After his sudden death in 1992, Brett Whiteley’s daughter Arkie remembered her artist father as a ‘generous, sweet intuitive man’ who would go to eternity wearing his ‘funny little turned up black hat with the frangipani brooch.’ The hat, now in the collection of the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, was his ‘good luck hat. He […]
The slouch hat is a widely recognised Australian military icon. It’s distinctive design originated with the Victorian Mounted Rifles, whose soldiers wore an ordinary bush felt hat turned up on the right side. This prevented the brim from obstructing movement during drills, when a long firearm was transferred from the ground position to the shoulder […]
This day dress and petticoat were owned and worn by Mrs Ann Chellew nee Milburn (1872-1948) when a young woman around the turn of the twentieth century. Ann was the daughter of Janet Miller and James Milburn, who migrated to Australia from Scotland and England. Arriving with her family (in 1852) Janet was a baby, […]
By the age of ten Rocky Cameron (1944-2016) was already an experienced performer. He had ‘cut his teeth’ on the greater-Sydney radio circuit – 2UW, 2KY, 2GB & 2KA – but even with those successes he still felt his nerves swell. Following the introduction of television to Australia, Rocky made it to the stage of […]
Coiled straw work, also known as lip work, has a long tradition and is practiced by many cultures from around the world, including Anglo-Celtic cultures. Margaret Casey, who was born to an Irish father and English mother, learnt and used the coiled straw technique to craft this sun-hat in the 1880s. She made it from […]
This elegant top hat first belonged to James Dalton Jnr (1834-1919) of Orange, who purchased and wore it in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Several decades earlier, James had fled the Great Irish Famine, leaving the town of Duntryleague in Limerick County, Ireland and migrating to NSW as a free-settler on the Panama, arriving […]
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