© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Janine Burke
Biography
Janine Burke (b. 1952) art historian, biographer, novelist and curator, graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1974.
1 portrait in the collection
Janine Burke, c. 1980, 1980 (printed 2012)
Robert Rooney
Portrait, inkjet print on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Robert O'Hara Burke
Biography
Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861), explorer, came to Australia in 1853 and joined the Victorian police force.
4 portraits in the collection
R O'Hara Burke, c. 1861
De Gruchy & Leigh
Portrait, lithograph on paper
Purchased 2009
Robert O'Hara Burke, c. 1860
Melbourne and Sydney Photographic Co
Portrait, albumen paper carte de visite
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
The importance of being bearded
Magazine article by Joanna Gilmour, 2012
Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.
The Burke and Wills Monument, 1869
Thomas Foster Chuck
Portrait, albumen paper photograph on carte de visite
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
Robert O'Hara Burke, Leader of the Victorian Expedition, 1860-1861
Henry Samuel Sadd, Fergusson & Mitchell, Melbourne after Thomas Adams Hill
Portrait, mezzotint on paper
Purchased with funds provided by Ross A Field 2007
Of Burke, Wills ... and wills
It's Complicated
Infatuation and (ill-fated) exploration
Kiffy Rubbo
Biography
Kiffy Rubbo (1944-1980) was director of the Ewing and George Paton Gallery at the University of Melbourne from 1973 to 1980.
1 portrait in the collection
William John Wills
Biography
William John Wills (1834-1861) came to Victoria with his brother in early 1853.
3 portraits in the collection
Kiffy Rubbo 2, 1979, 1979 (printed 2012)
Robert Rooney
Portrait, inkjet print on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
The Burke
Beards
A big daddy of a beard; long; bushy; rugged, but not unkempt; typically found on the faces of explorers or bushrangers.
William John Wills, c. 1861
De Gruchy & Leigh
Portrait, lithograph on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Thomas Foster Chuck and Son
Biography
Thomas Foster Chuck (c. 1826-1898) specialised in photographing well-known colonists, many of whom featured amongst the 700 photographs in his huge mosaic The Explorers and Early Colonists of Victoria.
1 portrait in the collection
The Lyster
Beards
A strong, silent type of beard; bushy and manly, but also shaped and contained, a restrained version of a Burke or a Parkes.