I had a great trip recently, snowshoeing from Crackenback (above Thredbo) to Mt Townsend. It was mid-week (no-one else out there), there had been about 20cm of fresh snow the night before (creamy smooth snow with no tracks) and the weather was glorious (sunny cold and some nice dark clouds coming in from the west during the afternoon).
One purpose for the trip was reconnaissance; I have long admired Eugene Von Guerard’s painting Northeast View from the Northern Top of Mount Kosciusko (which is actually a view from the top of Mt Townsend).
It depicts a panoramic view from near the summit of Mt Townsend in the main range of the Snowy Mountains, looking northeast across Lake Albina and the Watsons Crags to Mt Twynam and Mt Jagungal in the distance. Shown in the central foreground are the members of German scientist Georg von Neumayer’s 1862 expedition team (including Hector the dog) which was undertaking a magnetic survey of the colony of Victoria. A storm, which later visited extreme and almost catastrophic conditions upon the party, can be seen approaching from the left background Apart from the pile of boulders in the left foreground, which do not exist in the actual location, the scene is shown with a fair degree of topographical accuracy
Eugene von Guérard, North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko (1863) - National Gallery of Australia
The painting was also appropriated by Imants Tillers in a 1985 painting (actually done as 165 separate canvas board panels) entitled Mount Analogue.
- Imants Tillers, Mount Analogue (1985) – National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1987. Painting, oil, oil stick and synthetic polymer paint. 279.0 h x 571.0 w cm
I’ve got this idea of reproducing this image as a photograph on 19 November this year – which will be exactly 150 years after Von Guerard was there. So part of my aim was to confirm the location of the painting’s vantage point, check lens options (I found the Canon 24-70 2.8L got the aspect about right) – and of course to make some images while I was there!
So here’s my mid-winter version of the scene (with the made-up bits of Von Guerard’s scene added in):
- Homage to Eugene Von Guerard and Imants Tillers
The light was quite lovely the day I was there, especially as the clouds came up in the afternoon and chased me back to Crackenback, and I got nice images along the course of my 8 hours of tramping through the snow. I’ve reproduced a few of them below, but you can see the full set on the main Jokar web site at this link. Hope you like them!
Slopes of Muellers Peak
Looking back at Mt Townsend (my tracks in the snow)
Between Seaman's Hut and Rawson Pass