismore', NSW Government Gazette, Tuesday, 7 January, 1890, Page 191.

• 'Wet-collodian process', Britannica, accessed 2nd May, 2025, Wet-collodion process | Early Photography, Ambrotype, Tintype | Britannica