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 photographic series is part of a body of works drawing 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. Believing Irish soil would repel snakes, Hayes attempted to protect the property by surrounding it with earth from Ireland.

Photographed at Vaucluse House, the works pair images of the site with fragments drawn from historical accounts, rumour and speculation, tracing how stories, materials and beliefs travelled between Ireland and Australia and became inscribed in the landscape.

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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.