Photograph of a group of fern trees amongst other trees in Ferntree Gully, outside Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. On the right of the centre, stands a man who appears as if in miniature amongst the huge fern trees. 

Ferntree Gully is a suburb of Melbourne and was established in 1880. It's sister suburb is Belgrave. This photograph is attributed to Nicholas John Caire (1837-1918) and is also known by the title The Fairy Scene, Black Spur; a title that was perhaps inspired by the image's ethereal beauty. Caire produced another photograph of dense ferns taken in the Ferntree Gully area near to the summit of Black Spur, titled Fern Bridge Gully, Black Spur. During the nineteenth century, the demand for photographs of ferns was very popular. This popularity reached such height that the word 'pteridomania' was used to describe the passion for the plant. To the nineteenth century viewer, ferns connected their world to the Jurassic and writers, artists and photographers like Caire were inspired to draw a link between ferns and the spiritual and prehistoric world.  

The 'Black Spur' was the road travelled by displaced Indigenous Australians who were sent to Corranderk Reserve until it was closed in 1924. Caire collaborated with the German born photographer John William Lindt (1845-1926) to produce a booklet of the area for tourists in 1913.

This is a photograph from one of the nine albums compiled following Prince Albert Victor (1864-92) and Prince George of Wales' (1865-1936) world tour aboard HMS Bacchante from 1879 to 1882. The photographs were collected by their chaperon and tutor, John Neale Dalton.

The majority of the images in these albums are topographical views and architectural studies, loosely arranged according to the group’s itinerary. They include photographs of artefacts, local people and public figures, as well as portraits of the princes taken during the tour. The attempt to recreate the experience of a journey through such an assortment of images is common to many amateur travelling albums of this period. In 1886, some of the photographs in the albums were reproduced as engravings in the published accounts of the voyage, The Cruise of Her Majesty's Ship Bacchante, 1879-1882.