Edwin Roper Loftus Stocqueler

Edwin Roper Loftus Stocqueler (18 November 1829 – 28 October 1895) was a British artist who worked mainly in Australia, South Africa and Zanzibar; and, towards the end of his life, in England.

In fact, they travelled separately: Edwin sailed, possibly as a crew member in 1852, and Jane arrived in Melbourne on the Gibson Craig in August 1853.

According to one newspaper report “these pictures are destined to be exhibited in the mother country”, perhaps for Edwin to follow in his father’s footsteps as an exponent of dioramas in England.

It was during the explorations on the Murray that Edwin is said[11] to have seen the bunyip,[12] defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a fabulous monster inhabiting the rushy swamps and lagoons in the interior of Australia”.

Newspaper reports as far back as 1845 introduced readers to the discovery of “a fragment of the knee joint of some gigantic animal” which, when shown to a local aboriginal he at once “recognised it as belonging to the ‘Bunyip,’ which he declared he had seen.

On being requested to make a drawing of it, he did so without hesitation.” An 1857 report in Border Post made a strong claim: The existence of this supposed fabulous animal is likely to be proved at no distant period.

In a letter to the Bendigo Advertiser Edwin made clear his dislike of the way the story had been written up: “In the first place, I did not call it the Bunyip, nor did I ever say positively the size of it, as I never saw the whole of one”, continuing “However, I know more about it than I am at present disposed to tell; but when my diorama (in which is an almost life size portrait of the beast) is painted, I shall give a full, true, and particular account of what I saw, did, and discovered.”[13] Later in 1857, soon after his return from the river trip, Edwin set up a diorama in Bendigo, the details of which are well described by Mimi Colligan.

[15] Nonetheless, some shows were taken further afield – e.g. the Diorama of the Golden Land of the Sunny South was shown in Melbourne in 1859[16] Newspaper reports of Edwin Stocqueler in Australia cease in 1859.

Soon after arriving, Stocqueler “accompanied the British commissioner in Aden, (the then) Colonel Coghlan,[17] to Muscat and Zanzibar to investigate the cause of conflict between the sons of the deceased Sayyid Said.

The Muscat and Zanzibar Commission, on which Edwin acted as Clerk, also made enquiries concerning the slave-trade.”[8] It is not clear why this sudden change of interest began, or when and where Edwin met Sir William Coghlan, but in 1876 Stocqueler was referred to the Anti-Slavery Society by Sir Bartle Frere, and in the following year several of his drawings were published in the Society’s journal;[18] these help date his involvement, and again demonstrate his artistic skill.

The following drawings were published in the Anti-Slavery Reporter:[22] A list Stocqueler’s paintings shown in the Diorama at the Eaglehawk Hotel, Tarrangower, (Victoria, Australia), 1858: [15]