Reproduction Print on canvas

Signed on the front.

Ron Marshall painted this scene, inspired by the stories about the gold-mining town of Mount Britton, the original photo of Gibson and his store photographed by John Henry Mills in 1881, and the location –(in which we actually found amongst the grass an old butchers hook!) Ron added the horses and other characters from photos we had collected and taken ourselves of local identities.
This is the story of Gibson’s Store 1881-
Ebenezer Gibson was the first to open a Butcher’s Shop and General store in the pioneer gold town of Mount Britton. He opened for business in April 1881 at the start of the gold-rush, with his goods displayed under a bark, sapling and canvas shelter. When he killed his first beast, the meat-hungry diggers rushed him and bought chunks of meat straight off the carcass. The weight was guessed and paid for in gold. It is said that he did very well indeed from that first beast and within minutes the valley was full of the delicious aroma of sizzling meat. Eb prospered and soon built a bark and sapling store beside his rather open butcher’s shop where he sold a vast variety of goods from mining equipment to flour, boots and buttons. He married in 1883 and within 6 years had 4 children. He rebuilt the store at least 2 more times before leaving Mount Britton in 1902, having served the town for over 20 years. By that time only two families and a few lone prospectors were all that remained of a once thriving community. In this painting a mounted customer and a delivery man are deeply engrossed in their yarn spinning outside Gibson’s store. What are they talking about? Could it be the passing miner’s good luck? He’d been dubbed “Lazy Burgess” by some of the other miners because of his annoying habit of dragging his shovel rather than shouldering it. Now he was the talk of the town because his shovel had snagged among some tree roots, and when he stopped to extricate it, he found that it had unearthed a handsome gold nugget!
This painting is one of 12 paintings called the Mount Britton Collection which we did of the old gold- mining town of Mount Britton, which is about 120km west of Mackay, Queensland.
This print really does make a nostalgic and historic statement as a feature on your wall, and is sure to create interest and a talking point with visitors.