Early Lorne Photographers

The Lorne Historical Society is fortunate to have a collection of photographs from several photographers who ran businesses in Lorne, particularly during holiday seasons, to capture scenes that bring the times and people back for our appreciation.

William “Toggy” Anderson

William Anderson who had a  studio down near Erskine River and was assisted by his youthful son, Harold. Anderson had a nursery at Montrose on the way from Melbourne to the Dandenong Ranges and came to Lorne only for the summer season. Harold rode a motor bike and he seemed to be able to negotiate the rough tracks on it. In this way he could reach tourists at their appointed luncheon rendezvous. Harold was useful in gathering firewood and there was always ample food for his lunch. Having secured his photographic shots Harold would return to the studio to process the photos. After dinner on the same night he would be at the Hotel or guesthouse with the proofs of those shots and take orders and deliver the photographs the next day.

A E Jarratt

Albert Ellingworth Jarratt was born in 1886 at Ruby near Leongatha in Gippsland. One of the youngest in a large family with eleven boys and two girls. They ran a butcher shop and farm, some of the older boys worked in the timber industry, others on the farm and in the shop. Albert went to the Ruby State School and, as was fairly normal at that time, he left at an early age to help at home. Fortunately the schoolmaster, a Mr Mead took an interest in his further education and taught him about electricity and photography.

He became a competent photographer and was able to get a job with a postcard publishing company in Melbourne. This entailed travelling to beauty spots all over Victoria. Much of it on foot and he remembered that he walked from Woods Point to Walhalla carrying a heavy camera and a supply of the big glass plates used for negatives in those days.

In 1908 he was sent down to Lorne and was so full of admiration for the beauty of the town and its surroundings that he gave up his job and set up business in Lorne in 1910. His shop and darkroom with dwelling behind was where Davey O’Neill had his bootmaking business at 44 Mountjoy Parade. In those early days Albert concentrated on selling photographs of Lorne and taking group photographs of visitors at the various beauty spots. (Erskine Falls, Allenvale, Phantom Falls). Hiking in the bush was very popular. A.E.Jarratt and Toggy Anderson (his opposition) used to arrive at the various falls at lunch time to take the photos, then race back to Lorne, process the result and try to have proofs at the various guest houses when the hiking parties returned. Later as amateur photography became more popular he began processing films.

J.W. Lindt

Wikipedia photo

John William Lindt was a German-born Australian photographer who visited Lorne and recorded many great images.

(LHS photo 4582)

 

John Norman

Photography was an early, lucrative spin-off from Lorne’s long-established tourist industry. And a pioneer of the holiday snap business was talented photographer and early electrical engineer John S Norman.

Norman setup his mobile studio on the banks of the lower Erskine River in 1881, producing photographs of well-heeled holidaymakers who flocked from Melbourne and Geelong to spend summer in Lorne’s grand hotels and guesthouses. The tourist photographer was a pioneer in an another illuminating field – providing Lorne with electrical lighting.

George Rose

George Rose, who put Victorian holiday spots on the map with his popular postcard series. The Rose Stereograph Company was started by George Rose in 1880 and went into liquidation in 2017. George Rose travelled Australia to take thousands of photographs on glass half-plate negatives, including many scenes from around Lorne.

The company manufactured stereographs, the first three-dimensional pictures, at his  factory at High Street Armidale. By 1906 the company had progressed into the Rose series of picture postcards. George died at the age of 81 in 1941, leaving the business to Mr Bert Cutts who carried on the business through the war years. Eventually moving to produce colour postcards. In 1947 the company moved to Glen Waverley  and employed eleven staff and by 1967 went to 100% colour production.

Sources:

  1. Lorne Historical Society Collections
  2. Geelong Advertiser. 6 July 1996, Picture The Past article by Bernie Slattery.
  3. A VISIT TO LORNE IN 1916. written in 1968-69. S.F.KELLOCK.
  4. The Rose Stereograph Company: a snapshot
  5. Waverley Gazette 30 April 1980