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'Vaccination Day in Port Mackay!', 1877

This black-and-white pen-and-ink sketch depicts vaccinations against smallpox in Mackay, Queensland, in 1877. In the sketch the local public health officer, who appears to be shouting, wields a large knife and is about to vaccinate a fearful child on his lap. The child's mother holds the child's arm while it screams. A ...

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Schoolboy being vaccinated against diphtheria in Brisbane, 1940

This 1940 black-and-white photograph shows a young boy, not entirely at ease, being vaccinated against diphtheria at East Brisbane State School by the City Medical Officer of Health, Dr R Weaver. A woman dressed in white stands behind the boy and steadies his outstretched left arm for the injection. Medical implements and ...

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Riding a horse to school, 1928

This posed 1928 black-and-white photograph shows five girls on a horse on their way to the Glass Mountains State School, as it was known at the time, in Queensland. The girls are pressed together from the base of the horse's neck to its rump. They wear hats and hold their school cases. The horse has a bridle and one girl ...

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Air-raid shelter in Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows two women and two uniformed servicemen in a backyard featuring a homemade air-raid shelter during the Second World War. The two men, Private Dick of the AIF and US soldier Tom Squires, are standing in the shelter with Anthea Dyke while Doreen Smythe is jokingly pointing a hose at them. ...

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Landmarks: people and places across Australia

This resource features the Landmarks gallery, which traces a broad history of Australia since British colonisation in the late 18th century. The exhibition explores ten big themes in the country's past through the stories of Australian places and the people who have lived there. It examines how people have engaged with ...

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'Port Arthur during occupation, A.D. 1860'

This is a sepia-toned black-and-white photograph measuring 8.8 cm x 13.6 cm, taken from an elevated vantage point behind a cottage in the township of Port Arthur, looking across Manson Cove with its wooden wharves to Settlement Hill. It shows the Port Arthur Penitentiary (the large building in the centre of the image), ...

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Diphtheria ward of the Melbourne Hospital, Christmas 1900

This is a black-and-white photograph taken in the grounds of the Melbourne Hospital on Christmas Day, 1900. It shows children from the hospital's diphtheria ward seated in a large wicker pushcart. Two nurses, one of whom holds an infant, stand behind the children. On the right of the photograph is a doctor. The photograph ...

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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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Horsedrawn whim on a gold field at Gympie, 1870-80

This is a black-and-white photograph of the minehead area at a Queensland goldmine. It shows the mine's headframe and a horsedrawn 'whim'. The whim consists of a wooden derrick construction with two large vertically mounted drums at its centre, one with a rope wound around it. The rope is connected at one end to the swivel ...

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Freed unionist shearers following the 1891 Shearers' Strike, 1893

This is a black-and-white poster showing 13 shearers who had been jailed in 1891 during the central Queensland Shearers' Strike. Across the top of the poster, in large letters, is printed 'FREEDOM WITHOUT DISHONOUR' and 'UNIONIST PRISONERS'. The poster goes on to identify each man individually as having been sentenced at ...

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Troopers protecting non-union labour during the Shearers' Strike, 1891

This is a black-and-white photograph of 121 armed officers and men of the Townsville Mounted Infantry escorting about 60 non-unionist shearers, known as 'blacklegs' or 'scabs', to Hughenden Station on 22 April 1891 during the central Queensland Shearers' Strike. Several crowded 'German' wagons follow, some containing more ...

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Chinese people on the way to the Ravenswood gold fields, 1870

This pen-and-wash sketch dated 9 December 1870 depicts four Chinese men and a dog on the way to the gold fields at Ravenswood in northern Queensland. Made by Donald Sydney Thistlethwayte it is titled ''Celestials' on the way to Ravenswood diggings'. The men are dressed in traditional Chinese clothing. One wears sandals ...

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Rabbit fence cartoon, 1884

This black-and-white cartoon satirises Queensland parliamentarian John Stevenson's suggestion that a fence be built on the New South Wales border to stop an expected invasion of rabbits. It depicts a low wire fence that four rabbits are using as a tennis net. Other rabbits leap over the fence and hop in the background. ...

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Convict jacket

This is a woollen convict jacket from Tasmania. The inside of the jacket is stamped with the mark 'WD', indicating that it was issued by the War Department, and it has an arrow mark, signifying British Government property. These marks date the jacket to after 1855.

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'Relics of convict discipline', c1911-15

This is a sepia-toned black-and-white photograph (3.7 cm x 8.8 cm) showing items used to discipline or control convicts at Port Arthur. The collection, most of which is hanging on a wood-panelled wall, includes leg-irons, a ball and chain, handcuffs, whips (one of them a cat-o'-nine-tails), rifles and a sword. Text at the ...

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Twofold Bay whaling, early 20th century

This is a photograph made from a glass plate negative measuring 12.0 cm x 16.5 cm dating from between 1900 and 1922. It shows a whale hunt taking place in Twofold Bay on the south-eastern coast of New South Wales. There is a five-oared whaling boat visible, with the captain, George Davidson, standing aft (at the rear), ...

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'Cradling, Forrest Creek', 1853

This is an 1853 hand-coloured lithographic print, entitled 'Cradling. Forrest Creek'. It was made by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80) from a sketch done on the spot as he watched gold miners cradle for gold at Forest Creek (as it was more commonly spelled), in Victoria. One miner scoops water into the cradle, while the other ...

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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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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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Chinese men on the road to the Palmer River gold field, 1875

This black-and-white wood engraving shows a stereotypical image of Chinese men walking in a line to the Palmer River gold field in northern Queensland. It appeared in the Australasian Sketcher with the title 'CHINESE ON THE ROAD TO THE PALMER'. The six men in the foreground are wearing a variety of traditional clothing ...