Amelia Bunbury

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 and merchant, and Matilda Pries (1825 - 1911). She spent her childhood at Prospect Villa in Busselton, which her father had purchased in 1860. 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." Following the death of her husband in 1910, Amelia left Williambury and returned to her family home of Prospect Villa, Busselton. She was featured in The Great North West and its Resources, published 1904. In 1905, her work was featured in the photographic booklet Busselton & District Illustrated, and she exhibited a set of picture postcards in the 1907 Exhibition of Women's Work in Melbourne.

She won multiple photography competitions in the Western Mail, a weekly Western Australian newspaper, with a particular focus on depicting contemporary "station life," but also other topics in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, and 1906. Amelia's photography of Indigenous people has been criticised as being posed in the style "suggested by anthropological photographers of the day," Mervyn Bunbury was a successful racehorse owner with The Brewer, that ran in the Ascot Vale Stakes, and the Alma Stakes. Amelia purchased Spinilly After the death of her husband, Amelia raced the sister horses Beaunilly and Beaufiler in the 1930s. while Beaufiler "won races and at the Perth Cup meeting ran second... in the Railway Stakes" and the Karrakatta Plate. and Beau Vasse who won the Perth cup.

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