1859, Birmingham, England – 1926, North Stradbroke Island, Qld

Edwin Bode spent his early years in Suffolk in England, migrating to Queensland in 1882 due to respiratory problems. He worked for a time in Ipswich before settling in the hinterland of what is now the Gold Coast. Purchasing 160 acres of land at Maybury Creek, near Canungra, Bode built a small house and planted orange and mandarin trees. His beautifully detailed and meticulously rendered watercolours are important documents of the early history of this region. Bode exhibited regularly with the Queensland Art Society in Brisbane in the 1890s, and in 1913 took up photography and eventually retired to Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island.