Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist and illustrator, was born in Plymouth, England. He came to Sydney in 1889 and worked as a staff artist on the Illustrated Sydney News with A.S. Broad , according to William Moore ( SAA ii, p.112), who also states that in 1889 the paper was controlled by the Town and Country Journal where E.M. Grosse was chief artist. Gasking contributed to the Queensland Boomerang in 1891-92, e.g. Coming events cast their shadows before 26 December 1891 (ill. M. Anderson et al., When Australia was a Woman , WAM, 1998, cat.104). He related his experiences on the paper to William Moore (ii, 124-25). He worked on the Queenslander in 1892-97 then took up other engagements in Queensland until 1901. (He was at Charters Towers in 1900-1.) He used the nom-de-plume 'The Demon’ for his cartoons.

Gasking designed the cover of the 1892 QAS catalogue. He also exhibited with the Society that year, showing a pastel drawing His Clean Up (ill. in cat. n.p.) and black-and-white Views of Maryborough (2 gns), At Ugly Creek, Enoggera (2 gns), Chrysanthemums (2 gns: ill. in cat.), On the Upper Albert (2 gns), Aboriginal Heads (1 gn) and Tree House , New Guinea (2 gns). In 1898 he showed with the QAS an oil Design for a Poster . He contributed to Rowlandson’s Success 1-2 (1907-08) apparently as 'Gasking’ rather than 'the Demon’.

After returning to Sydney in 1901 Gasking started to bring out a little weekly called Nuggets , making sure that Mr Watkin Wynne of the Daily Telegraph received every copy:

“The pace was too fast to keep up single-handed. On the publication of the twelfth copy I called on Mr Wynne. He was attracted by Nuggets and … gave me a job. It was only free lancing but it paid very well. Then one day Mr Wynne came across to my room. As a result of the conversation the first issue of that money getter, the World’s News , came out on 1 December 1901.”

Gaskings worked on the World’s News until 1927.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007