Item 630 - Caudry's [osmiridium] mine, Savage River area, Tasmania. L-R: G. Buzza, G. Brown, W. Caudry, S. Brown, T. Caudry (photograph removed from Scrap Book #1, item N220/552)

Although this photograph is captioned ‘1927’, Nic Haygarth, author of 'On the ossie: Tasmanian osmiridium and the fountain pen industry' believes that it is more likely to have been taken in the early days of the mine, when Caudry used a Berdan pan (shown in the background) to crush ore. Mr Haygarth identifies the trench in the foreground as being the beginning of the open cut mine. All the other photographs Mr Haygarth has seen of William Caudry, from 1918 onwards, show him with a long white beard. In this photograph there is no man with white hair or a beard, suggesting to him that the photograph was taken c1913, when Caudry got his reward lease and began to attract overseas interest. Caudry's mine was the first mine outside Russia at which reef mining of osmiridium was conducted and is listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register (http://heritage.tas.gov.au/Documents/THR%20as%20at%2021Dec2016.pdf).

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