Working horses

ST Gill's wonderfully evocative lithographs show how the horse was central to the life of Australia, and especially the bush.

In the days before mass communications, the arrival of the bush mailman with his bags, was the only way for many bush workers and families to communicate with the world beyond. Gill also shows the stockman, a still iconic figure of the Australian landscape.

Gill arrived in Adelaide with his family in 1839 and set up a studio. As well as painting buildings and street scenes of the burgeoning town, he took an early interest in the interior of the colony. In 1846 he was a member of the party led by JA Horrocks that explored the country near the head of Spencer's Gulf. Some of the paintings made on this journey were displayed in the first general art exhibition in Adelaide in 1847.

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