Ockert le Roux Photography

Ockert le Roux Photography Creator of Fine Images

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Wannon
28/07/2026

Wannon

Nurses, visitors and patients in the old Mount Gambier Hospital's general ward on Christmas day 1912.
23/07/2026

Nurses, visitors and patients in the old Mount Gambier Hospital's general ward on Christmas day 1912.

A photo of Mr Hateley's stone cottage at his ear whilst Home Park property on Wireless Road East, Mount Gambier. The pho...
22/07/2026

A photo of Mr Hateley's stone cottage at his ear whilst Home Park property on Wireless Road East, Mount Gambier. The photo was taken 10 years ago on 20 July 2016. It has since fallen into ruins and no longer exists.

Born February 21, 1806 at Bethnal Green, London, James Samuel Hateley sailed to Tasmania as a 15-year-old cabin boy in 1821. He later worked in the whaling industry along the southern coasts of Australia and Tasmania and visited Portland before permanent settlement had even began.

By 1837, Hateley had reached Adelaide, where he served among South Australia’s earliest special constables and gaol personnel.

After leaving the police force, he remained near Adelaide for several years before moving to Mount Gambier in 1857. Here he became one of the district’s pioneering farmers, establishing the property known as Home Park. In 1866, he completed the stone cottage (in this image) that became his family home and the place where he died on February 18, 1893 at age 86.

His remarkable life linked Australia’s early maritime history with the formative years of Adelaide and Mount Gambier, where he became one of their earliest pioneers.

Many Mount Gambier locals will remember the Arthur Studio building at 21–23 Commercial Street as far more than just a ph...
20/07/2026

Many Mount Gambier locals will remember the Arthur Studio building at 21–23 Commercial Street as far more than just a photographic studio. For decades, the Arthur family helped capture the faces, families, weddings, school groups and public life of the district.

Garnet Arthur established the family photographic tradition in 1908, later continued by his son Eric “Ric” Arthur. Upstairs, the building also became home to the Country Club Restaurant in 1957, a stylish social venue that added a touch of post-war glamour to Mount Gambier. It is said Ric drew inspiration for the Country Club from an idea he had seen while visiting New York — bringing a little big-city atmosphere back to Commercial Street.

The shop window of Arthur Studio must have been a familiar stopping point for many people, especially those hoping to spot a wedding portrait, family photograph or special occasion on display.

Do you remember looking at portraits in the Arthur Studio front window? Or did you perhaps dine out, celebrate, dance or attend an event upstairs at the Country Club Restaurant?

I’d love to hear your memories.

Glenelg Jetty 1925.
18/07/2026

Glenelg Jetty 1925.

14/07/2026

Today marks 50 years behind the camera—a journey that began in July 1976.

I have always been intrigued by the story of how an African American ended up in Mount Gambier in the mid-19th century t...
11/07/2026

I have always been intrigued by the story of how an African American ended up in Mount Gambier in the mid-19th century to establish the first hotel in town. I was finally able to conclude the research on his remarkable story.

His name was John Byng.

Byng’s family story reaches back to South Carolina, where his father, Thomas Byng/Bing, had been enslaved by John Miles of Salt Ketcher, South Carolina before joining the British side during the American War of Independence. Like many Black Loyalists, Thomas was evacuated to Nova Scotia after the war.

It was there, at Digby, that John Byng was born around 1809.
Somehow, by the late 1830s, John made his way by ship(s) to Australia. By 1840 he was in Melbourne, where he married Mary Ann Wallace. She was from King’s County, Ireland, now County Offaly. Her birth year was probably 1815 or 1817. Soon after their marriage John entered the hotel trade. After financial difficulties in Melbourne, and an unsuccessful attempt to establish an inn near present-day Coleraine, Byng pushed further west into the frontier country of the South Australian borderlands reaching the Mount.

In September 1847, eight years after the Henty brothers had opened the road into this region, John Byng obtained the first hotel licence in Mount Gambier. His first application was refused, despite supporting letters from Evelyn Sturt and a Melbourne solicitor.

His Mount Gambier Hotel stood on Watson Terrace, near the Cave Garden, on the site later associated with the present-day Jens Hotel. It was a simple frontier establishment, but one of the first commercial anchors of the emerging Gambierton township.

The image shown here in 1856 depicts Byng’s Mount Gambier Hotel constructed in 1846 on lots 98-99 to the left with a few other early businesses, Patrick “Paddy” Moore: adjoining first general store, associated with lot 97 and nearby blacksmith’s shop to the right by an unknown proprietor (J. Heineman?)

Byng transfer the hotel license first to Isaac Wallace — licensee from April 1852 (land was under a 20 year lease with E. P. S. Sturt: underlying freehold owner of the original sections) and to Alexander (aka Sandy) Mitchell in 1854. At the time of this image in 1856, it was known as A Mitchell's Hotel.

Byng left Mount Gambier around 1852 or 1853 returning to Victoria where where he later kept hotels in Melbourne, Digby/Stephen Street and Kyneton. He died of tuberculosis at Kyneton in January 1858. His wife Mary Ann died of the same disease only weeks later.

Another beautiful streetscape of nineteenth-century Mount Gambier, looking west along Commercial Street—a less commonly ...
10/07/2026

Another beautiful streetscape of nineteenth-century Mount Gambier, looking west along Commercial Street—a less commonly photographed view than those facing east. The photographer is standing opposite the site now occupied by Metro Cafe. On the left is the picket fence of the Telegraph Station, followed by the National Bank and, farther along, the old and new Australasian Bank buildings. On the right stands the Mount Gambier Hotel, followed by a row of other fine nineteenth-century buildings.

Cemetery symmetry.
08/07/2026

Cemetery symmetry.

It was freezing cold this morning with frost, but oh so beautiful around the lakes and across the city, all wrapped in a...
07/07/2026

It was freezing cold this morning with frost, but oh so beautiful around the lakes and across the city, all wrapped in a blanket of fog. Tonight’s forecast is set to be a degree cooler, so keep warm, peeps.

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