Phillip William Goatcher, a theatrical scene painter, was born in England in 1851, trained in 1867 as an apprentice scene painter in Melbourne, where he returned as a star scenic artist in 1890, after a long career in New York. In 1903 he left the eastern states with his son James Goatcher for Perth, WA, where they went into business as "Phil W. Goatcher & Son", shop and house decorators.