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Rainforest shield, c1890s

This is a wooden shield from the Aboriginal people of the rainforest region of north-eastern Queensland. Known as a 'rainforest shield', it is painted yellow, red, white and black using natural pigments. Collected in the 1890s, it is 96 cm long x 37 cm wide.

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Forehead ornament, c1916

This is an Aboriginal forehead ornament from the Northern Territory, believed to have been made in the early 1900s. It comprises more than 30 kangaroo teeth, each embedded in beeswax and then attached to a string. Lengths of string extend out at both ends of the ornament. The ornament is 45 cm long and 9.5 cm wide.

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Neck ornament, c1890s

This is an Aboriginal neck ornament from central Australia, believed to have been made in the late 1800s. It comprises two pairs of eaglehawk claws, connected with resin to a string made of human hair. The ornament is 43 cm long and 4 cm wide.

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Ceremonial headdress, c1921

This is a ceremonial headdress of the Wangkanguru (Wonkonguru) people, made at an Aboriginal settlement in the north-east of South Australia in about 1921. Its main features are three thick tassels made of rabbit-tail fur attached to string made of kangaroo fur and hair. It is 56 cm long and up to about 34 cm wide.

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Pacific Islander labourers in the Mackay District, late 1800s

This posed black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islanders by their grass hut homes, probably on a Mackay sugar plantation in Queensland. Some are seated on logs or rough timber benches and one woman can also be seen. They are dressed in Western-style clothes. More huts can be seen on the cleared rise in the ...

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‘Wool tables, Horsley Downs - J D Lang’, 1880s

This is a black-and-white photograph taken in the 1880s showing wool tables in the interior of a woolshed at Horsley Downs, a sheep station in Waipara County, North Canterbury (central east coast, South Island of New Zealand). The photograph shows seven men in the foreground sorting and grading sheep’s wool on slatted sorting ...

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A shepherd and sheep, c1850

This is a watercolour of an early morning scene on a sheep property or 'run' painted by Samuel Thomas Gill. It depicts a shepherd and his dog at the rear of a flock of sheep disappearing over a small hill. A slab hut is shown on the slope of the hill and a small hurdle or temporary fence is in the foreground. The painting ...

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Forest Creek, Mount Alexander, 1852

This is a hand-coloured lithographic print prepared by John Allen in 1852 from a drawing by George French Angas. The lithograph, with text, measures 26 cm x 35.5 cm and shows Forest Creek at the Mount Alexander gold diggings in central Victoria.

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Convicts boarding a hulk at Portsmouth, 1828

This is a hand-coloured etching, sized 16 cm x 24 cm, of a hulk (prison ship) anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, England. A large rowboat filled with convicts and soldiers approaches the hulk with oars held upright ready for boarding. The ship has stairs and additional rooms built on it, washing hangs from lines strung across ...

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Kimberley points, late 19th century

This image shows five small, sharp cutting blades known as 'Kimberley points' that were made of different coloured glass and ceramic materials by Indigenous Australian craftspeople in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are an average of 8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The points at top right and bottom left show ...

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'Hut door', 1850s

This is a circular pencil drawing on coloured scraper board, measuring 22.7 cm in diameter. It was drawn in the 1850s by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80). It depicts a European family of mother, father and small daughter interacting with an elderly Indigenous Australian man and two Indigenous children in front of the door of ...

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Exploring the Swan River, 1827

This is a painting on canvas called 'Captain Stirling's exploring party 50 miles up the Swan River, Western Australia, March, 1827'. The painting, measuring 29.2 cm x 36.0 cm, shows a tree-lined section of the Swan River, near present-day Perth. There are two boats: on one of them, men in British navy uniforms are lowering ...

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'Chinese carpenters at work, Emerald Hill', c1867

This is a black-and-white print that shows a group of Chinese carpenters in a workshop at Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) around 1867. A European man, who may be an artist, observes two of the carpenters at work. The carpenters appear to be making celestial carvings, which were spiritual objects for the Chinese, but which ...

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'First hut at Challicum, 1842'

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that depicts the first hut built at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. The basic hut consists of timber slabs and a roof clad with bark. Mount Langi Ghiran and Mount Cole form part of the mountain range shown behind the hut. The watercolour, which measures ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Bedgi-bedgi (Bidgee-bidgee), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Bedgi-bedgi (also known as Bidgee-bidgee), said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe. He has patterned scarification on his arms, chest and abdomen, ...

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Three Indigenous Australians, c1850

This is a watercolour painted by Samuel Gill in about 1850, entitled 'Two natives and child by a creek'. The painting, which measures 10 cm x 12 cm, is also known as 'Aborigine with barbed spear'. The location is unidentified. The image shows three Indigenous Australians - a man, a woman, and a child aged about three. All ...

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Loading camels, early 20th century

This is a sepia-toned photograph measuring 10.3 cm x 5.0 cm, taken in outback Australia in the early 20th century, probably by John Flynn (1880-1951). The photograph shows three men, one of whom is an Afghan cameleer, loading a camel with two wool bales. A camel already loaded stands in the foreground with other camels ...

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Australian gold diggings, c1855

This is an oil painting measuring 70.5 cm x 90.3 cm, painted about 1855 by Edwin Stocqueler (1829-1895), showing men working on the Bendigo gold field in Victoria. The men are panning, puddling and cradling for gold on both sides of a stream in a tent-dotted valley. The valley is stark, with only a few trees remaining. ...

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Bethany in the Barossa Hills, 1847

This is a hand-coloured lithographic print showing Bethany, a village established by German immigrants, at the foot of the Barossa Hills in South Australia in the 1840s. The lithograph was listed as Plate 60 in the book 'South Australia illustrated', published in 1847. It measures 29.7 cm x 34 cm.

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'Australian exploration, an expedition on the march', 1874

This is a black-and-white print that depicts the ill-fated expedition, led by explorer Peter Egerton Warburton, which attempted to cross central Australia in 1873. The print shows expedition members astride camels with Warburton in the lead and an Aboriginal guide on foot in the desert. The print, which measures 35.5 cm ...