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Sketch of Moreton Bay penal settlement, 1835 - item 1

This detailed pencil sketch, attributed to Henry Boucher Bowerman, depicts Moreton Bay (Brisbane) penal settlement from present-day Kangaroo Point. The panoramic landscape view takes in the Brisbane River in the foreground and existing government buildings necessary to a convict settlement, spread across the land behind. ...

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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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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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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. 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. VII', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.7 cm x 24.4 cm, showing a mounted man herding a small group of cows past scattered native bush and trees, beneath the backdrop of the Mount Cole ranges. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as the fifteenth watercolour in his field sketchbook and inscribed the title 'Panorama ...

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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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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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'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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'Quail shooting, Jones' Hill, Challicum', c1850

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows quail shooting at Jones' Hill at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. It depicts two men with shotguns and two hunting dogs, which may be pointers, crossing a low plateau. The man in front has taken aim and appears to have just discharged his rifle. ...

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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. V', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 16.6 cm x 25.7 cm showing a mounted man, possibly the squatter Harry Thomson. Two dogs run behind him as he rides along a meandering trail left by wagon wheels. Forests stretch away behind and native gums dot the Challicum Hills which rise out of the forest treetops. The artist, Duncan Cooper, ...

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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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Second hut at Challicum, summer view, 1845

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows the second hut built at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria established by Cooper and George and Harry Thomson. In the foreground is a man on horseback, who may be Harry Thomson, followed by two dogs, crossing a grassy plain. Almost directly behind ...

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Riding a horse to school, 1928

This posed 1928 black-and-white photograph shows five girls on a horse on their way to the Glass Mountains State School, as it was known at the time, in Queensland. The girls are pressed together from the base of the horse's neck to its rump. They wear hats and hold their school cases. The horse has a bridle and one girl ...

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'Southern Sun' above Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1931

This is a gelatin silver-toned composite photograph measuring 32 cm x 25.5 cm, created by E.W. Searle. The Avro-10 Southern Sun plane piloted by Charles Ulm celebrated the arrival in Sydney of aviatrix Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. Amy Johnson had crash landed in Brisbane and was flown ...

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Students digging trenches at Ascot State School, Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows schoolchildren digging air-raid trenches in the grounds of Ascot State School in Brisbane, Queensland, on 24 January 1942. Working in the slit trenches, knee deep or deeper, the male students use picks and shovels to dig and remove the earth. A man digging with them on the right is ...

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'Poultry house, Challicum', 1851

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that depicts the poultry house at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. Two of the Djapwurrong people (the Indigenous inhabitants of this region) are shown sitting by a smoking fire next to a temporary bark shelter. Various chickens are also shown pecking in ...

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'Sheep station on the plains, Challicum, 1843'

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that shows a sheep out-station on the plains at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. A slab hut is depicted in the foreground, while in the distance is a shepherd with his dog and flock. The shepherd's watchbox and the hurdles (portable fences) used to contain ...

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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, ...