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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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City railway terminus, Melbourne, 1854

This is a black-and-white lithograph measuring 12.5 cm x 20 cm, depicting the city terminus of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company in Melbourne in 1854. An early type of steam locomotive is shown approaching a platform where passengers and freight are waiting. The drawing was made by Samuel Thomas Gill and his ...

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Ophir gold diggings in 1851 - asset 3

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made by Thomas Balcombe (1810-61), measuring 27 cm x 47.5 cm, and based on a sketch made on the spot by J Korff. It depicts gold diggings at the confluence of Summer Hill Creek and Lewis Ponds Creek at Ophir in New South Wales. A horseman is shown approaching miners standing near the creek, ...

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Sled dogs at the South Pole, 1911

This is a 1911 black-and-white sepia-toned photograph, taken by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) at the South Pole, of a dog team hitched to a loaded sled on the snow. A figure dressed in Arctic-style cold weather gear stands beside the sled and a Norwegian flag is stuck in the snow. Apart from three other dogs tethered behind ...

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Aviator William Ewart Hart's biplane, 1911

This is a 23.4 cm x 38.8 cm sepia-toned photograph of the homemade biplane of one of Australia's first aviators, William Ewart Hart (1885-1943), after its 1911 landing on the Sydney Showground, New South Wales. A crowd has gathered around the aircraft, obscuring Hart from view.

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'The new rush', 1865

This is a coloured print, measuring 19.4 cm x 25.2 cm, by the famous colonial artist Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), published in 'The Australian Sketchbook' in 1865. It shows a gold rush scene, probably in Victoria, with a stream of prospectors travelling along a dirt road. Several are walking beside their horses and heavily ...

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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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Cranbourne meteorite

This is a colour photograph of an iron meteorite called 'The Cranbourne No 2 mass'.

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Sea louse

This is a colour photograph of a sea louse ('Natatolana woodjonesi').

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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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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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Phar Lap's skeleton

This is the skeleton of Phar Lap, the famous racehorse, which was born in New Zealand, raced mostly in Australia and died in unexplained circumstances in the United States in 1932.

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Ruins of the Model Prison, Port Arthur, 1911-15

This is a sepia-toned photograph measuring 8.2 cm x 13.2 cm. It shows the ruins of the Model Prison at Port Arthur, Tasmania. A semicircular brick wall has three barred doors that open to exercise yards. A fourth door is open, showing another brick wall with steps leading up to the closed door of a solitary confinement ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. I', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.8 cm x 24.4 cm showing gently undulating grassland and narrow bands of trees. A group of cows is being herded by a mounted man to a lower area behind a hill, possibly towards a small group of huts that can be glimpsed in the middle ground. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. III', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 16 cm x 24.5 cm showing the Victorian squatting run Challicum, from a south-westerly viewpoint. A team of four bullocks, pulling a single-axle wagon loaded with fuel and rough bush timber, is centred in front of a large forest. Two unidentified mountains or hills are on the horizon. The artist, ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. IV', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.9 cm x 24.3 cm showing yellowed pasture backed by gum trees. A herd of cows with calves is grazing both in the foreground fields and the background timber. A small hill, part of the Challicum Hills, rises from the trees on the right. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. VI', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 17.2 cm x 26.2 cm showing the twin peaks of Mount Langi Ghiran rising behind the smaller tip of Conical Hill. Two distant mountains on the right are Ben Nevis and Mount Buangor. A camp of Indigenous Djapwurrong people, consisting of two bark and wood dwellings, is situated on the edge of ...

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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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'Sergeants Freehold Quartz Gold Mining Company's claim, Redan, Ballarat', 1881

This is a pen, ink and watercolour drawing, measuring 43.5 cm x 55 cm, of Sergeants Freehold Quartz Gold Mining Company's claim at Redan, Ballarat. It was drawn in 1881 by T G Moyle, a gold fields artist working in the 1880s and 1890s. Extensive mine buildings are spread over a wide area, but dwarfed by a huge pile of quartz. ...

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'Gold digging in Australia 1852: bad results'

This is the first of a pair of oval watercolours, measuring 20.2 cm x 26.4 cm, painted by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows two gold miners sitting dejectedly beside their mine, probably on the Victorian gold fields. Behind the men is a windlass, as well as their wheelbarrow, pick and spade. ...