David Hazlewood

Notes:

Rex Hazlewood?s father, David, was a keen amateur photographer and fostered the same passion in his son. Rex spent two years in country New South Wales as student pastor and took numerous photographs of the areas around Yeoval, Manildra and Molong, where he was based.
He also began taking photographs of churches of his own and other denominations in the suburbs of Concord and Epping. His ministry ended in late 1911 when he began working as a professional photographer.
On his return to Sydney in 1911, he took many photographs of the areas around his family home in Epping ? including several series of the new developments in the north western suburbs, government works and the newly-built Central Markets (now Paddy?s Markets) in the city.
His photographs recall the farming days of Sydney?s outer suburbs, including fruit-growing in Epping and timber-hauling in Carlingford. Some time between 1911 and 1916, Rex Hazlewood began to identify himself as a professional photographer and he appears to have gained several contracts to record the progress of large government building projects. He was the first to record the construction of the Commonwealth Government?s first wireless station at Pennant Hills, then the State Brick Works and Timber-Yard, and later many other industrial sites in the Strathfield-Ryde district.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 and left for England in 1917. During WWI Rex served in the first AIF. He served at the Western Front, and at the end of 1918 he was appointed an official war photographer until his return to Australia in 1919.
After the War, he recommenced his professional career, setting up a studio at Epping. His subsequent work included over 2,000 colour photos taken on an extended trip to Europe and Britain. When he died in March 1968, his photographic collection passed to his family, who donated over 1,000 of these, mainly glass-plate, negatives to the Mitchell Library.
In 1995 his son Laurance published a monograph on Hazelwood, inspired by the many researchers, especially local historians, using his photographs. As well as a biography and the reproduction of a selection of his early photographs, it includes an index to the photographs in the Mitchell Library.
--Pittwater Online News

David married Emma Roberta Kendall on 19 Jun 1920 in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia. Emma was born on 20 Jul 1895 in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia; died on 12 Jun 1973 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ann ?. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]