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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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'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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Indigenous Australian man with white body paint, c1790

This is a portrait of an Indigenous Australian man from the Port Jackson (Sydney) area of New South Wales, created in about 1790 by an unknown artist. He is depicted from the waist up, with white paint on his face, arms and chest. The text 'When angry and (as I suppose) intends to fight at a future period' is written below ...

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Touring possible sites for the federal capital, 1902

This is a black-and-white photograph, measuring 18.8 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. Having alighted from a horse-drawn stage coach, five members of the party en route to Tumut, New South Wales, are standing ...

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'A ship's boat attacking a whale', c1813

This is a hand-coloured aquatint (a print made from an engraving on copper) showing a boat's crew from a British whaling ship about to harpoon a whale. Measuring 18 cm x 22.8 cm, the print appeared in a book entitled 'Foreign field sports, fisheries, sporting anecdotes ...'

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Priest blessing Irish emigrants in 1851

This is a black-and-white print made from a wood engraving, which appeared in the 'Illustrated London News' in 1851, of a priest blessing a group of poor Irish emigrants who are packing their belongings onto a horse-drawn cart. The people are dressed in hats and coats, and some are kneeling to accept the blessing. The landscape ...

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'Cradling, Forrest Creek', 1853

This is an 1853 hand-coloured lithographic print, entitled 'Cradling. Forrest Creek'. It was made by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80) from a sketch done on the spot as he watched gold miners cradle for gold at Forest Creek (as it was more commonly spelled), in Victoria. One miner scoops water into the cradle, while the other ...

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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. IX', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.7 cm x 24.3 cm showing the vast yellow-and-green Challicum plains. In the distance a flock of sheep, watched by a shepherd and dog, is moving into temporary wooden yards. Among gum trees, to the right of the yard, is the homestead. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as the ...

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Sheet music cover for 'Australia draws her maiden sword', 1885

This is the damaged front cover of a three-page score for the song 'Australia Draws her Maiden Sword'. It depicts Australia as a maiden drawing her long sword and preparing for imminent conflict. Behind her, troops are shown marching out of their encampment. On the bottom of the cover in copperplate are the words 'WRITTEN ...

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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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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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Sorting mother-of-pearl shells, Broome, c1953

This is a black-and-white photograph measuring 18.7 cm x 24.5 cm, showing three Malay or Indonesian men grading and sorting mother-of-pearl shells in Broome, Western Australia in about 1953. The photograph was taken by the famous Australian photographer Frank Hurley.

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Exploring the Swan River, 1827

This is a painting on canvas called 'Captain Stirling's exploring party 50 miles up the Swan River, Western Australia, March, 1827'. The painting, measuring 29.2 cm x 36.0 cm, shows a tree-lined section of the Swan River, near present-day Perth. There are two boats: on one of them, men in British navy uniforms are lowering ...

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Three Indigenous Australians, c1850

This is a watercolour painted by Samuel Gill in about 1850, entitled 'Two natives and child by a creek'. The painting, which measures 10 cm x 12 cm, is also known as 'Aborigine with barbed spear'. The location is unidentified. The image shows three Indigenous Australians - a man, a woman, and a child aged about three. All ...

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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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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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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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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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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.