People/pickeringalfred.html

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Alfred Pickering

Alfred Pickering grew up in Sydney. He was taking photographs at Perth and Fremantle (WA) about 1900, perhaps on his way back to England, where he is thought to have spent his last years.

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Claremont river beach near the Osborne Hotel steps (the caption reads 'Osborne Beach') c. 1895-1900, courtesy SLWA (from Facebook). Photograph by Alfred Pickering. Click/tap for larger size to see the steps in the middle background, with the Osborne Hotel tower on the central skyline.

Osborne Hotel c. 1895, courtesy of SLWA # 011534D (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

Design and Art Australia:
Alfred Pickering was a professional photographer who was one of the seven children of Charles Percy Pickering. He would have learned photography under Pickering senior at Brickfield Hill and was connected with his father’s Sydney studio under his own name in 1866-71 while visiting country towns from time to time. Through this connection Alfred was subsequently to advertise himself (in country towns after 1873) as 'late photographer to the Government of New South Wales’. For some time he specialised in photographing tombstones. At the time of his first known public appearance, on 9 June 1866, he was carrying out orders for tombstone photographs at Newtown (Camperdown) Cemetery and advising those who wished to have their family tombs recorded to leave orders at (C.P.) Pickering’s Portrait Rooms, Brickfield Hill. This appears to have been most successful, for the following month Alfred ran a general advertisement: 'VIEWS of Tomb Stones taken in any of the Burial Grounds. Please leave your orders at PICKERING’S Portrait Rooms, where specimens may be seen. N.B.—Views of buildings, &c.’

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Perth City Baths, 1899? courtesy SLWA call number # BA533/215 (from Facebook). v Click/tap for larger size.

Design and Art Australia continues:
In April 1868 Alfred Pickering was on his way to Windsor and Richmond to execute orders for tombstone photographs there, advertising that during his few days’ stay he would 'be glad to take views of residences or tombs of the families in the neighbourhood’. Orders could be left with Mr Dwyer of George Street, Windsor. After his father’s Sydney studio was sold up in late 1871, Alfred became a full-time travelling photographer in rural New South Wales, exhibiting a collection of his views with the Agricultural Society of NSW in 1873. From 27 February to the end of March 1874 he was taking portraits in a gallery at the rear of Spratt’s saddlery in Crawford Street, Queanbeyan, and he returned for further work in May-June. As well as taking likenesses and offering carte-de-visite portraits at 1s each of Archbishop Vaughan (the recently appointed Roman Catholic coadjutor to Archbishop Polding in Sydney), Pickering was inevitably offering to photograph tombstones in any cemetery within a 10 mile radius of town. Two years later he took the earliest-known extant panorama of Queanbeyan.
The Pickering of McLean & Pickering, a 'Flying Studio’ which travelled around rural New South Wales in the 1880s, must have been Alfred. He also worked in Victoria for a time, a carte-de-visite being noted by Davies and Stanbury from Alfred Pickering & Son’s School of Photography at 263 Camberwell Road, Melbourne. He was taking photographs at Perth and Fremantle (WA) about 1900, perhaps on his way back to England, where he is thought to have spent his last years. His wife, Margaret, died at Blyth, Northumberland in December 1905, but it is not known where or when Alfred Pickering died. Nor is there any record of his tombstone.

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Short and Long Jetties, c. 1881-1897, courtesy of SLWA BA533/184 (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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Long Jetty c. 1895-1905. Photo courtesy of SLWA 011527D (Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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Boy sitting on a mast on the Long Jetty c. 1895-1905, courtesy of SLWA # 011527D (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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High Street Fremantle from the Henry Street corner looking east towards the Town Hall, c. 1897, courtesy of SLWA # 011525D (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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View east from the second lighthouse on Arthur Head, 1899, courtesy of SLWA # 3881B/102 (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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The Harbour Trust office, C.Y. O'Connor's workplace, with the river entrance, c. 1900-05, courtesy of SLWA # 012479D (from Facebook). Click/tap for larger size.

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'Old Barracks', Perth (Pensioner Barracks, St George's Terrace), SLWA photo 011486D (posted to Facebook)

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Palace Hotel Perth, 1897, courtesy SLWA, call number 011469D (Facebook). The man on the corner is holding a board apparently with an announcement about Commandant Booth, perhaps advertising a talk by the leader of the Salvation Army. He was in Perth from 14 August 1897. (West Australian, 16 August 1897: 6)

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Perth Presbyterian Church, c. 1900?, courtesy SLWA # 011515D (from Facebook).

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Saint George's Cathedral, Perth , c. 1895-1900, courtesy SLWA # 011514D (from Facebook).

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Wesley Church Hay Street Perth, c. 1907-1910, courtesy SLWA # 011513D (from Facebook).

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Hannan Street Kalgoorlie, 1899, with the PO clocktower under construction, courtesy SLWA # 011554D (from Facebook).

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(King's) Park pavilion, c. 1900, courtesy SLWA # 013910PD (from Facebook).

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St George's Terrace looking west from the tower of the Palace Hotel, c. 1898, courtesy SLWA # BA533/1 (from Facebook).

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St George's Terrace, Jubilee Day 22 June 1897, courtesy SLWA # 011492D (from Facebook).

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Queen's Birthday review, Perth Esplanade, 1898, courtesy SLWA, call number 011503D (from Facebook).

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Mill Point, South Perth, c. 1900-1905, courtesy SLWA, call number 011503D (from Facebook).

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Mounts Bay Road, Perth, c. 1900-1905, courtesy SLWA, call number 011507D (from Facebook).

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Asylum for Old Men, Mounts Bay Road, formerly a convict hiring depot, c. 1900, courtesy SLWA, call number 3881B/58 (from Facebook).

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Asylum for Old Men, Mounts Bay Road, formerly a convict hiring depot, c. 190-, courtesy SLWA, call number o11485D (from Facebook).

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Observatory, Kings Park, c. 1896-1900, courtesy SLWA, call number 011494D (from Facebook).

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Swan Brewery, Perth, c. 1900-1910, courtesy SLWA, call number 014019PD (from Facebook).

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From boat shed, Perth, W.A., courtesy SLWA, call number 011491D (from Facebook).

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'Starting the trams', Hay Street Perth, 1899, courtesy SLWA, call number BA533/6 (from Facebook).

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Avon Terrace York, c. 1900, courtesy SLWA, call number BA533/316 (from Facebook).

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York Catholic Church, c. 1886-1890, courtesy SLWA, call number 011517D (from Facebook).

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Railway luggage yard, Perth, c. 1895-1905, courtesy SLWA # 011530D (from Facebook).

References and Links

Design and Art Australia.

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This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 15 December, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/pickeringalfred.html (it was last updated on 18 December, 2020), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.