The Sutherland Fall Expedition, Milford Sound, October 1888

When the explorer Donald Sutherland claimed in 1880 to have seen a waterfall near Milford Sound between 4000 and 5000 feet high, it was dismissed as a wildly exaggerated traveller’s tale. But subsequent sightings fuelled the rumour that the world’s highest waterfall was to be found in the Fiordland wilds. In 1888, Otago’s Chief Surveyor, CW Adams, mounted an expedition to put the matter to rest – and to survey a walking route that would, it was hoped, open the area to tourism. He was accompanied by two parties, each of three photographers, from rival studios Burton Brothers and Morris & Co.

Despite this photograph’s harmonious-looking staging, there were strong tensions within the group. Adams was irritated by the photographers’ presence; he appears seated in the boat with his head resting on one hand, a decidedly reluctant subject. Posing had its physical trials as well. An assistant with the Morris group wrote that ‘on account of the sandflies … between exposures a chorus of slaps and blessings found a lively interlude’(1). The experience will be familiar to the hundreds of thousands who have since walked the Milford Track and marvelled at the falls – still impressive at 1904 feet (580 metres), though not as tall as Sutherland’s claims.

1. JM Forrester, ‘A terra incognita: Expedition to Sutherland Falls’, Oamaru Mail, 1 November 1888, p. 3.