Early References and Context

This story records a moment in time when Alfred Lloyd Bickerton owned an aerated water company in Roebourne between 1920 and 1926.
I first came across his name while reading Across the Board: Stories of WA’s Shearing Industry by People Who Worked in the Sheds by Valerie Hobson. Jessie Kennedy mentioned that her father had the cool drink company in Roebourne and stated her maiden name was Bickerton. I then searched Trove to find more information about his tenure in the north of the state.

I also glanced at the comprehensive story the late Terry Hawser wrote in the Little Bottler, Volume 39 No. 6, August/September 2018, about the hotels of Roebourne, Cossack, Marble Bar and Nullagine. The Jubilee Hotel at Roebourne had its own aerated water manufactured on the premises in the early days. The Victoria Arms Hotel also had its own cool drinks on site. John Henry Johnstone of the Jubilee Hotel went back to making aerated waters in the early 1900s until his death at Claremont on 18 February 1919, aged 72 years. As Bickerton started in the trade the following year, did he use Johnstone’s plant?

Life and Career in the North-West

Alfred Lloyd Bickerton was born in Victoria in 1876 to James Knight Bickerton and his wife Elizabeth Ann. He arrived in Roebourne around 1894, where he engaged in the pastoral industry. He was manager of Mt Welcome Station and also held an interest in the Weiriana Mine until it ceased production. Electoral Rolls between 1903 and 1917 list his occupation as station manager.

In 1906 he married local girl Evelyn Mary Fisher. She was 10 years his junior, and between 1906 and 1924 they had seven children, although only four survived. The Post Office Directories have his name associated with the aerated water industry from 1920 until 1926. In 1906, at the time of his marriage, he was manager of H. W. Sholl & Co. at Roebourne. In 1916 he enrolled in the services for WWI but was rejected on medical grounds.

Bickerton was manager of Mr J. Withnell’s Mardie Station in September 1919 when he resigned to begin an aerated water factory in Roebourne.

He was always interested in the affairs of the town and was elected Chairman of the Road Board in 1923, a position he had held on numerous previous occasions. He was also elected as a Justice of the Peace for Roebourne in July 1923.

Death, Aftermath, and Sale of the Plant

Sadly, he died aged 50 years from pneumonia on 14 July 1926 and is buried in the Roebourne Pioneer Cemetery. This left his wife Evelyn with four young children between the ages of 18 and 8 years. Evelyn eventually moved to Claremont and was killed on 26 February 1953 when she died from her injuries after being hit by a car on Stirling Highway, Claremont. She was 66 years old.

In 1930 his aerated water plant was listed by the Public Trustee for sale by tender from his premises in Roebourne. However, no mention was made in the newspapers of where his premises were situated. Items included: a 2½ HP Fairbanks petrol engine, a 2½ HP Blackstone kerosene engine, a Crown corking bottle-filling machine, a soda water bottling machine, and a rotary pump. I expect his Crown Seal and soda water bottles all had paper labels.

References

Find My Past; Electoral Rolls; Post Office Directories; Cemetery Records; National Archives; Newspapers – Northern Times, Carnarvon: 22 Dec 1906, 20 Sept 1919, 19 May 1923, 7 July 1923, 16 July 1926; North West Echo, Broome: 24 July 1926, 4 Jan 1930; West Australian: 27 Feb 1953.

Vivienne Sinclair

Edited by Trudi Anne Gribble