Laura Dunnage, photographer

On 1 July 1901 an article on page 2 of the Bay of Plenty Times announced the arrival of a Miss Dunnage who would be staying in town “for a few days.” On the next page an advertisement appeared in which she presented her credentials – Christchurch School of Art and holding South Kensington certificates – while offering tuition in drawing, painting and landscape sketching from nature. What pearls of artistic wisdom she may have imparted to the community is unknown, as no contemporary accounts of such lessons are known. However, it was a large wooden case in her luggage that she neglected to mention which afforded a much more tangible legacy to her stay in the Bay of Plenty.

Laura Constance Dunnage (1874-1957)

Who was the eminently qualified Miss Dunnage? Laura Constance Dunnage was born in 1874 in Papanui, Christchurch, the youngest of eleven children of farmer George Dunnage (1830-1904) and his wife Louisa née Bowron (1831-1905). Her schooling in West Christchurch was accompanied by the usual array of “commended” awards, as well as prizes for her hand bouquets and cut flower displays at the annual summer flower shows. As implied in her advert, she then attended the Christchurch School of Art between 1892 and 1896.

She probably came to Tauranga because one of her older brothers was Walter Henry Dunnage, a former government surveyor who had been living at Waipapa – near Aongatete – since 1895 and working on various contracts in the district and further afield.

1st Avenue, Tauranga, 1901
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-651

Laura Dunnage brought a field camera – probably half-plate – with her to Tauranga, and demonstrated that she was already quite proficient in its use by capturing a series of views of the townscape. In this image of three children amusing themselves with a pony and sled in 1st Avenue, her open camera case is seen at right in the foreground. By 1901, she would have been using the readily available dry plates, which could be safely stored in the box after exposure, and then processed when she returned home in the evening.

Tauranga Harbour, 1901
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-659

A view of the Tauranga foreshore at low tide with Mauao on the skyline is captioned, “Moonlight on the harbour,” which would have been quite an achievement although, judging from the detail visible in the dark areas of the image, it seems more likely that it was actually taken mid-morning.

Sulphur Mill, Tauranga, 1901
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-662

Her scene of the derelict sulphur works on the Spit, which later became Sulphur Point, is so atmospheric it seems almost haunting. The photographer’s companion, a young woman, waits for her in a one-horse gig, carefully positioned adjacent to a rough track in the foreground. The tall chimney and building of the former fertilizer factory are framed by Karewa Island and Mauao on the skyline, and a narrow foot jetty has been left high and dry by the receding tide.

Miss Dunnage wasn’t the first woman in the Bay of Plenty to venture into the decidedly male-dominated pursuit of photography. Emily Surtees, daughter of Katikati pioneer George Vesey Stewart, brought a camera with her when she returned from England with her husband in late 1898, and photographed family, friends, homes, social events and local scenes in the Katikati district before they returned to England in 1900. Mary Humphreys took up photography, probably soon after her husband died in May 1898, and her circumstances most likely dictated a more professional direction. A year later in May 1899, she was confident enough to photograph the Governor’s reception in Tauranga, offering prints for sale as mementoes of the event at bookseller Thomas Duncanson’s Novelty Depot next to the Commercial Hotel on The Strand. By December that year she was supplying images for publication in the Auckland Weekly News.

Scene on the Kaimai Track to Cambridge, photograph by Laura C. Dunnage, 1901
Published in Auckland Weekly News Supplement, 19 Dec 1901
Courtesy of Auckland Library Heritage Images, Ref. AWNS-19011219-3-4

Laura Dunnage remained in Tauranga for a good deal longer than the “few days” originally planned, and decided that she too might able to derive some revenue from what had hitherto been a leisurely pursuit. One might speculate that she may even have been given a nudge in that direction by Mary Humphreys. It was, after all, a small community. On 14 December she boarded the SS Clansman bound for Auckland armed with a portfolio of her scenic photographs, and presumably met with a favourable response. By the time she returned to Tauranga in late January, having spent Christmas with her family in Christchurch, her photograph of the Wairere Stream above the falls on the track across the Kaimais to the Waikato had been published under her byline in the Auckland Weekly News.

Beaching the Whaleboat, Motiti, c.1901-1903
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-671

She rented Gray’s Cottage in Willow Street, next to Hammond’s timber yard, and again advertised her services as an art teacher. A collection of oil paintings, including some by Miss Dunnage, were exhibited at the Chrysanthemum Show in April. She also demonstrated and instructed in Indian Club exercises, the 19th century equivalent of aerobics or zumba. Together with a party of friends she made an expedition to Motiti Island in the yacht Hopara, probably in December 1902, returning with at least two dozen exposed glass plates, although some may have been taken on other trips to the island. She pasted prints of these in an album that was later digitised for the Tauranga City Library, and include two which were subsequently published by the AWNS on 26 March 1903.

Large gathering at Te Hiinga-o-te-Ra wharenui, Motiti, c.1901-1903
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-669

Apart from scenes showing the visiting party in their yacht, and picnicking and bathing in Orongatea Bay, she also took pictures of local residents at Tamateakitehuatahi and Te Hinga-o-te-Ra wharenui and outside their whare.

A “bush whari,” Oropi, c.1901-1903
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-658
Also published in Auckland Weekly News Supplement, 13 Aug 1903 (link)

Her brother Walter had in May 1902 married Caroline Kensington at Holy Trinity, Tauranga, she being from a large Oropi family. Their first child was born at Tauranga in April 1903. Laura Dunnage presumably took the photo of a “bush whari” during a visit to Oropi around this time and submitted it to the AWNS shortly after leaving Tauranga on 8 July 1903.

Spraying potato crop, Patoka, c.Dec 1908
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-665

After a brief stop in Gisborne she returned to live in Christchurch. Further photographs compiled in the album (1905-1906) and published in the AWNS (Sep 1910) demonstrated that she was still active with her camera. In late 1908 she produced a flurry of images of farming scenes around Patoka and Rissington, north-west of Napier. The man spraying the potato plants in the image above is probably Henry Harper Hartree (1883-1976) who she married at St Augustine’s, Napier on 3 June 1913. They had a son Harry Nelson Hartree born at Napier in 1917. It is unknown whether she continued with her photography after her marriage.

“In the track of the bush fellers, Patoka, Feb 1909”
Photograph by Laura C. Dunnage from the Dunnage-Hartree Family Album
Courtesy of Jan Hartree & Tauranga City Library (Pae Koroki) Ref. 00-711

A final image from the Dunnage-Hartree album includes a possible self portrait (at left). Laura C. Dunnage died at Napier in 1957 and is buried in Taradale Cemetery.

References

McCauley, Debbie (2020) Emily Surtees, a Snapshot of Katikati
Indian Club, Wikipedia
Heritage Images, Auckland Library
Pae Koroki, Tauranga City Library
Papers Past, Alexander Turnbull Library
Family Trees from Ancestry.com