HMAS Tingira by H B Williams
Tingira moored in Rose Bay, her permanent home as a boy’s training ship.
There are no other paintings on this website by H B Williams. If you have any information about the artist we would love to hear from you, please contact us.
- About H B Williams
Harry Brisbane Williams
(Born Brisbane, Queensland 1869. Died Sydney, NSW 1959)
Williams was an Australian photographer and amateur artist. He produced one of the most vivid private visual photographic records of Sydney Harbour in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Born in Brisbane, he later settled in Balmain and Point Piper, where daily proximity to the water shaped both his photography and his painting. He was the photographer for the Water Board of New South Wales and was one of the founders of the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, in Point Piper.
Williams is best known today for his photographs. Many of these photos can be seen both in the Australian National Maritime Museum, Vaughan Evans digital collection and the State Library of NSW digital collection.
Williams was a keen amateur artist - becoming friends with a number of prominent Sydney artists including Alfred Coffey. However, there is very little information available about his paintings. The only two paintings traceable so far are the “HMAS Tingira” shown on this website and “Sydney Harbour View” dated 1932. “Sydney Harbour View” is an oil painting on canvas board which overlooks Sydney Harbour showing small sailing boats, harborside homes and greenery. The two paintings show his transition from documentary photography to traditional canvas landscape painting.
Williams artistic legacy mainly lies in his photography. His work is valued for its intimate portrayal of harbour life, its technical precision, and its contribution to Australia’s visual maritime heritage.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Harry_Brisbane_Williams
https://tingira.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/3.-VP-SPRING-
https://collections.sea.museum/objects/32859/the-tingira-volume-1-number-3
- About HMAS Tingira
HMAS Tingira (Ex-Sobraon) was originally laid down as the Sobraon in Scotland. After carrying cargo and passengers between the UK and Australia for many years she was purchased by the NSW government in 1891. Moored off Cockatoo Island she was used as a Nautical School Ship for wayward boys until 1911.
In 1911 Sobraon was purchased by the Commonwealth Government and fitted out as a boy’s training ship at Mort’s Dock Balmain. The name chosen for her was an aboriginal word meaning ‘open sea’ and she became HMAS Tingira when commissioned.
More reading
- Additional resources for HMAS Tingira
