He was known as "Alf", and was often referred to as "A. Scott Broad" as though his surname was "Scott-Broad", and was often written that way.
Alf was born in Adelaide a son of James Broad (c. 1830 – 14 June 1895) coachbuilder then music warehouseman and organ builder, who arrived in South Australia on the Osceola on 4 April 1851.
He set up a studio in his father's organ-building workshop on the corner of Gilles and Hanson streets.
[4] He returned to South Australia, and contributed to Frearsons' The Pictorial Australian from 1886.
The Art Gallery of South Australia has a watercolor by Alf Scott Broad: The First Stone House erected in South Australia, depicting George Bates's house on Kangaroo Island, painted in 1887.