Diana Baker Smith
Long ago, there came to this place a man from Ireland who had a great fear of snakes
2026
Archival pigment print on cotton rag, 50.8 × 76.2 cm

When he arrived he took one hundred acres of land for himself and built a home by the harbour
2026
Archival pigment print on cotton rag, 50.8 × 76.2 cm

This ongoing photographic series draws on the story of Irish convict Henry Browne Hayes, who in the early nineteenth century reportedly shipped more than one hundred tonnes of Irish peat, bog and soil to Sydney and laid it in a trench around his house at Vaucluse.

Photographed at Vaucluse House, the works pair images of the site with fragments of historical accounts, tracing the movement of stories, materials and colonial beliefs between Ireland and Australia.

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This project was developed through the Vaucluse House Creative and Cultural Residency Program with Museums of History NSW

Diana Baker Smith, A Colonial Habit of Growth, 2026. Installation view, Sydenham International. Photo: Katherine Lu.