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'John Batman's famous treaty with the blacks', c1914

This is a black-and-white engraving, measuring 40.4 cm x 57 cm, made by George Rossi Ashton (1851-1942) in about 1914. It depicts John Batman (1801-39) and an elderly Indigenous Australian man leaning over what is probably a treaty document on the decayed trunk of a large fallen tree. They are surrounded by 16 men, many ...

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An exhibition home made of fibrolite, c1930s

This is a black-and-white photograph of the exterior of an exhibition home made of fibrolite (fibro-cement) that was constructed by James Hardie and Co Ltd (now known as James Hardie Industries). The street outside the home is crowded with people, some of whom have come to view the fibrolite home. The photograph measures ...

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A boxing match in Bendigo, 1853

This is a hand-coloured lithograph, measuring 15.8 cm x 19.5 cm, entitled 'A BENDIGO MILL'. It was made by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80) from a sketch he did on the spot as he watched a boxing match in Bendigo, Victoria, and it featured in his publication 'Sketches of the Victoria gold diggings and diggers as they are'. ...

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Enrolling in the Land Army, c1944

This is a posed black-and-white photograph, measuring 24.7 cm x 19 cm and taken around 1944 in Drouin, Victoria by Jim Fitzpatrick. It shows a formally dressed young woman seated in front of a desk labelled 'War Agricultural Committee'. A man, seated behind the desk, is handing her a book entitled 'Food front'. The furniture ...

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Phar Lap

This is a photograph showing the mounted hide of Phar Lap, a champion racehorse in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was a large chestnut-coloured gelding who stood 17.1 hands (about 174 cm) tall.

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Invitation to Commonwealth celebrations, 1901

This is a coloured printed invitation to a conversazione celebrating the Commonwealth of Australia. It measures 30.2 cm x 37 cm. At the bottom is the wording, 'THE GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA requests the honor of the presence of Mr W J Ferguson MLA and Mrs Ferguson at a Conversazione in the Exhibition Building on the Evening ...

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Metters 'Moffat' electric stove, late 1930s

This is a cast-iron stove called the 'Moffat', produced in Melbourne by Australian manufacturer Metters KFB in the late 1930s. The stove is set on four iron legs and consists of an oven, cooktop and griller. It is finished with green enamel and three cream enamel panels inset on the knob interface, griller door and oven ...

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Orrery, c1770 - part 1

This is a close-up of a mechanical model of part of the solar system, commonly known as an orrery, made by renowned London instrument maker Benjamin Martin in about 1770. This bronze model features a cylindrical clockwork mechanism with an orb representing the Sun placed in the centre. Extending from this on an arm is a ...

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Wolter and Echberg washing machine, late 1800s

This is a late-19th-century compressed-air washing machine, made by Victorian manufacturers Wolter and Echberg. The machine is made of galvanised steel and has a distinctive rocket-like appearance, with a central drum, in which the clothes are washed, consisting of two cone shapes on either end of a cylinder. On the drum ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. VIII', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.8 cm x 24 cm showing the vast, yellowing Challicum plains with grassfires burning smokily in the distance. A flock of sheep is being watched by a shepherd and dog. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as the sixteenth watercolour in his field sketchbook and inscribed the title ...

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'Poultry house, Challicum', 1851

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that depicts the poultry house at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. Two of the Djapwurrong people (the Indigenous inhabitants of this region) are shown sitting by a smoking fire next to a temporary bark shelter. Various chickens are also shown pecking in ...

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'Sheep station on the plains, Challicum, 1843'

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows a sheep out-station on the plains at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. A slab hut is depicted in the foreground, while in the distance is a shepherd with his dog and flock. The shepherd's watchbox and the hurdles (portable fences) used to contain ...

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Second hut at Challicum, summer view, 1845

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows the second hut built at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria established by Cooper and George and Harry Thomson. In the foreground is a man on horseback, who may be Harry Thomson, followed by two dogs, crossing a grassy plain. Almost directly behind ...

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'Aquarius 1841'

This is a pen, ink and crayon drawing, measuring 18.8 cm x 26.8 cm, of a man driving a horse and cart, on the back of which is a full water barrel. Buildings and trees are sketched in the background and at the top right is a set of signalling flagpoles. A handwritten inscription at the bottom of the picture reads: 'Aquarius ...

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ANZAC poster

This is a poster commemorating the New Zealand role in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) campaign in Gallipoli during the First World War. Along the top is a photograph depicting three naval vessels on one side and Anzac Beach, Gallipoli, after the landing on the other. At the top of the photograph is the ...

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Gold nugget

This is a gold nugget (approximately 3.4 cm x 2.2 cm), which was probably found in about 1865 on a goldfield in Otago (in the southern South Island of New Zealand).

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First pole on the Overland Telegraph, c1870

This is a black-and-white wood engraving of a drawing dating from about 1870 by Samuel Calvert (1828-1913). Probably set near Adelaide, South Australia, it depicts a group of men and women in mid-Victorian dress, circled around a rough-hewn telegraph pole, in a bush setting. The pole is being levered, using ropes, into ...

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The 'Southern Cross' reaches Sydney, 1928

This is a black-and-white photograph of the 'Southern Cross' biplane arriving in Sydney and being greeted by reporters and photographers and a large contingent of police after the record-breaking flight of Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew across the Pacific. Signed portraits of the crew are superimposed upon the photograph, ...

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Panning for gold on the Mulgrave River, c1888

This is a black-and-white photograph showing five miners prospecting for alluvial gold on the banks of the Mulgrave River in Queensland. Two of the men hold shovels and stand by a sluice, two others pan for gold and the fifth rests on a wooden wheelbarrow. Several other mining implements are in evidence - a pan, pick, shovel ...

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Women unionists marching on Black Friday during the Brisbane General Strike, 1912

This is a black-and-white photograph of an orderly procession of women walking four or five abreast past Brisbane's Treasury Building in the city centre on 2 February 1912, a day that became known as 'Black Friday'. The majority of the women appear to be dressed in their best and wearing hats for the occasion. Several horsedrawn ...