You can journey back to the bustling post-gold rush days when the city of Orange was developing out of Blackmans Swamp thanks to a rare exhibition of some famous photographs on now at the Orange Regional Museum.

Museum manager Alison Russell said the eight images were part of 3500 glass plate negatives taken by photographers Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss who travelled around NSW and Victoria in the early 1870s after teaming up with German philanthropist Bernharrdt Otto Holtermann.

She said Mr Holtermann became an overnight celebrity after discovering the world’s largest specimen of reef gold at Hill End in 1872.

Ms Russell said the Orange images were taken between 1872 and 1875.

“The images show glimpses of a prosperous town growing in size due to the gold rush and increasing value of agricultural land in the region,” she said.

“Photographs show the site for Robertson Park, still a swamp before it was planted with deciduous trees and Summer Street, as it was during the 1870s, featuring the Dalton Bros store and its competitor Nelson Bros just across the road.

“The stores’ namesakes James Dalton and Benjamin Nelson were both significant figures in the development of the town.

“The original Post Office and hospital have long since been replaced by modern buildings,” she said.

You can pick up the Holtermann Trail brochure at the Visitors Information Centre and tour the locations in the 1870s photos.