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18 November 2014

Working on Winnie

Chloe Bussenschutt works as an objects conservator at the National Museum of Australia. One of her recent tasks has been the stabilisation and revitalisation of a horse mannequin from a saddlery business in Cooma, a town on the high, windswept Monaro plains of southern New South Wales. The mannequin features in Spirited: Australia’s Horse Story, the Museum’s latest exhibition. In her writings below, Chloe reveals the artful, philosophical and technical dimensions of this particular...
Categories Horses/Museum practice/Uncategorised
16 November 2014

Getting the flying kangaroo off the ground

Amongst the National Museum’s initial list of 100 Defining Moments in Australian history is 16 November 1920, the establishment of Qantas. This date was the culmination of a series of defining moments – years of trial and error that got Qantas in the air. From partnerships formed on the First World War battlefields, a long drive, chasing government subsidies and public support, and finding suitable aircraft, the Qantas story is...
Categories Aviation/Landscapes/Uncategorised
30 October 2014

Buggies, Bicycles and FJ Holdens

Every Australian family wanted one of these. With room for the whole clan on two bench seats, the sleek and robust double Abbott buggy was the FJ Holden of the late 19th century. I like to imagine the Victorian equivalent of the barbecue where ladies chatted about the Abbott’s silky smooth ride and the convenience of its rain hood. Men might have debated their buggy’s top speed with a decent...
Categories Climate change/Cycling/Horses/Uncategorised
20 October 2014

Bennelong had a Point

‘Time flies’, the proverb proclaims, and indeed it seems a year could not possibly have passed since the Sydney Opera House celebrated its 40th birthday and we commemorated the occasion with a blog post highlighting the landmark and the Museum’s purchase of two very rare protest posters associated with Jørn Utzon’s dismissal from its construction.  Yet today, the iconic cultural centre yet again marks its birthday – this time with...
Categories Uncategorised
16 October 2014

Captured: the art of photography

Last week I attended the opening of The Australian Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year 2014 exhibition at the South Australian Museum, in Adelaide. It was wonderful to be amongst the excitement as the competition winners were announced. Celebrating the landscapes and animals of the Australasian region, the competition attracts the amazing talents of thousands of photographers each year. I went to the exhibition opening with one of the finalists, Ruth Smith –...
Categories Art/Dogs/Horses/Landscapes/Museum practice/Uncategorised
3 October 2014

A Waler’s tail

During the development of the Spirited: Australia’s horse story exhibition, the National Museum has been in contact with numerous breed organisations and representatives from across Australia. Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Angela Tiede, a passionate supporter and owner of Waler horses. Angela sent the following stories of some of her horses for use in this guest blog post as part of her aspiration to help Walers “find their modern role...
Categories Horses/Uncategorised
24 September 2014

A Spirited opening event

The National Museum celebrated Australia’s horse story with the official launch of its new exhibition Spirited last week. The opening event mustered together horse enthusiasts from across the country, many of them having contributed their stories to the exhibition. Animal trainer Zelie Bullen opened the exhibiton by sharing her own horse stories, including those from the set of War Horse. Many more stories were shared as guests mingled and looked through the exhibition for...
Categories Horses/Museum practice/Uncategorised
12 September 2014

A Botanical life – a new chapter

It’s truly serendipitous how the fabrics of our lives sometimes manage to weave themselves into fortuitous little knots of connection, and it seems that just such a knot led to this guest blog post – exploring two women’s contemporary lives in the bush – by Pappinbarra River valley resident Chay Khamsone and her neighbour-come-colleague Bryony Anderson. You see, not long ago, I wrote an article titled “A botanical life”, which...
Categories Climate change/Landscapes/Uncategorised
15 August 2014

Striking new horse portraits by Margrete Erling

A few months ago we introduced painter Margrete Erling and her works that powerfully convey the significance of horses within Australian history, see Painting horses. In the meantime, Margrete has finished two striking new paintings. ‘Brumby’ honours the contribution of stock horses to the Australian pastoral industry, and ‘Pit Pony’ records the lives of horses bred to work in the cold darkness of underground coal mines.
Categories Art/Horses/Uncategorised
9 July 2014

‘Par avion’ – French for ‘by airmail’

While visiting Australia during 1914, French aviator Maurice Guillaux flew his Bleriot monoplane to deliver Australia’s first official airmail, flying from Melbourne to Sydney on 16-18 July. Over this coming weekend, the The Aviation Historical Society of NSW, with the assistance of Australia Post, will lead the centenary celebrations for this significant event, through a re-enactment flight by Owen Zupp in his Jabiru and accompanying aviators and aircraft. Although the idea of carrying...
Categories Aviation/Uncategorised
3 July 2014

A horse tricycle and SO much more…!

The Museum recently acquired a single family’s impressive collection of nearly 350 toys and we are marking the arrival with the display of one of the most beautiful pieces in its number – a 1920s horse tricycle. The trike, like the rest of the toys in the Susan and Andrew Gibson collection, belonged to a single generation of children in whose memory the collection was donated and named – the enviable...
Categories Cycling/Horses/Uncategorised
27 June 2014

Science & suburbs: new stories about food

We’ve uploaded some fascinating new pages onto the Museum’s Food Stories website. The pages feature a stump-jump plough, and reveal its close ties to Majura Primary School, our Food Stories partner school in the ACT. Majura Primary School students live in houses built upon paddocks and scientific plots formerly managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which operated the Dickson Experiment Station on the lower slopes of Mount Majura between 1940 and...
Categories Uncategorised