Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee

Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee immigrated to Australia from India in the early 1860s. In 1863 he settled in Ipswich and established a studio on the corner of Bell and Union Streets specialising in studio portraits.

Poochee's business was well patronised by Ipswich, however his panoramic portrait of the rapidly growing town was commissioned by an English printing firm. It was to be copied as a lithograph and reproduced in a book titled Short Sea Route to Australia. This print of Panorama of Ipswich was presented by the photographer to the Mayor of Ipswich in 1865.

Many of Ipswich's well-known heritage landmarks are clearly visible in Poochee's panorama, including from left to right:

Goolawan, the imposing mid-Victorian Cribb family residence on Denmark Hill, Limestone Hill covered in scattered tailings from the limestone kiln of the convict era St Stephen's Presbyterian Church Claremont, a late Georgian homestead by the river School of Arts building (today the Ipswich Art Gallery) the original iron railway bridge built in 1865 to carry Queensland's first railway across the Bremer River and link Ipswich with Grandchester.