Amelia Bunbury Explained

Amelia Bunbury née Pries
Birth Date:1863
Birth Place:Western Australia, Australia
Death Date:1956
Death Place:Bunbury, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation:Australian horse breeder, photographer, sculptor, and botanical collector
Yearsactive:1894–1895 (botanical collector), 1900-1909 (wood carving), 1901-1910 (photography),

Amelia Matilda Richardson Pries Bunbury (1863–1956), better known as Amelia Bunbury, was a noted photographer, furniture carver, horse breeder, and botanical collector based in south-west and north-west Western Australia.

Life

Amelia Matilda Richardson Pries was born in Western Australia to Robert Ferdinand Pries (1821-1905), horse breeder[1] and merchant,[2] and Matilda Pries (1825 - 1911).[3] She spent her childhood at Prospect Villa in Busselton, which her father had purchased in 1860.[4] Amelia eventually inherited the property and at her death in 1956, "the house was still furnished with much of the period furniture that the Pries family had brought out from England."

In 1897, Amelia married Mervyn Corry Richardson-Bunbury (1858-1910), and they moved to remote Williambury station, near Minilya in north-western Western Australia.[5] Following the death of her husband in 1910, Amelia left Williambury and returned to her family home of Prospect Villa, Busselton. She died in Perth, at the age of 93 in 1956.

Photography and furniture carving

After her move to Williambury, Amelia started to publish photographs in the Western Mail and other publications under the pseudonym Coyarre, including images of Indigenous people.[6] She was featured in The Great North West and its Resources, published 1904.[7] In 1905, her work was featured in the photographic booklet Busselton & District Illustrated,[8] and she exhibited a set of picture postcards in the 1907 Exhibition of Women's Work in Melbourne. Examples of Amelia's photography are held by the State Library of Western Australia.[9]

She won multiple photography competitions in the Western Mail, a weekly Western Australian newspaper,[10] with a particular focus on depicting contemporary "station life," but also other topics in 1900,[11] 1901,[12] 1902,[13] 1904,[14] 1905,[15] and 1906.[16] Amelia's photography of Indigenous people has been criticised as being posed in the style "suggested by anthropological photographers of the day," that was created under "the instructions of the white woman in authority."

In the first decade of the 1900s, Amelia studied woodcarving at the Perth Technical School, who decorated her home with her hand-carved furniture.

Horse breeding and racing

Amelia's father and husband were interested in horse breeding, and she herself rode horses until she was 83 years old.[17] Mervyn Bunbury was a successful racehorse owner with The Brewer,[18] that ran in the Ascot Vale Stakes,[19] and the Alma Stakes.Amelia purchased Spinilly After the death of her husband, Amelia raced the sister horses Beaunilly and Beaufiler in the 1930s. Beaunilly who won the Belmont Guineas and Western Australian Derby,[20] [21] while Beaufiler "won races and at the Perth Cup meeting ran second... in the Railway Stakes"[22] and the Karrakatta Plate. She bred Beaufine who won the Railway stakes. Beaunilly foaled Glonilly who won the Intervening Handicap in January 1954,[23] and Beau Vasse who won the Perth cup. Beauambury won the First Maiden Handicap in Perth in 1950.[24]

When her death was announced in 1956, Amelia Bunbury was described as "one of Australia's oldest racehorse owners," and the "'Grandma' of turf."

