Up until 1886, the access to the main Melbourne docks was by the natural course of the Yarra River. Fisherman's Bend was a notorious location for ships to run aground causing the ship traffic to be backed up. The scene is of the grounded ship NEMESIS blocking the Yarra with another ship is under tow by a paddle wheel tug. Behind the towed ship is a line of waiting vessels.
 
Published in The Illustrated Australian News. 1884.
 
Artist. J. Macfarlane.
 
Wood engraving.
 
213 x 302 mm.
 
Wood engravings were first produced in Europe in the fifteenth century. During the late eighteenth century the process was reintroduced and used for inexpensive illustrated books. The nineteenth century publishing phenomena of the illustrated newspaper was made possible by use of the technique. The process allowed for the illustration and the text to be printed by a single pass through the printing press using the letterpress method.  It also made it possible for several engravers or even a team to produce and work on a single illustration at the same time.

All the major artists of the period contributed to the illustrations. Some papers acknowledged the artists on the plates but The Australasian Sketcher appears to have had a policy of anonymity. Where known, we have included the artist’s name.