Search results

Image

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 ...

Image

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 ...

Image

Penny-farthing bicycle, c1888

This is a penny-farthing, or high-wheel bicycle, built in Melbourne by H Bassett and Co in the late 1880s. Called 'The Victory', it has a 142-cm diameter front wheel and a smaller rear wheel, both with solid rubber tyres. The pedals are fixed directly to the axle of the front wheel. The leather seat sits on a 'cradle spring' ...

Image

Dinosaur fossil bone

This is a colour photograph of a fossil bone set against a black background. This bone is an opalised fossil of a femur, or thigh bone, of a hypsilophodont dinosaur. The blue colouration of this opalised fossil bone is clearly visible.

Image

Horsedrawn whim on a gold field at Gympie, 1870-80

This is a black-and-white photograph of the minehead area at a Queensland goldmine. It shows the mine's headframe and a horsedrawn 'whim'. The whim consists of a wooden derrick construction with two large vertically mounted drums at its centre, one with a rope wound around it. The rope is connected at one end to the swivel ...

Image

Phar Lap

This is a photograph showing the mounted hide of Phar Lap, a champion racehorse in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was a large chestnut-coloured gelding who stood 17.1 hands (about 174 cm) tall.

Image

Former Pacific Island indentured labourers waiting for deportation, 1906

This black-and-white photograph shows Pacific Islanders mustered at the Cairns Court House in Queensland awaiting a medical examination prior to their deportation under the Australian Government's 1901 Pacific Island Labourers Act. The group, including a woman, some children and an Islander holding a bicycle, would probably ...

Image

Bivalve mollusc

This is a colour photograph of a collection of bivalve molluscs ('Theora lubrica').

Image

Sketch of Moreton Bay penal settlement, 1835 - item 2

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

Image

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. ...

Image

Pacific Islander labourers in the Mackay District, late 1800s

This posed black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islanders by their grass hut homes, probably on a Mackay sugar plantation in Queensland. Some are seated on logs or rough timber benches and one woman can also be seen. They are dressed in Western-style clothes. More huts can be seen on the cleared rise in the ...

Image

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 ...

Image

Pacific Islander women planting sugar cane at Bingera, c1897

This black-and-white photograph shows several indentured Pacific Islander women planting sugar-cane stalks, or setts, in freshly made furrows in a large field at Bingera near Bundaberg, Queensland. The women, dressed in Western-style clothes, are following directly behind a horsedrawn plough that is worked by indentured ...

Image

'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 ...

Image

Leadbeater's possum

This is a colour photograph of a preserved Leadbeater's possum ('Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'). It is a museum specimen. The long bushy tail, large eyes and ears are displayed in the image.

Image

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 ...

Image

Platypus skull

This is a colour photograph of the internal skull of a platypus ('Ornithorhynchus anatinus'). 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 black scale line representing 2 cm. Museum identification labels are ...

Image

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 ...

Image

Little red flying-fox skull

This is a colour photograph of the internal skull of a little red flying-fox ('Pteropus scapulatus'). 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 2 cm. (Classification - ...

Image

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 ...