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'Breach at Gate Pä, April 30, 1864'

This is a watercolour created by Lieutenant Horatio Gordon Robley showing Pukehinahina or Gate Pä at Tauranga, New Zealand, on the morning of 30 April 1864. Two British soldiers are standing guard over the scene. In the background two figures are carrying someone away on a stretcher. A slain Mäori defender lies in the trench ...

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'Akau-tä (club), 18th century

This is a long fighting club created in Tonga in the 18th century. It flares from a round grip to a wider, thicker tip and is completely covered with intricate incised designs, including several miniature figures on the shaft and flattened end (figures are not visible in this image). Most of the carving is extremely fine, ...

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Orrery, c1770 - part 2

This is a mechanical model of part of the solar system, commonly known as an orrery, manufactured by English mathematician and 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 ...

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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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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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'Jandamarra's boomerang', late 19th century

This is a boomerang painted with three oval markings. On one side is an old label that reads: 'Western Australian Boomerang called Kielie of curious pattern. This boomerang belonged to the black bushranger Pidgeon who was shot by the police on … the Lillemillora Gorge, Leopold Range. Rare Pattern'. The boomerang is 52.5 ...

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Baw Baw frog

This is a colour photograph of a preserved Baw Baw frog ('Philoria frosti'). It is a museum specimen preserved in a transparent container. Museum cataloguing labels are visible.

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Sea louse

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

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Paradise parrot

This is a colour photograph of a preserved paradise parrot ('Psephotus pulcherrimus'). It is a museum specimen displayed perching on a branch. The bright plumage colours for which it is well known are clearly visible.

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Great pampa finch

This is a colour photograph of a preserved great pampa finch ('Embernagra platensis'). The tail of this specimen is missing. Identification labels and cataloguing numbers are attached to the specimen.

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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 ...

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'Cobb and Co coach on the Sydney road', 1850s

This is a watercolour, measuring 16.2 cm x 25.2 cm, by the famous colonial artist Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80). It shows a Cobb and Co coach travelling to Sydney, New South Wales, along a rough dirt road bounded by timber fences and open fields, with buildings (probably farmhouses) in the background. At least two horses ...

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'Gold digging in Australia 1852: fair prospects'

This is a watercolour, the second of a pair, measuring 20.2 cm x 26.4 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows two gold miners standing near a mine shaft, inspecting a handful of gold, at the edge of a creek. One of the men is leaning on a pick and a panning dish is lying on the ground nearby. ...

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Ophir gold diggings in 1851 - asset 4

This is a hand-coloured print of a sketch made by George French Angas (1822-86) of the gold fields at Ophir, near Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1851. The title of the sketch ('Ophir at the junction') refers to the junction of Summer Hill and Lewis Pond Creeks, but the junction itself is not clearly shown. The view is from ...

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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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Mäori weapons taken at Te Ranga, 1864

This is an ink watercolour by Lieutenant Horatio Robley entitled 'Mäori arms taken at Te Ranga 21 June 1864', which appeared in 'The Illustrated London News' of September 1864. It shows weapons captured after the British victory over Ngäi Te Rangi (a Mäori tribe) at Te Ranga on 21 June 1864. The weapons are numbered and ...

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Indigenous Australians spearing eels, c1817

This is a 17.6 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour of two men spearing fish in a river. One has caught an eel on his four-pronged spear. The landscape is heavily vegetated with mountains in the distance and there are rocky outcrops on either side of the river. Large trees frame the image.

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Indigenous Australians using fire to hunt kangaroos, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.5 cm x 27.8 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australians using fire to flush out kangaroos in order to hunt them. One man is ready to throw a spear using a woomera (spear thrower) and another has his arm raised to throw a boomerang. In the background, ...

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Portrait of political activist Emma Miller, c1910s

This posed black-and-white portrait photograph of Emma Miller, probably taken in Queensland in the 1910s, shows a thin and elderly woman, fashionably dressed for the time, sitting on a chair in a studio. She is staring straight at the camera with a resolute look on her face. Her dark clothing includes a richly embroidered ...

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Simon, Indigenous Australian from Victoria, c1858

This is a hand-coloured photographic print of an Indigenous Australian from Victoria, taken in about 1858. Measuring 24 cm x 19 cm, it is entitled 'SIMON. An Australian Aborigine of the Yarra Yarra tribe which opposed the landing of Batman 1835'. The man is pictured with a spear in one hand and a wooden club in the other. ...