Title: The Punt, Echuca
Artist: James Charles Armytage (1802? or c.1820-1897)
Engraver: James Charles Armytage (1802? or c.1820-1897)
Date: [ca. 1873]
Notes: This engraving, by J. C. Armytage, shows the Punt at Echuca on the Murray River, north of Melbourne.
In 1845 James Maiden set up the first punt to carry squatters' livestock across the river. A couple of kilometres upstream, in 1853, Henry Hopwood set up another punt service, in competition. In a 12 month period in 1856-1857, 150,000 head of cattle crossed the river on these punts. Hopwood convinced the Victorian Government to set up port facilities next to his punt, and the town of Echuca came into being. Both these men were ex-convicts, convicted the same day in the same Lancashire prison, and coincidentally both died on 1st January 1859. Their secret past dying with them.
In the late 1870s over 400 paddle steamers and barges serviced the rural industry and took advantage of the port facilities at Echuca, the closest port to Melbourne on the mighty Murray River.
James Charles Armytage
"James Charles Armytage" was an engraver and printmaker. He regularly engraved drawings by John Ruskin for publication in Ruskin’s books, who regularly praised and thanked Armytage for his "consummate skill and patience" in carrying out the work for him, and described his works as "lovely" and "magnificent".
It is interesting to note that no other record of "James Charles Armytage" exists. Armytage appears only as "J. C. Armytage" in works and the name may have been mistaken for John Carr Armytage, a landscape engraver (1802-1897).
Provenance: "Australia" vol. I, 1873; Edwin Carton Booth F.R.C.I. with drawings by (John) Skinner Prout, N. (Nicholas) Chevalier, &c. &c.
Author: Edwin Carton Booth
Contributor: John Skinner Prout (1805-1876)
Contributor: Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902)
Date of Publication: 1873
Volume: I
Publisher: Virtue & Co
Place of Publishing: London
Copyright status: This work is out of copyright
Courtesy: The British Library
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