Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa c.1847
by an unknown artist
daguerreotype
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816-1878) was a merchant, shipbuilder, wool broker and pioneer of the technique of freezing meat for export. Mort arrived in NSW from England in 1838, and by 1843 had established the colony's main wool auction house. He soon took on export consignments, stock and station agencies, railway promotion, mining and sugar cultivation. While funding refrigeration experiments in the 1860s and 70s, he also established a dry dock at Balmain, where he progressed from shipbuilding to locomotive production and general engineering. In 1875 Mort established the New South Wales Fresh Food and Ice Company, and the engineering concern became Goldsbrough, Mort & Co. in 1888. The first consignments of frozen meat were shipped from Australia in 1879, the year after Mort died. Theresa, who married Mort in Sydney in 1841, died in 1869.

Daguerreotypes were used from 1840s - 1860s. An expensive and painstaking process involving a very long exposure time (up to half an hour), the image was inscribed on metal. The resulting photograph is a small object usually presented under glass in an ornate case: a single image which could not be reproduced.

A Study in Entrepreneurial Initiative

1816: Thomas Mort born in England.
1838: Mort arrives in Sydney, employed as clerk by Aspinall Browne & Co.
1841: Marries Theresa Shepheard Laidley, daughter of late Deputy Commissary-General James Laidley.
Marriage: 1841 - 1869. Theresa bears Thomas eight children. They share 28 happy years together. Theresa is "a devoted wife and tower of strength, encouragement, and companionship" [1]
1843: Commences business as an auctioneer, firstly in general merchandise and increasingly pastoral produce.
1845: Begins exporting preserved meat to England.
1848: Begins auctioning pastoral stations and stock.
1849: Associated with formation of AMP Society, Australia's first private company.
1850: Foundation member of the Sydney Exchange co. Active in anti-transportation movement. Advocates increasing immigration.
1852: Begins mining interests, forming the Great Nugget Vein Gold Mining Co.
1853 -6: Becomes wealthy from pastoral land speculation during inflationary cycle. The Mort family shares and enjoys their wealth. Their Darling Point mansion includes an art gallery, its prize gardens open to the public.
1854: Mort's dock at Balmain begun. The dock expands and diversifies over time to become engineering business with brass and iron foundries, tin smelting etc.
1860 - 4: Prepares Bodalla as a dairy-farming enterprise.
1861-4: Campaigns to encourage production of silk, cotton and maize.
1862: Forms Waratah Coal Co., Peak Downs Copper Mining Co. and Western Shale Co.
1860's -70's: Supports refrigeration experiments initiated by Nicolle and Morris.
1869: Theresa Mort dies, leaving Thomas shocked and bewildered.
1870: Delivers first locomotives completely manufactured in the colony.
1871: Active in forming the NSW Academy of Fine Arts.
1872: Construction of Darling Harbour freezing works.
1874: Mort marries Marianne Macaulay, who bears him two sons.
1875: First supply of refrigerated country milk to Sydney.
1878: Thomas Mort dies at Bodalla.
1879: First consignments of frozen meat shipped from Australia.

[1] Vision and Profits: Studies in the Business Career of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, by Alan Barnard, Melbourne University Press, 1961