Spurling photographers of Tasmania (variant spelling)
Four members of the Spurling family, across three generations, worked as photographers in Tasmania from the mid-19th century until 1941. Stephen Spurling II (1847–1924) ran a leading Launceston studio. His son Stephen Spurling III (1876–1962) pioneered Tasmanian wilderness photography, and Tasmania's Mount Spurling bears the family name.
Sourcing: strong 3 reference
Spurling is a separate but closely related surname (see Spurlin spelling variants).
The Spurling family of Tasmania produced four photographers across three generations. They were Stephen Spurling I (1821–1892), his sons Stephen II (1847–1924) and Frederick (1850–1942), and Stephen II's son Stephen III (1876–1962).[1] Their photographs are held by the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Tasmania, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston and many other collections in Australia and abroad.[2][3]
Stephen Spurling I and Frederick Spurling
When his son Stephen II was born in Hobart Town in 1847, Stephen Spurling I was a clerk in the Convict Department of Van Diemen's Land. He later moved to the Lands and Survey Department and then became a photographer.[3] The Companion to Tasmanian History describes his known work as "rather primitive portraiture".[1] Frederick worked in his father's Hobart studio in the 1860s and 1870s and ran his own studio at Fingal from 1924 to 1937.[1]
Stephen Spurling II
Stephen II was born in Hobart Town on 7 May 1847. In 1863 he went with his family to New Zealand, then worked in a bakery in Bendigo before returning to his father's studio in Hobart.[3] He married Julia Emily Long in 1873 and soon moved to Launceston, where he opened a studio. It moved to 83 Brisbane Street in March 1878.[3] He specialized in portraits but also photographed early railway accidents, reputedly using a train carriage as a mobile darkroom.[1][3] Around 1879 he imported what were reputedly the first dry plates used in Australia. In 1886 he made a nine-plate, 360-degree panorama of Launceston 2.4 metres long.[3] His photographs of mining at Beaconsfield and Mount Bischoff were shown at the 1888 Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne and the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris.[3] He was the first Launceston photographer to light his studio with electricity, and he campaigned for copyright law in Tasmania.[3] He died at his Launceston home on 5 February 1924.[3]
Stephen Spurling III
Stephen III was born in Launceston on 28 October 1876 and started work in his father's studio in 1893. In 1902 father and son formed a partnership and moved to purpose-built premises at 93 Brisbane Street.[2] To meet demand for landscape views he made increasingly difficult treks into the Tasmanian wilderness.[2] Obituaries Australia credits him with several firsts:[2]
- the first published photographs of the Cradle Mountain area (1905), which drew Gustav Weindorfer to the area
- the first known photographs of the Franklin River (about 1906)
- the first winter ascent of Ben Lomond, with the first photographs of it under snow
- the first aerial photographs of Launceston (1919)
The Companion to Tasmanian History dates the Ben Lomond winter series to 1902 and Obituaries Australia to 1903.[1][2]
From about 1906 the firm was an official government photographer, supplying images for tourist promotion. Spurling photographs were exhibited in London in 1908 and appeared on trams, trains, postcards and playing cards.[2] Stephen III's portrait subjects included Lord Kitchener (1910) and the Prince of Wales (1920).[2] The Companion calls the studio the largest in northern Tasmania from the turn of the century until 1937.[1] In 1922 the firm, until then Spurling & Son, became a proprietary company.[3] In 1937 Stephen III sold the business to Kodak and opened Spurlings Scenic Photographers, which he ran until he retired to Melbourne in 1941.[2] He died at Ulverstone on 3 October 1962.[2]
Mount Spurling
On a 1908 trek across the Central Plateau, Stephen III discovered a lake that he named Lake Spurling. In 1955 the Tasmanian Nomenclature Board renamed it Lake Riengeena and gave the name Mount Spurling to a nearby mountain.[2] See also Spurling place names and The Spurlin name outside the United States.
See also
- The Spurlin name outside the United States · Culture strong
Spurlin is an overwhelmingly American surname today, with about 98% of bearers in the United States. The spelling is older than American settlement: English archives record Spurlins in Middlesex and Bristol between 1670 and 1717, and 18th-century leases name a field called 'Spurlins' in Hertfordshire. Outside the U.S. the related form Spurling is far more common. - Spurling (surname) · The Surname strong
Spurling is the fuller spelling from which Spurlin derives. Unlike Spurlin, it is well established in England, Australia and especially Bermuda as well as the United States. - Spurling place names (related spelling) · Places strong
Several U.S. places carry the closely related name Spurling rather than Spurlin: a populated place in Montana, a stream in Tennessee, and a cove, point and rock around Great Cranberry Island, Maine. Spurlington, Kentucky, is also named for a Spurling family, and Tasmania has a Mount Spurling named for a photographer's 1908 discovery. - Spurling athletes in Britain and Australia (variant spelling) · People strong
Sportsmen and sports figures with the related surname Spurling outside the United States. They include the England rugby international Aubrey Spurling (1856–1945), the Footscray footballers Bill Spurling (1907–1972) and Bob Spurling, the Australian lightweight rower Stephen Spurling and his mother, the Tasmanian rowing administrator Marj Spurling, and the English rugby hooker Scott Spurling. - Notable Spurlins · People strong
An index of notable people surnamed Spurlin, with related Spurling-surname figures listed separately as variants. - Places named Spurlin · Places strong
Overview of communities, landforms, streams, crossings, cemeteries and civic sites in the United States that carry the Spurlin (or closely related Spurling) name, with pointers to Spurlin historical markers and federal land records.
References
- ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Spurling Family — The Companion to Tasmanian History (Wendy Rimon; Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania, 2006) — Four photographers and their dates; Frederick's Fingal studio; largest studio in northern Tasmania; read via Internet Archive snapshot, 2025-04-03 Reference
- ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Spurling, Stephen (1876–1962) — Obituaries Australia (Christine Burgess), National Centre of Biography, Australian National University — Stephen III: career, expeditions, Lake Spurling and Mount Spurling, sale to Kodak, death Reference
- ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Spurling, Stephen (1847–1924) — Obituaries Australia (Christine Burgess), National Centre of Biography, Australian National University — Stephen II: life, studios, innovations, exhibitions, death Reference
Last reviewed 2026-09-24.