'Wheal Margaret' Gold Mine (known as 'Bismarck's Claim') at Extended Union.

Extended Union was near the McKinlay River in the Northern Territory. 'Wheal' is the Cornish word for 'mine'.

In the 1870s there were several gold rushes in the Northern Territory, particularly around the Pine Creek region.

In the late 1870s the South Australian Government requested Paul Foelsche to photograph the goldfields for the 1878 Paris Exhibition, in a bid to attract further investment. (At that time the Northern Territory was part of South Australia.) This photograph resulted. It illustrates the effect which mining had on the environment. Like many Foelsche photographs, it demonstrates a complex use of light and shade and is very detailed.

Paul Heinrich Matthias Foelsche was born in 1831 in Germany migrated to Australia in 1856. He first worked at the Victorian goldfields. In November 1856 Foelsche was appointed as a trooper in the South Australian Mounted Police. He was transferred to Strathalbyn and in 1869 was appointed sub-inspector in charge of the Northern Territory Mounted Police, relocating to Palmerston (Darwin). Here Foelsche acquired a formidable reputation for solving crimes, particularly those relating to Indigenous suspects. Foelsche published an authoritative paper 'Notes on the Aborigines of North Australia' which was read to the Royal Society of South Australia on 2 August 1881.

From the early 1870s Foelsche succeeded Captain Samuel White Sweet as leading photographer of the Northern Territory, capturing images of local people (especially Indigenous people), landscapes, businesses and industries. Foelsche died in 1914.

Foelsche, Paul, H.M. (1831-1914)

Stone, D. I. Life on the Australian goldfields Carlton, Vic. ; [Sydney] : Methuen of Australia, [1976]

Hocking, G Gold: a pictorial history of the Australian gold rush, Rowville, Vic: Five Mile Press, 2006, c2000

Gold escort re-enactment Adelaide : S.A. Police, Commonwealth Bank, 1986

Foelsche, P The photography of Paul Foelsche : centenary exhibition, Darwin 1970 Darwin: Corporation of the City of Darwin, 1970

Foelsche, P 'Notes on the Aborigines of North Australia' Transactions and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of South Australia, 5 (1881-82), Adelaide, S. Aust. : The Society, 1879-1889

Downer, S Patrol indefinite: the Northern Territory Police Force Adelaide : Rigby, 1977