In 1801 one Andrew Doyle of County Kerry in Ireland was arrested.
He was found in possession of the templates for making counterfeit bank notes of the bank of Ireland. He was an artist and put his talents to work in making money. Literally.
Unfortunately hiding those tools of trade in the “convenience” in the bedroom was not good enough to keep them from the prying eyes of the law. A man named Davis gave testimony against him. Andrew later met this man in gaol and with his Irish temper, flogged him. Andrew ended up in solitary confinement.
He was tried, aquitted of “forging and uttering” (Davis’s testimony was found to be unreliabe) but convicted of having in his possession watermarked paper, the property of the bank. He was sentenced to the life of a convict in the new penal colony of Australia. He was subsequently transported on the ship “Rolla” with his young wife Sophia. They sailed via Rio de Janeiro and he was allowed time ashore in that port. Apparently he wasn’t in chains.
In the new colony he put his talents to work again and was regularly sketching and painting the botany of Australia for the governor. Three of those pieces are in the State Libray of NSW, Sydney.
One thing led to another and he ended up with a pardon and a land grant at Baulkam Hills due in no small part to the brilliant negotiation skills of Sophia. Their farm is now known as Sophia Doyle Reserve. They later moved on to the beautiful Hawkesbury River, north west of Sydney. There he had his family and built a house. He named the house Ulitedinburra Lodge. He then built a second house, called Dargle. That house still stands today and is currently owned by Allan Smith and his family, turf farmers. This site is named after one of those homesteads.
“dargledigital” or “ulitedinburraimaging”. Hmm …
From there the Doyles spread out to parts of Sydney, the Hunter Valley, Narrabri and Queensland. For most of the 1800’s the Doyles had huge land holdings.
It is an aim of mine that genealogical and family tree information for the “Hawkesbury Doyles” will find its way onto this site for the purpose of mutual exchange of information and aquaintance of anyone exploring their family tree in or related to that line. A lot of this work is the product of the research done by my father, John Ross Doyle. I am in the process of putting this information into genealogical software that produces lineages for the web. More on this later.
Andrews artistic flair has run in the family since that time with my father having a latent talent. John managed to get a few sketches out from time to time, while working at his main occupations as Chief Marine Engineer and Industrial Arts Teacher.
I also have an undeveloped artistic talent but found the real outlet for expressing my art when I discovered photography. Years ago when I found myself out of work a good friend of mine (Bill Chenery) gave me an old russian made Zenit 35mm film camera and I did a black and white darkroom course with it. I never stopped learning from that point and indeed put a lot of that knowledge to work in the NSW Police Forensic Services Group. I worked out of Newcastle (NSW) as a sworn Crime Scene Investigator for ten years. There are some good stories to tell, having now been in the Australia’s finest for over a quarter of a century. But then again, some things are best left unsaid.
I now pursue photography using digital media when I have time between shifts as a General Duties Shift Supervisor. I sell my services to brides and more information on this can be found on my other website which is geared specifically for brides .. www.weddingstills.com.au
But there is more I want to do and felt the need to start a second site with more freedom to express visual achievement, services and image sales for things other than specifically weddings. It may be the case that one or more of these avenues of digital imaging services may become profitable and we may specialise.
It may also be the case that my son Stephen Doyle may run with and develop this site into a full blown profitable business. He also has that same artistic streak in him and I am very pleased with the progress he is making. In due course he will be making his own contributions to this site. He is already teaching me things and I am encouraging him to be more true to the things he is good at, than doing what I did, chasing employment and denying time for his talent.
Images coming to this page soon.