Terrawambella on Nicols run, New England, Conrad Martens 1852
Courtesy Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, from Album of sketches in Sydney, New England and Queensland, ca. 1852-1878 / drawn by Conrad Martens.
Conrad Martens (1801-1878) was an English watercolour artist who arrived in Australia in 1835. This collection of sketches and watercolours documents his travels from Brisbane to Sydney from around 1851 onwards. This sketch shows the rock formations in modern day Girraween National Park, now known as The Pyramids. “Terrawambella” is likely the original Aboriginal name for The Pyramids. The album also includes sketches of Ballandean and Tenterfield.
From Album of sketches in Sydney, New England and Queensland, ca. 1852-1878 / drawn by Conrad Martens
f.8 Terrawambella on Nicols run, New England. Unsigned. Titled and dated ‘March 19th 1852’ at lower right. ‘500 or 600 ft. high’ at lower centre.
19 March 1851 was Martens’s last day in what is now Queensland. He sketched the ‘Pyramids’, situated approximately 15 kilometres east from the Ballandean head station, then leased by Henry Nicol. The ‘Pyramids’ are now the central feature of Girraween National Park. Even though the Queensland border was not proclaimed until 1859, by the early 1850s the districts of Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs and Granite Belt, with their port at Brisbane, had established their own northern identity. The prominent landscape artist, Conrad Martens, visited the area on his historic journey from Brisbane to Sydney. Along the way, he stayed with squatters and pastoralists, drawing their houses and properties - hoping for commissions. One such drawing is "Terrawambella on Nicol's run, New England, March 19th 1852". From the title of the sketch, it is possible that Terrawambella was the original Aboriginal name for The Pyramids.
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