Design and Art Australia Online

sketcher and public servant, was born in Bath, England, only son of a surgeon, Charles Alexander Harries. There is no record of the reason why young Harries chose to leave Bath and take a poorly paid job in the Brisbane office of the Roads and Buildings’ Branch of the Department of Public Works where he received £150 a year as a clerk and draughtsman from 1867. In July 1876 he was appointed chief draughtsman of the Buildings’ Branch at more than double his previous salary, but two years later, aged thirty-one, was found dead 'of unknown causes’ in his cottage, Avondale, South Brisbane.

Sketches (John Oxley Library, Queensland State Library, Brisbane), signed with his familiar name of Harry, record several of Brisbane’s major buildings of the 1860s, including Government House and the Lunatic Asylum at Woogaroo, now Wolston Park Hospital. One delicate and precise pencil sketch shows Woogaroo Asylum just before it was completed in 1865. He used colour washes in tones of grey, raw umber and sepia to heighten his drawings. One of the most charming is of his own house (now relocated on North Tambourine Mountain).

This entry is a stub. You can help DAAO by submitting a biography.

Writers:

Vries-Evans, Susanna de

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011