The early photographs of Melbourne by Charles Nettleton have remained in the archives of the State Library of Victoria unseen and unpublished until now. This volume represents a selection from those archives but also a celebration of Nettleton’s masterful techniques in the collodion photographic process when plates had to be developed immediately after exposure. Arriving from his native England at the age of 28 in 1854, he became of Melbourne’s premier photographers, eventually becoming special photographer for the government and the Melbourne Corporation recording the city’s growth from a small town to a metropolis.