The name 'John Buckland' will be familiar to many members of the ARHS (ACT) - over the years, there have been many references to his name and the Buckland photographic collection at the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

An exhibition of 53 photographs from the Buckland Collection went on display at the National Library in July last year.

It featured railway photographs from New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

That exhibition closed on January 22, and now a second segment, with 73 photographs, is on display featuring the railways of Victoria, South Australia and the former Commonwealth Railways. This display will remain until mid-July.

This exhibition, titled Trainspotting - the Buckland Collection on Display, was timed to coincide with the recent 150th anniversary of railways in NSW.

You will find the display on the Library's 4th floor. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm daily, and entry is free.

A public talk about the second exhibition will be given by two ARHS (ACT) members - Bob Parker and Jim Stokes - on Thursday, 16 February, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm in the Library's Conference Room.

They both gave a lunchtime talk about part I of the exhibition last year in the Ferguson Room and it attracted one of the biggest crowd ever seen at one of these events.

It was standing room only, so the Library has booked a larger venue for this next one.

The photographer

John Buckland was born in Camperdown, Victoria in 1915 and educated at Melbourne Grammar School.

In 1938-40, he worked as a cadet journalist for the Victorian Railways Public Relations Department.

During the Second World War he served in the RAAF as a photographer and radar operator.

After the war, he worked as a journalist for various organisations including Shennan Publishing Co. (the company that for many years published Railway Transportation) in Sydney (1946-47), Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service, Melbourne (1948-50), Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Co., Robsons Publications and Pacific Publications (1953-54), Commonwealth Department of Trade (1954-70), and the Australian Conservation Foundation (1970-75).

 
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After his retirement in 1975, John devoted all his time to his railway interests.

He was a founding member of the Australian Railway Historical Society and served as President and Vice-President of the Victorian Division before resigning to join the NSW Division in the 1960s.

He became a life member in 1971.

He was a regular contributor to the ARHS Bulletin (now Australian Railway History) and Light Railways (the journal of the Light Railway Research Society of Australia), and co-authored the first volume (1845-1904) of a history of Victorian Railways steam locomotives.

John Buckland died in Melbourne in 1989.

While John's home state was Victoria, the photographs in his collection are from all over Australia.

One of the great strengths of the collection is that many other well-known railway enthusiasts sent photographs to him and John retained them all, thus greatly increasing the coverage of the collection.

ARHS (ACT) involvement

The display of photographs from the Buckland Collection has been chosen by a member of the ARHS (ACT), Bob Parker.

He has an extensive knowledge of Australia’s railways and for many years has been voluntarily cataloguing the Library’s Buckland Collection.

Bob is also extensively involved with the Canberra Railway Museum and can be found as a passenger services crew member on some of our local trains.

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to the staff of the National Library of Australia for maintaining the Buckland Collection, the mounting of these displays, and for their assistance in preparing this information.