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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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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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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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Boats and supplies at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 1915

This is a sepia-toned photograph of Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey taken in early June 1915. Boats and barges are moored at several temporary pontoon piers. On the shore are many soldiers, a row of guns and several barrels. The photograph measures 17.1 cm x 27.7 cm.

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'Diggers licensing, Forest Creek, 1852'

This is a black-and-white print that shows diggers (miners) at Forest Creek on the Mount Alexander diggings in Victoria lining up before the Gold Commissioner's tent to pay a licence fee. A policeman stands guard next to the tent while, in the foreground on the left, two policemen can be seen speaking to a digger. The print, ...

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Visit of Australian cricketers to the USA, 1913

This is the front page of a program printed in rust-red-and-black letters on a beige background, with the words 'OFFICIAL PROGRAMME COMMEMORATING THE VISIT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS TO AMERICA 1913'. The text is set within decoration in the Art Nouveau style.

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Outside gold miners' huts, Mount Dromedary, 1890s

This is a photograph, taken by William Henry Corkhill (1846-1936) in the late 1890s, showing four gold miners standing outside a simple slab hut on the Mount Dromedary diggings in southern New South Wales. The hut stands on a narrow terrace cut into the hillside amid the bush. Firewood and housekeeping utensils lie on the ...

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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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'Hobson's Bay Railway Pier, Melbourne', 1878

This is a 37.2 cm x 52.5 cm sepia-toned photograph of Station Pier at Sandridge (now Port Melbourne), Victoria. About 60 people stand in the foreground looking up at what must be the photographer, Charles Nettleton, exposing his photographic plate. Various ships, some of which are steam powered, can be seen lining both ...

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Funeral of Burke and Wills, Melbourne, 1863

This is a 17.3 cm x 24.3 cm black-and-white wood engraving of the 1863 state funeral of Burke and Wills in Melbourne, Victoria. Crowds line the street, and watch from balconies and rooftops, to see the procession that includes an ornate horse-drawn open carriage bearing the caskets of the two famous explorers, preceded ...

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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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Possum trappers

This is a photograph of two New Zealand possum trappers. It was taken in 1929 in Taranaki, North Island, and shows the trappers with the dried skins of the Australian brush-tailed possum ('Trichosurus vulpecula').

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'Discussing the site at Tumut', 1902

This is a black-and-white photograph, measuring 18.4 cm x 24.0 cm, taken in 1902 during a tour of inspection by senators from the Federal Parliament of possible sites for the proposed federal capital. Senators and local dignitaries are posing in groups on a hillside, ostensibly discussing the merits of a site at Tumut in ...

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The 'Dig' tree in 1878

This is a watercolour by Arthur Esam (1850-1938), created in 1878 and measuring a modest 32.5 cm x 26.7 cm. It shows a coolibah tree with two sections of bark missing - the famous 'Dig' tree of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1861. A man (perhaps Esam himself) is standing holding the reins of a horse, and appears to be ...

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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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Successful explorers at the South Pole, 1911

This is a mounted sepia photograph, measuring 7.6 cm x 12.6 cm, taken by Olar Bjaaland (1873-1961) at the South Pole on 14 December 1911. It shows his four companions paying tribute to the Norwegian flag flying from their tent. Written across the mount below the photograph is the caption, 'The successful explorers at the ...

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Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s

This is a black-and-white photograph made from a glass negative. It shows a woman washing clothes by hand in a galvanised iron tub outdoors, beside a high fence made from sheets of galvanised iron. A cane laundry basket and washed clothes hanging on a clothes line can be seen.

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. II', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 16 cm x 24.5 cm showing the Victorian squatting runs Challicum and Yalla-y-poora from a south-south-westerly viewpoint. In the midground is the yellow grassland of the Fiery Creek plains, gum trees dot the countryside and the distant bluish mountain is Mount Weejort. Two emus are shown in ...

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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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'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. ...