E.O. Hoppe's Australia

EO Hoppé was once the most famous photographer in the world. He snapped celebrities and royalty in Britain, and chronicled America over two years of travel. In 1930, he travelled around Australia, spending 10 months intrepidly trekking between Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, tropical Queensland, central Australia, Sydney (where the Harbour Bridge was being constructed) and newly built capital Canberra (where his photographs captured the irony of a few grand buildings emerging from paddocks and bush). The wonderful images here have been buried in archives for more than 60 years. Browsing them now, the reader is struck by the relics of the past (Depression-era tin shanties, horses and carts on city streets), the exotic (a camel train in the outback, Aborigines in ceremonial dress) and the familiar (Flinders Street station, Penfolds vineyards).