Botanical collecting

Amelia's family were keen botanical collectors. Her mother, father, and brothers Arthur Robert Pries (1850-1908) and Edward Adolphus Pries (1852-1916) corresponded with Ferdinand von Mueller and contributed to his botanical collection, that were incorporated into the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Her husband Mervyn may have also collected herbarium specimens for Mueller at Gascoyne River and Shark Bay.[25] She collected specimens at Geographe Bay in 1896, and her specimens are now cared for at herbaria including the National Herbarium of Victoria, the National Herbarium of New South Wales and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.[26] [27]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Richardson-Bunbury, Amelia Matlida (née Pries) (1863 - 1956). 3 February 2015. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Australian National Herbarium, Biographical Notes. Australian National Herbarium. 2 December 2022.
  2. Web site: Prospect Villa. 30 July 2019. inHerit. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, Government of Western Australia. 2 December 2022.
  3. Web site: Pries, Matilda (nee Peek/Peck) (1825 - 1911). 23 January 2015. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Australian National Herbarium, Biographical Notes. Australian National Herbarium. 2 December 2022.
  4. Web site: Register of Heritage Places: Assessment Documentation. inHerit. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, Government of Western Australia. 2 December 2022.
  5. Web site: Bunbury, Amelia (1863 - 1956). November 2020. The Australian Women's Register. Australian Women's Archives Program. 2 December 2022.
  6. Book: Hall . Barbara . Mather . Jenni . 1986 . Australian women photographers, 1840-1960 . Richmond . Greenhouse . . 0864360398.
  7. News: The Great North-west . . Western Australia . 1 December 1904 . 2 December 2022 . 1 . National Library of Australia.
  8. News: Advertising . . II . 64 . Western Australia . 20 January 1905 . 2 December 2022 . 4 . National Library of Australia.
  9. Web site: Pictorial collection name: Williambury Station, Blackwood River and Busselton. Collection number: BA1980. 2016. JS Battye Library of West Australian History Collection. State Library of Western Australia. 2 December 2022.
  10. News: MR. MATHESON'S TRIP. . . V . 211 . Western Australia . 4 September 1909 . 2 December 2022 . 4 . National Library of Australia.
  11. News: "WESTERN MAIL" CHRISTMAS NUMBER. . . 16 . 4,605 . Western Australia . 8 December 1900 . 2 December 2022 . 5 . National Library of Australia.
  12. News: "WESTERN MAIL" CHRISTMAS COMPETITION. . . 17 . 4,904 . Western Australia . 23 November 1901 . 2 December 2022 . 8 . National Library of Australia.
  13. News: "WESTERN MAIL" CHRISTMAS NUMBER. . . 5,213 . Western Australia . 22 November 1902 . 2 December 2022 . 12 . National Library of Australia.
  14. News: CHRISTMAS NUMBER OF WESTERN MAIL. . . XIX . 987 . Western Australia . 26 November 1904 . 2 December 2022 . 32 . National Library of Australia.
  15. News: WESTERN MAI' CHRISTMAS NUMBER. . . XX . 1,040 . Western Australia . 2 December 1905 . 2 December 2022 . 44 . National Library of Australia.
  16. News: "WESTERN MAIL." . . X[?]II . 6,453 . Western Australia . 24 November 1906 . 2 December 2022 . 11 . National Library of Australia.
  17. News: 'Grandma' of turf dies, 93 . . Victoria, Australia . 7 November 1956 . 2 December 2022 . 21 . National Library of Australia.
  18. News: OBITUARY. . . XXV . 1,256 . Western Australia . 22 January 1910 . 2 December 2022 . 33 . National Library of Australia.
  19. Web site: Ascot Vale Stakes. Donnelly. Robert. 25 August 2021. The Colours of Horse Racing. 2 November 2022.
  20. News: Beaunilly's Nice Win in Guineas . . 9 . 474 . Western Australia . 8 November 1930 . 2 December 2022 . 2 . National Library of Australia.
  21. News: PART-TIME TRAINER'S PERTH CUP WIN . . 66 . 19,800 . Western Australia . 2 January 1950 . 2 December 2022 . 9 . National Library of Australia.
  22. News: BEAUFILER WILL RACE HERE . . 19,627 . Victoria, Australia . 12 April 1940 . 2 December 2022 . 18 . National Library of Australia.
  23. News: Tulloh Scores on Lucky Mount . . 60 . 16706 . Western Australia . 25 January 1954 . 2 December 2022 . 11 . National Library of Australia.
  24. News: Mrs. Bunbury Scores Again . . LXVIII . 23,620 . Western Australia . 26 December 1950 . 2 December 2022 . 8 (CITY) . National Library of Australia.
  25. Web site: Bunbury, Diana Richardson (1811 - 1898). 20 November 2014. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Australian National Herbarium, Biographical Notes. Australian National Herbarium. 2 December 2022.
  26. Maroske . S. . Vaughan . A. . 2014 . Ferdinand Mueller’s female plant collectors: a biographical register. . Muelleria . 32. 92–172 . 29 November 2022.
  27. Web site: Amelia Bunbury. Bionomia. David P. Shorthouse. 2 December 2022.

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