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Unprecedented Floods in Australia claim the Sandy Barrie Collection.

the recent unprecedented floods in the Eastern side of Australia, have had a deviating effect of the Sandy Barrie historical photographic Collection and his research into early Photographers.. there was no warning, and the river just kept rising. until it entered my shed and house, destroying years of restoration work on negative collections and cameras etc. hampering my attempts to rescue what I could, just as the water started to enter my house, I fell in the slippery conditions an breaking my Toxic tail bone, something I repeated a week later... 50 years of collecting and some of the most historic negs and cameras from Queensland history now damaged beyond repair. I did manager to get my computer (androids of hard drives) to higher safety, but on plugging it back in after the clean up, it seems wet cables may have shorted the computers ending that also. Sandy Barrie, Hon LM AIPP.

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Comment by Will Allen on March 28, 2022 at 23:33: I am so very sorry, sorry for you and sorry for the collection. Each of us knows that calamity can strike but we move along certain that it will not strike us. An event like this one, visited on a stranger and also a friend, leaves a sinking feeling. We are vulnerable. I am so terribly sorry for your personal and professional loss and likely for the loss of other personal items.

Comment by Nino Francesco Manci on March 21, 2022 at 17:37: That’s heartbreaking to hear Sandy. I don’t know you personally, but all fellow collectors who read your story must understand how devastating the loss of all your loving care and research into the history of photography, must be. Have you had an expert look at your hat drive? It’s amazing what can be salvaged.
All of us photographic collectors hold unique insights into the world as it once was. Hopefully through our collections we can pass on these moments in time to future generations. Once again I’m so sorry to hear what has happened to you, and hope in some way you can still find pleasure in things to come…

Comment by Sandy Barrie on March 21, 2022 at 13:59: yes, sadly again. no warning at all. and this time it devastated all the years of work recovering named items from the 2011 flood. sadly this is the end for me as well.