Joseph Pendennis Roff, Photographer
Recently an album of photographs has come to light at the City of Ballarat Library. Librarian Edith Fry dug a little deeper into it and found some great links with Ballarat East.
The Front Cover of the album in the City of Ballarat Library Australiana Research room.
Joseph Pendennis Roff, the photographer, was born in 1887 in Ballarat.
“The artist at home.” J.P Roff. Photo. Ballarat.
The original Roffs owned a men’s clothing store on Main Rd. – I. and J. Roff, Tailers and Clothing Manufacturer. The I. and J. stood for Isaac and Joseph. These two were brothers who migrated in the 1850s from England. Joseph relates in ‘Victoria and its Metropolis’ (Vol IIB, p. 748) that he witnessed most of the occurrences in connection with the Eureka riots. He was a sometime correspondent to the Diggers Advocate. In fact Alfred Black was his lodger and in Withers’ History of Ballarat, Roff recounts that Black ‘slept on the counter’!
Joseph Roff was a Ballarat East Councillor for some time, although did not serve as Mayor. Another relation, Bill Roff, was Mayor of Ballarat in the 1950s.
Joseph Pendennis was descended from Isaac, whose son, also Joseph, married Isabella Ballhausen. Isabella was born in Ballarat in 1865, and she was the daughter of Ernest and Augusta Ballhausen. Ernest was from Hanover, it is possible he and Augusta were married in Germany and came out as a married couple. This makes Augusta Joseph Pendennis’s grandmother, with probably explains the “Dear Mutter” in the flyleaf of the album. The Ballhausens quartz crushing battery was in Main Road near Eureka St.
“Dear Mutter, from your loving grandson.” July 17/05 Ballarat East
Joseph Pendennis Roff does not appear to have married. He died in 1945, sadly when he was an inmate of Lakeside. I haven’t managed to find any more evidence of his career as a photographer. But even this brief scan of the records “embeds” our little album very deeply in the East.
The State Library of New South Wales provides an image of Main Road (incorrectly identified as Mair St) with a zoomable feature. Part of Roff’s store is on the right. This is the link http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.
Here are some more, really interesting, images from the albums. Much thanks to Edith and the City of Ballarat library for the use of these images.
Eureka Stockade. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Sturt Street 7.30am J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Palmer’s Gully, Ballarat East J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat Site of East High School.
Brown Hill from Little Bendigo. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Little Bendigo. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Ballaarat Orphanage. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Sturt St 7.30am. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Public Library & Police Barracks, Ballarat East. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Glimpse of Town Hall Ballarat East. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Glimpse of Town Hall Ballarat East. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Town Hall Ballarat East. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
Craig’s Hotel. J.P. Roff, Photo., Ballarat
A newspaper article pasted into back cover.
What wonderful pictures. I now know the origin of our street Roff street. Thank you for posting the pictures I love the one of the East town Hall. Thank you very much.
How special to have these photographic archives of Ballarat monuments-especially those from the East. A real gem; great stuff.
Fantastic images of our past. Pity that all the instant electronic pix, which are quickly sent to social media, are almost as quickly lost now. Please preserve your special images, by printing and storing them in a cool, dry place.
What a great find. Thank you for sharing