The Alpha was an 82 tonne wooden schooner owned by Nambucca Heads pioneer John Eichmann. The vessel had a length of 26.9 metres and a beam of 6.3 metres. There is local evidence that it was built at the Davis shipyard in Nambucca Heads. The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage has it listed as built by Bret Donaldson at Port Stephens in 1867. It was registered in Sydney in 1867. The Alpha was wrecked on the rocks at Nambucca Heads on 21.02.1897.
John Eichmann lived in Balmain in Sydney before travelling to the Nambucca. He may have well met fellow pioneers the Gordons, the Buckmans, the Davis’s and the Christensens there. He had a mill called the Enterprise in 1882 which joined the growing number of mills at Nambucca Heads. He also had a mill at Urunga. Prior to this he had been involved in coastal trade for some years, likely commencing in the 1850s. His mill was said to use the latest technology and he had as many as thirteen bullock teams hauling in logs. Milling and shipping are notoriously risky businesses but, of all of the businesses on the Nambucca, Eichmann seems to have poured in the most capital and endured the longest. The Eichmann descendants made Nambucca Heads their home and three of the family’s early residences are built adjacent to each other on Kent Street, Nambucca Heads.
The painting, on display at the Headland Museum, represents an important record of the coastal shipping trade and the growth of the timber industry and ship building industry of Nambucca Heads. There are no known photographs of the Alpha and this is likely the only portrait of the Alpha. Its ownership by a noted pioneer, the assertion that it was built on the shores of Nambucca Heads and its eventual wrecking there, make the Alpha a significant part of Nambucca Heads history. In addition, the artist William Edgar has his place in the history of the Australian shipping trade by his portraiture. The painting would be of interest to Australian and international maritime museums.