On Easter Saturday in 1938 the Mount Panorama Circuit at Bathurst, in the Central West of NSW, was first used for motor racing. The inaugural event was part of the district’s 150 years of European settlement celebrations. The inaugural race was an Australian TT motorcycle race, two days later the Australian Grand Prix cars competed. […]
Made in 1919, a gift of over 100 paintings and works on paper led to the establishment of Tamworth’s first public art gallery. Known collectively as the Salvana Collection these works were donated by Australian artist John Salvana (1873-1956). Principally a painter, Salvana was best known for his ‘bush scenes’ or impressionistic landscapes of rural […]
Barrett’s Ice Cream, the ‘Cream of the West’, was sold during the mid-1960s in this round blue-and-white tin. Barretts also packaged their ice cream in a waxed, rectangular cardboard container known as ‘The Brick’. For obvious reasons, this once-familiar packaging has not survived. Barrett’s Orange-based ice cream business was founded by Walter E. Barrett in […]
In the late-1890s Charles Packham (1842-1909) found notoriety after developing a new pear variety. Using this plain pruning knife, Packham successfully created the new pear by grafting together a Bell and Williams Pear – it was aptly called Packhams Triumph. The second half of the nineteenth century was a time of growing interest and experimentation […]
This 1902 booklet shows that the Central West town of Orange was once in contention to become the site of the nation’s capital. This honour eventually went to Canberra. The cover proclaims ‘Canobolas’ as the ‘Ideal Site for the Federal Capital’. An English / Anglicised version of a Wiradjuri word Gnoo Blas and meaning ‘two […]
This decorated apron is typical of the regalia worn world-wide by the Freemasons, and from the early eighteenth century. This era saw Freemasonry evolve from a craft-based fraternity exclusive to freemasons, to a moral-based organisation exclusive to men. Freemasonry, resembling this historic change, was transported to Australia by British-origin migrants in the late-eighteenth century. Throughout […]
Museums & Galleries of NSW acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands that comprise the state now known as NSW.
We pay respect to them as First Nations people with a continuing connection to land, place, waters and community
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