THE PEOPLE BEHIND OUR NAME
Carl Dannell.
Tom Gollop.
Two surnames have been above our door since 1965. Behind them are two optical careers that began long before Dannell & Gollop: one with roots in Bunbury and Perth, the other beginning in Britain and continuing in Western Australia. Carl Sigfred Arthur Dannell and Herbert Samuel George “Tom” Gollop each brought years of experience to the practice that carries their names today.
CARL SIGFRED ARTHUR DANNELL · 1899–1980
From Bunbury
to Hay Street.
Carl was born in Bunbury in 1899. In his early newspaper appearances he was usually called Sigfred, sometimes spelt Sigfrid. A school report places him at Bunbury Central in 1912. His later career would take him to Perth's city arcades, but his connection with the South West continued through his optical work.
By 1926, S. Dannell was advertising his services in Hay Street. The following years brought several addresses and a change of business: in 1929, his practice became part of Laubman & Pank. A newspaper profile introduced him to its readers with a portrait and invited his “old clients and friends” to visit him in his new setting. It also described his contribution to the firm's country sight-testing service. That December, he was named in an advertisement for a planned visit to Bunbury.
Experience and country visits.
A 1938 advertisement gives a fuller picture of Sigfred's work. He described 23 years of experience in optics and examinations in visual optics and sight testing that he had studied for and passed in London in 1924–25. By then, he had opened rooms at Gledden Arcade, on the corner of Hay and William Streets, and was advertising visits to Pinjarra. Perth patients and country appointments were both part of his working life.
The same advertisement offered “a thorough eye examination” and correctly fitted frames. In 1940, he moved to J. Neilson at 16 Plaza Arcade, an address that would become part of the later Dannell & Gollop story. His full name appears there in the official optometrists register in 1941. It was a formal entry in a career already well under way.
HERBERT SAMUEL GEORGE “TOM” GOLLOP · 1912–2006
A new home.
A wider horizon.
Tom was born in Britain in 1912. Our earlier practice history remembers his optical work in England and wartime service in Egypt, where his knowledge of optics and mathematics was put to use on an anti-aircraft optical sight. That account belongs to the practice's memories of Tom, alongside the surviving records of his move to Western Australia.
On 11 December 1948, Tom arrived at Fremantle aboard the Moreton Bay with his wife Irene and their young son Christopher. They had embarked at Southampton. Within weeks, on 15 January 1949, he registered as a Western Australian optometrist. By September, an Elliott & Elliott advertisement named him as the firm's optometrist and manager. Its William Street rooms gave him an early Perth base.
Beyond the city.
Tom's work also took him far from Perth. A profile published in Hamersley News in 1971 described him as a regular visitor to the North West and dated his touring work there to 1958. It described a route through towns between Carnarvon and Kununurra. His connection with regional patients had begun before the Dannell & Gollop partnership.
Country visits appear in both men's stories: Carl's advertised work in Bunbury and Pinjarra, and Tom's North West rounds. Their careers were rooted in Perth, with patients well beyond the city. The later Dannell & Gollop name would also be carried by practices in Geraldton and Port Hedland, as well as Perth's suburbs.
PERTH · 1965
Dannell
& Gollop.
In 1965, Carl and Tom established Dannell & Gollop in Perth city. The name joined the two practitioners' surnames, with decades of optical work behind them. By January 1966, Tom's registered address was 16 Plaza Arcade, where Carl had worked for many years. Their individual careers had become a shared practice.
The name gradually became familiar in more Western Australian communities. Our Cannington branch opened in 1972, beginning the local connection that continues today. By 1985, the optometrists register listed Dannell & Gollop at Perth, Carousel and Geraldton addresses. Gwelup, Byford and, later, Midland Gate were also part of the wider practice story.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Still here.
Still independent.
Since 2003, our family has continued that story at Carousel. Today, our optometrists, optical staff and laboratory technicians work together in the one practice. Eye examinations, contact lens fitting, help choosing glasses and our on-site lens laboratory are all part of your visit.
Carl and Tom's names remain above our door. We carry them with appreciation for the people who established the practice, the teams who have worked under its name and the patients who have returned over the years. If you're visiting us for the first time, we'd be pleased to welcome you to Dannell & Gollop.
Our family practice today