Photograph by C. H. Tullett. Barnes’ Mudgee Drug Store (corner Mayne and Herbert Streets) with Selff’s Hotel in the left background.
This photograph is of particular interest for three reasons: Firstly, it is considerably earlier than the Merlin series, pre-dating Anthony Trollope’s visit of October, 1871, as the rebuilding of the hotel was already well advanced by that date; secondly, the open window of that building is almost certainly T. A. Browne’s combined bedroom-office, for we know that at first he (and no doubt his clerk) had to issue the Miners' Rights through his hotel bedroom window; and, thirdly, the police officer to the left may well be the popular and respected Sub-Inspector Medley, who appears in "The Miner’s Right” in the guise of Inspector Merlin. (Original loaned by A. J . Brigden)
Source: Australasian photo-review. Vol. 61 No. 2 (1 February 1954)
