Perth Voice Interactive

The next instalment of the organisation’s annual Walk and Talk event deliberately coincides with Law Week and will take a look at the fascinating story of Alfred Hawes Stone.

One of the first solicitors to arrive at the fledgling Swan River Colony, Stone was also an avid photographer.

Born in Tunbridge Wells, England, Stone was appointed Justice of the Peace for the District of Canning two months after his arrival in the colony, and a year later became clerk to the Magistrates’ Court.

Crown solicitor

In 1831, he began practising as the colony’s first crown solicitor.

In his spare time Stone was an expert at wet plate photography, and his work provides an important record of the development of Perth in the 1860s and ‘70s.

His photographs capture his family and friends, as well as several buildings in and around Perth.

The talk, by Dr Pamela Statham-Drew, will be on May 18 at 1pm at the Old Court Law Museum on Barrack Street. Dr Statham-Drew lectured in economic history at UWA, specialising in the development of the Swan River Colony.

by OTTOLINE SPEARMAN