Portrait of William Brewster, photograph by Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee

SPF/3790

fonds

probably between 1868 and 1877

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9680242

1 photographic print - albumen - 11 x 7 cm

Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee was born in 1833 in Mumbai, India and opened his first photographic studio on Military Square Lane, Mumbai. In about the 1860s, he emigrated to Australia where he married Mary Ann Williams (1845-1902) in on 19 February 1861 in Parramatta, New South Wales. In October 1863, he established a studio on the corner of Bell and Union Streets, Ipswich, Queensland. Two months later, he opened a second studio in the Bullocks Building on Queen Street, Brisbane. In 1865, he was commissioned to create the 'Panorama of Ipswich' for which he won several awards, including one presented in Melbourne in 1866 and other at the Great Centennial Exhibition in the USA in 1876. The same year, he travelled to Sydney, then returned to Ipswich where he opened a new studio on Brisbane Street. As well as photography, Poochee became a pioneer of growing sugar cane and, in 1871, he established a sugar crushing mill. In 1877, he left Ipswich and travelled through regional Queensland where he ran various studios in Dalby, Maryborough, Gayndah, and Townsville. In 1893, he travelled to Parramatta and worked with his son, Sorabjee Poochee (1863-1923), at a photographic studio on Factory Street. He operated another studio, Poochee & Son, on Church Street Parramatta, until 1904, after which there is no further record of him in Australia.

References:
Ipswich Libraries. "Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee - Ipswich photographer". Accessed 3 May 2024. https://www.ipswichlibraries.com.au/biggingee-sorabjee-poochee/

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser. 8 September 1863. Accessed 3 May 2024. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/123607318

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser. 19 August 1871. Accessed 3 May 2024. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/123760775

Albumen on card photographic print of Private William Brewster, member of the NSW Volunteer Rifles (also known as the Sydney Battalion Volunteer Rifle Corps), taken by Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee sometime in the late 1860s or early 1870s.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Verso of photographic print lists numerous awards and prizes won by William Brewster, dated 1864 and 1865, and is stamped "Photographed by Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee, Brisbane Street, Ipswich".

Date range based on approximate period Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee had his studio on Brisbane Street, Ipswich, and when he left Ipswich in 1877