13/10/2026
Two hundred years ago, the invention of photography changed how people and events could be recorded. 📸
In Burgundy, c. 1826–1827, Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce made the world's first permanent photograph, 'View from the Window at Le Gras', using a camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen of Judea for around eight hours.
To mark the bicentenary, the original Le Gras plate is returning to France from the Harry Ransom Center in Texas, and the French Ministry of Culture is running a celebration of photographic creation and heritage until September 2027.
In Australia, it was in 1841 that visiting French sea captain Augustin Lucas brought a daguerreotype camera to Sydney, demonstrating it at the stores of Messrs Joubert and Murphy in Macquarie Place in the hope of selling it.
On 13 May, he took a view of Bridge Street – the first photograph taken in Australia. He soon after departed for Tahiti, and his image does not appear to have survived.
In celebration of all things photography (and to satisfy our own curiosity), our photograph curators recently reviewed the AWM collection of over 1.2 million photographs, to identify our oldest original photograph taken in Australia.
The hunt was harder than we expected, with a lack of historical provenance, broad time frames recorded simply as 'colonial era', and the original collecting remit of the Australian War Museum neglecting to consider conflicts prior to the First World War.
🔍 Three contenders stand out, however. Take a look at each and find out which we think is the oldest.
