Inside the Collection

Photograph of Monorail coming into the maintenance depot on the traverser

Farewell to Sydney’s Monorail

July 1, 2013

Margaret Simpson
Update (5/2/14): View the Monorail in our collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALuU_-8Mnwo Monorail coming into the maintenance depot on the traverser. Photo by Geoff Friend. Were you one of the thousands of well wishers who said goodbye to Sydney's Monorail last weekend?
Photograph of Leyland P76 Super V-8, 4-door sedan

It’s 40 years since the Leyland P76 car

June 26, 2013

Margaret Simpson
Forty years ago today, on 26 June 1973 the Leyland P76 was launched to a waiting Australian public. The V-8 version was named 'Wheels Magazine's' 1973 Car of the Year. It said: The...totally new Leyland sedan emerged as a dynamic and remarkably fine motor car, surely destined to push Leyland up the ladder, both in Australia and in export markets.
Photograph of Trolley bus No.1.

Sydney’s public transport – Trolley Buses

June 24, 2013

Margaret Simpson
With the immanent closure and removal of Sydney's controversial Monorail on 30 June 2013, I am reminded of the demise of other types of public transport in Sydney like horse buses; steam, cable and electric trams and trolley buses.
Photograph of Welcome to Villawood sign

Refugee Week 2013 – What’s the big deal?

June 21, 2013

Melanie Pitkin
Refugee Week (Sunday 16 June - Saturday 22nd June, 2013) is "Australia's peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society" (Refugee Week official website).
Photograph of film swimsuit costume

Esther Williams- Neptune’s other daughter

June 19, 2013

Einar Docker
Despite being a huge star for MGM in the 1940s and 50s, Esther Williams’ most famous connection to Australia is arguably her role in the film Million Dollar Mermaid where she portrayed the early life of Annette Kellerman.
Photograph of Nelsons Ridge housing estate

Suburbia, apartmentia, adapturbia

June 17, 2013

Charles Pickett
Are baby-boomers responsible for Sydney’s unaffordable housing? It’s becoming a common theme of the property media with story headings like 'Boomers put super squeeze on first home buyers’.
Photograph of Cobb and Co. coach

Cobb and Co coach

June 12, 2013

Margaret Simpson
When most people think of travel by horse-drawn coach in Australia, during the nineteenth century, the name which immediately springs to mind is Cobb and Co.  So who was Cobb and Co? The Cobb and Co Telegraph Line of Royal Mail Coaches, as they were properly known at the time, was formed in 1853 by Freeman Cobb in Victoria to operate horse-drawn mail and passenger coaches between Melbourne and the nearby goldfields.
Photograph of red toy pedal car

An evocative object: pedal car

June 10, 2013

Paul Wilson
When the author of this blog's first 'evocative object' post asked me to think about what object from the Museum's collection evoked strong emotions, a few childhood memories flashed through my mind – my first football with its strong smell of fresh leather and my first cricket bat, which I associate with another strong smell, linseed oil – but if I had to choose the earliest special thing from my early childhood it would have to be my pedal car.
Botanical illustration of 'Tristania laurina'

Botanical illustration from the early Museum

June 5, 2013

Lynne McNairn
  This painting is another botanical illustration by Agard Hagman from 1887. The first curator of the Museum of Applied and Sciences was the botanist Joseph Maiden who later became Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Model of the China Central TV headquarters in Beijing

The Big Trousers has a new friend

June 3, 2013

Charles Pickett
Thanks to Arup Sydney we acquired a model of the China Central TV headquarters in Beijing. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, its a sophisticated and controversial attempt to reinvent the office tower.
Model of the Sydney ferry, Lady Woodward, of 1970

Sydney’s public transport – Ferries

May 29, 2013

Margaret Simpson
  The ferries of Sydney are as synonymous to tourists and locals alike as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Ferries provided Sydney with its earliest public transport system. Over 20 years before steam railways began here in 1855, Sydney was using steam ferries to carry passengers, goods, vehicles and livestock across and around the harbour.