Meta Ester Gehling (nee Pech) and her husband Carl Otto Gehling resided at Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory from 1949 to 1956 where Carl worked as the store keeper and book-keeper.

The images in the collection were taken by Brother Oswald (Ossie) Heinrich during Reverend Friedrich Albrecht's (AA 662) expedition to the Petermann Ranges. The expedition and some of the photographs are included in Barbara Henson's, 1994, A straight-out man. FW Albrecht and Central Australian Aborigines., Melbourne University Press. In a note dated 22 July 1992 Helene Burns states that 'Ossie Heinrich' was the photographer and he gave permission for the images to be copied and used by Mrs Gehling. Prof. James Gehling donated a further five slides to the collection in March 2015.