Otto Lipfert and his work

Otto Lipfert: a German migrant in early twentieth century Subiaco

Otto Lipfert was born in Germany in 1864. He trained and worked there as a furrier, but he developed a keen interest in nature and the animal species that were exciting Europeans in Australia. On hearing there was no taxidermist in Western Australia he migrated in 1892, making the voyage in a British ship so that he could learn English on the way.

In 1894 he became the first taxidermist to work for the Western Australian Museum. He made his first collecting trip—to the Abrolhos Islands—that spring. 

Lipfert was naturalised in 1900. In 1902 he married German-born Anna Struck at the German club in Perth. The couple built a house at 270 York St (formerly Gibney Street), Subiaco, where members of the Lipfert family lived until 1989.

Otto H Lipfert on a collecting expedition at Bernier and Dorre islands, in Shark Bay, 1910.

Lipfert collected around Perth and Rottnest, the south-west and the Stirling Ranges, in the Shark Bay area, and along the Canning Stock Route.

The largest specimen he collected was the 25 metre blue whale that died near Busselton in the summer of 1897-98. 

The whale was reported to the Western Australian Museum and over the next three years the Museum’s taxidermist, Otto Lipfert, oversaw its preparation for transport to the WA Museum.

Two Japanese fishermen and a local farmer helped Lipfert to remove the flesh from the bones. The skeleton was then left to bleach in the sun for more than a year.

The bones were individually labelled so they could be reassembled at the Museum. The 24-metre-long skeleton was transported to the Busselton Railway Station in a horse-drawn carriage, where it was taken by train up to Perth. The cranium (skull) weighs more than 800 kilograms today. At the time it would have weighed nearly twice that, due to the oils stored in the bones.

Taxidermy

A taxidermist ‘prepares and preserves the skins of animals, stuffing and mounting them in lifelike form’,* as these specimens demonstrate.

Lipfert did not limit himself to taxidermy. He ‘identified, catalogued, recorded, sketched and photographed, cleaned, preserved, mounted and displayed’ the specimens he collected.

Tools from Otto Lipfert’s collection

Lipfert brought his own tools and reference books from Germany and used them at the museum. They were donated to the Subiaco Museum by his daughters. 

Drawings

Otto Lipfert took a keen interest in drawing. These small sketches were made on gilt-edged pages from a pocket-sized notebook. They filled his leather notebook holder which was embroidered with his initials. The holder was donated to the Subiaco Museum. 

Otto's daughters continued to live in the family home at 270 York Street until 1989. They donated a large collection of items to the Subiaco Museum, including many of Otto's tools, drawings and notebooks, as well as photograph albums of the family.