When the Kapunda School of Mines and Industries council held a competition in 1894 to find a suitable design for a certificate, the only entry received was from Sidney Oats, a student in its assay and mineralogical class, and a former member of the mechanical and architectural drawing class. Because his entry wasc onsidered most appropriate and representative of the work done by the school, it was unanimously accepted by the council.
By March 1898 Sidney Oats had become an active photographer, his views of the exterior and interior of the Kapunda Congregational Church being mentioned in the Kapunda Herald, which said that ‘as the work of an amateur, the photographs are very creditable’. His photographs of the crowd present at the sale of the horse ‘Bugler’ were reported in February 1900. His father was William Oats, the manager of a large boot factory in Kapunda, where Sidney Oats was employed as a foreman, and he later had his own bootmaking business in the main street of Kapunda, opposite Stephen Nixon’s studio. While Sidney Oats was a very active photographer, it was more as a professional than as an artist. As a sideline to bootmaking he ran a developing and printing service for local amateur photographers.
Sidney Oats was an active member of the Kapunda Photographic Club, formed in 1901, and a regular exhibitor in the photographic sections at district agricultural and horticultural shows. He was awarded prizes in the ‘objects in motion’ (snapshot) section of the Kapunda show in 1902 and 1903, and in 1904 he was awarded first prizes for collections of photographs in both the half-plate and quarter-plate sections at the Tarlee Show.
In 1905 Oats purchased Stephen Nixon’s photographic business, which included all the negatives
made by Nixon and James Uren, some of which had been taken in the 1860s. Although he was listed in the trade section of directories as a photographer for the years 1912, and 1918 to 1935+, his nephew has said that Sidney Oats was never a full-time photographer. He continued with his bootmaking shop opposite the studio, which was in the care of an assistant, Miss Emily Crawford,
who ran across the road to fetch him whenever a customer arrived to have a portrait taken. After learning photo-colouring in Adelaide, his daughter Millie used to colour her father’s photographs.
Sidney Oats was born on 2 July 1874, died on 29 June 1936, and was buried in the Clare road cemetery, Kapunda.
Text taken from:
Noye, R.J. (2007) Dictionary of South Australian Photography 1845-1915, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. CD-ROM, p.228.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2013
- Last updated:
- 2013
