Lost Faces of Warwick

CHARLES ('PLUM') JOHANSON

'Plum' with his camera, thought to be a Dallmeyer. (Date unknown.)

Charles Edward ('Plum') Johanson was born at Farm Creek near Warwick on 1 February 1887, the first of nine children of pioneering Scandinavian immigrants, Eric Hendrick ('Red'*) Johanson (1856-1931) and Anna Andersson (1858-1939).

Anna and 'Red' met and married in Australia and were pioneer farmers at Emu Vale near Warwick and later in the Swanfels Valley. They lived with their four sons and five daughters in a small farmhouse with a dirt floor while they farmed, supplementing their food supply by shooting and fishing in the local hills and water holes.

'Plum' attended school at Emu Vale and Swanfels, before leaving school at the age of 12 to work on the family farm with his father. He later worked as a timber-getter but eventually became a farmer, acquiring his own selection where he built a shed to use as his darkroom. He grew crops and developed a fascination for bees and honey, later operating the Woodbine Apiaries. He died on 13 January 1969, at the age of 82. 

Young 'Plum' Johansen (date unknown)

'Plum' is thought to have been introduced to photography by a travelling portrait photographer when he was 21. His first darkroom was his bedroom, lit only by a kerosene lamp, where he learnt about exposure and processing techniques by trial and error. The superb quality of his photographs is testimony to his creative efforts, both technically and artistically.

More than 400 of his half-plate glass negatives have survived and today are part of David Glasgow's photographic collection. They reveal much about the life of local families, farming, housing, dress, transport, recreation and life in general in the Swanfels Valley in the first half of the 20th century.

'Plum' took this photograph of his cousins, the Zackerison brothers, at Top Creek Camp on Bauer's Mountain at Swanfels, probably in 1909. The message written on the tent flap is reproduced below - with their original spelling. Charles (L) and Oscar evidently had a lively sense of humour!

Blowies Rest

NOTICE

To hums and lofers. The owners of this establishment wants it distinctly understood that this is no harbour for hums ore lofers and any one found sleeping, dining ore otherwise trespassing on the above premises without a written permit from the owners will be prosecuted and libel to a heavy penalty which we will very severely deal to them. By order. Blowies Rest. July 4th 1909. Chas. E. Johansen. Chas. F. Zackerisen.

Wanted known.

Two young men. One with a cork eye. The other with a glass leg. Want a young woman to house keep. They don't smoke or drink and are pretty good looking. Apply inside.

Zacherison family members and their neighbours, the Smiths.

Oscar Zackerison is using a 'Forest Devil' tree puller in 1911. The advertisement below was published in that year.

Albert Evans and Rupert Binny who worked a team of horses on the Johanson farm in 1912.

Swanfels Valley early 1900s (colorised 2021)

NOTE: The Queensland Department of Primary Industries published a video: Charles 'Plum' Johansen: a Looking Glass into Our Rural Past on 31 Dec 2002. ISBN10 0734502079. It is available from the State Library of Queensland.

*Eric Johanson may have been given the nickname 'Red' because of the famous Norse explorer, Erik Thorvaldsson (c. 950 – c. 1003). He was known as Erik the Red and in Medieval sagas is credited with founding the first settlement in Greenland. He was probably called "the Red" because of the color of his hair and beard.