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'John Batman's famous treaty with the blacks', c1914

This is a black-and-white engraving, measuring 40.4 cm x 57 cm, made by George Rossi Ashton (1851-1942) in about 1914. It depicts John Batman (1801-39) and an elderly Indigenous Australian man leaning over what is probably a treaty document on the decayed trunk of a large fallen tree. They are surrounded by 16 men, many ...

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Invitation to Commonwealth celebrations, 1901

This is a coloured printed invitation to a conversazione celebrating the Commonwealth of Australia. It measures 30.2 cm x 37 cm. At the bottom is the wording, 'THE GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA requests the honor of the presence of Mr W J Ferguson MLA and Mrs Ferguson at a Conversazione in the Exhibition Building on the Evening ...

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Challicum, 1844

This is a pen-and-ink diagram by Duncan Cooper that shows the layout of the home station at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. A list of the buildings is included in the diagram. They are: '1. Hut. 2. Kitchen, with covered shed behind. 3. Store. 4. Carpenters Shop. 5. Henhouse. 6. Woolshed. 7. ...

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Wolter and Echberg washing machine, late 1800s

This is a late-19th-century compressed-air washing machine, made by Victorian manufacturers Wolter and Echberg. The machine is made of galvanised steel and has a distinctive rocket-like appearance, with a central drum, in which the clothes are washed, consisting of two cone shapes on either end of a cylinder. On the drum ...

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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. ...

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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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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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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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'Splitters', 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 two splitters cutting slabs from the felled trunk of a tree using wedges and mallets. A bullock dray stands nearby, stacked high with slabs, and the ...

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Concert room at Ballarat, 1855

This is a watercolour, measuring 22.8 cm x 31.9 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows Charles Thatcher (1831-78), a comic singer well known on the gold fields, performing popular songs on stage at the Charlie Napier Hotel in Ballarat with a female accompanist. The painting has the artist's ...

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Metters 'Moffat' electric stove, late 1930s

This is a cast-iron stove called the 'Moffat', produced in Melbourne by Australian manufacturer Metters KFB in the late 1930s. The stove is set on four iron legs and consists of an oven, cooktop and griller. It is finished with green enamel and three cream enamel panels inset on the knob interface, griller door and oven ...

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Giant sea spider

This is a colour photograph of a giant sea spider ('Dodecolopoda mawsoni') set against a black background. This is a preserved specimen that has lost its original red colouration and faded to orange due to the preserving liquid. The long legs, small body and bright colouration are displayed in 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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Feather fossil

This is a colour photograph of a feather fossilised in mudstone. This specimen is from the Koonwarra fossil bed in the South Gippsland region of Victoria. This fossil shows detail of the feather structure, including the central shaft and attached barbs.

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Ethanol molecule

This is a colour image of a model of a molecule of ethanol, CH₃CH₂OH. In this model, atoms are represented by coloured spheres held together by grey rods that represent covalent bonds. The molecule contains two carbon atoms (the black spheres), one oxygen atom (the red sphere) and six hydrogen atoms (the grey-white spheres).

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Eastern horseshoe bat skull

This is a colour photograph of the internal skull of an eastern horseshoe bat ('Rhinolophus megaphyllus'). This museum specimen displays two components of the skull: the braincase with fused rostrum and the lower jaw. This image has a pale background and includes a thick black scale line representing 1 cm. (Classification ...

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Panning for gold on the Mulgrave River, c1888

This is a black-and-white photograph showing five miners prospecting for alluvial gold on the banks of the Mulgrave River in Queensland. Two of the men hold shovels and stand by a sluice, two others pan for gold and the fifth rests on a wooden wheelbarrow. Several other mining implements are in evidence - a pan, pick, shovel ...

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Pacific Islander labourers outside slab-hut dwellings, late 1800s

This is a black-and-white photograph showing indentured Pacific Islanders and their families posing by their slab-hut homes, probably on a coastal Queensland sugar plantation. They are wearing Western-style clothes, with the women in long skirts and the men wearing jackets and trousers. The huts appear to have been constructed ...

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The Holy Triad Temple at Breakfast Creek, 1886

This black-and-white photograph of the Holy Triad Temple (San Xung Kung) at Breakfast Creek in Brisbane shows the exterior of a small elaborately decorated and well-maintained Chinese temple sometimes known as a joss house. The decorative triple roof sits on a rectangular rendered brick structure, which is adorned with ...

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ANZAC poster

This is a poster commemorating the New Zealand role in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) campaign in Gallipoli during the First World War. Along the top is a photograph depicting three naval vessels on one side and Anzac Beach, Gallipoli, after the landing on the other. At the top of the photograph is the ...