When Madeleine Lenz (1917-2009) first visited Lightning Ridge in the 1950s, it was a rough, remote outpost with just 64 residents. The settlement had no town water, power or police—just a pub, a small store, and dirt roads riddled with potholes. The nearest doctor was fifty miles away at Walgett. Despite its harsh conditions, Madeleine […]
Four brass matchbox covers and an ashtray (c. 1916-1918) held in Elsie White’s bedroom at Saumarez Homestead in Armidale are a small reminder of a generation who lived and fought through World War One. They are part of a disparate collection of objects categorised as ‘Trench Art,’ an object made by people from any material […]
‘Now I can’t fly but I’m telling you, I can run the pants off a Kangaroo.’ These are the beloved lyrics of John Williamson’s song, Old Man Emu, featured here in an original Australian release of the song’s sheet music. John Williamson AM was born into a wheat farming family in 1945. In 1965 Williamson […]
Cattle and sheep now roam the paddocks, and wheat crops stretch as far as the eye can see, but the area now known as Tambar Springs on the North West Slopes region was long the domain of enormous, flat-nosed kangaroos: Procoptodon goliah. Weighing over 200kg, it used its height of 2m to graze from tall […]
Kathleen Lyttleton-Taylor’s (nee Regan) gift of eighteen stunning pieces of historic silverware, made to the Tamworth Regional Gallery in 1963, includes the works of twelve accomplished Australian silversmiths. These makers originate from three different Australian states and backgrounds, which gives the collection mixed stylistic and personal influence. The work of William Edwards of Melbourne; Evan […]
Artist and activist Badger Bates is a Barkandji elder from Wilcannia near the Barka (Darling) River in far western New South Wales. His people are river people and, as a result, much of his art focuses on the Barka and the people and animals that are dependent on its flow. Badger was born in 1947 […]
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