Anthony Gladstone Bolam was born in 1893 in Victoria. He joined the Victorian Railways as a porter in 1911 and transferred to the Commonwealth Railways in 1915. In 1918 he was posted to Ooldea Siding on the Trans-Australian Railway as a porter but was promoted to station-master in 1920. He remained in that position until 1925 when he was transferred to Kingoonya Siding, further east along the Trans-Australian Railway. He was station-master there for about 10 years before being transferred to Marree on the Great Northern Railway. He retired from the Commonwealth Railways in 1942, and died in Melbourne in 1966.

Bolam was very interested in Aboriginal culture and was a careful and sympathetic recorder of their lifestyle, customs and ceremonies. A keen photographer, he took many photographs of the Aboriginal people who congregated at Ooldea Siding in the early 1920s.

Bolam was also interested in natural history, particularly the fauna and flora. He took many photographs of the animals of the Ooldea region, including the now extinct stick-nest rat. With the help of Aboriginal people at Ooldea he obtained many specimens of the local fauna which he sent to Professor Wood-Jones (see AA 379) at the University of Adelaide, and he also provided faunal specimens to other Australian museums and institutions.

In 1923 he published a book entitled The Trans-Australian Wonderland which provides descriptions of the Aboriginal culture, fauna and flora and geology of the Nullarbor Plain. This book was reprinted in 1924, 1925, 1927 and 1930 and a facsimile edition was published in 1978. Some of Bolam's photographs are reproduced in the various editions of this book.

Additional photographs taken by Bolam are held by the State Library of South Australia, the Museum of Victoria, the National Library of Australia and other institutions.

In about 1926 Bolam provided a map to Norman B Tindale (see AA 338) showing the distribution of Aboriginal tribal groups in the Ooldea area, with some brief typescript notes on those groups. The original map is filed in Tindale's 'Research data on Aboriginal tribes in Australia gathered by Norman B Tindale. Chiefly from South, West and Central Australia. Period 1924 to 1936' (see AA 338/1/29). Bolam also provides some information on these tribal groups in The Trans-Australian Wonderland.