PLACE REPRESENTED: Melbourne, Victoria , Australia
ITEM: Nic Nac Dish
NOTES: All the sites of Melbourne in (on) melamine. There is more to Melbourne. Where are the hipsters?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: plastic (melamine)
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Ashdene
DIMENSIONS: 21cm x 14cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Cairns (specifically Stony (or Stoney) Creek Bridge and Falls), Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Side plate
NOTES: Stony Creek Falls (10-15 minutes from Cairns City Centre) is a cascade waterfall on the Stony Creek. This small creek amongst the suburban rainforest provides a quick and easy natural swimming pool … or so the tourist brochures of the time suggest. The falls are best known for the curved lattice railway bridge that passes in front of them.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1930s
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: Czechoslovakia
MANUFACTURER: Victoria
DIMENSIONS: 15cm x 15cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Talbingo, New South Wales , Australia
ITEM: Steel Cup
NOTES: Talbingo is a small town in south east country New South Wales at the edge of the Snowy Mountains, on the Tumut River and the Jounama Dam.
As the cup indicates they love their freshwater fishing and even have a Talbingo Fishing Club and an annual fishing competition, the Yamaha Jounama Classic.
This cup has seen quite a few camp fires and is made of the finest Chinese steel, made from ore imported from Australia no doubt. Ahhhh, where would we be without primary industries. Where will we be without them in the near future?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1990s
MADE FROM: steel
MADE IN: China
MANUFACTURER: TS
DIMENSIONS: 8.5cm diameter x 8cm high
PLACE REPRESENTED: Victor Harbour, South Australia , Australia
ITEM: Salt & Pepper Shakers
NOTES: The salt and pepper shakers clearly state “Vitor Harbour” not “Victor Harbour”. If you google “Vitor Harbour” or “Vitor Harbor” you will get nothing apart from a number of suggestions that perhaps you mean “Victor Harbour”, a seaside town 80 km south of Adelaide, South Australia. Interestingly there are organisations (sailing clubs, swimming clubs) in the same place that use “Vitor” (or, they don’t spell check when putting themselves on-line). “Victor” and “Vitor” may be different places or the same place but they are both on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.
I’m confused. Fleurieu Peninsula residents where are you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleurieu_Peninsula
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1950s
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 9cm high , 6cm wide each
PLACE REPRESENTED: Tasmania, Australia
ITEM: Salt & Pepper Shakers
NOTES: Apples and Tasmania … a very familiar motif. Apples and salt and pepper, of course, don’t go together or do they?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): circa 1960
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Westminster Fine China
DIMENSIONS: 7cm high x 5.5cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Brisbane, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Dinner Bell
NOTES: A large ceramic dinner bell celebrating that ode to middle brow banality, the State sponsored World Fair … in this case the World Expo 88 held in Brisbane.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1988
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 13.5cm high x 8.5cm diameter
PLACE REPRESENTED: Woombye (specifically The Big Pineapple), Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Snow Globe
NOTES: It doesn’t snow anywhere near the “Big Pineapple” so why a snow globe? Why not I say!
The “Big Pineapple” was a big and a major tourist attraction in the 70s … people would travel for miles to see the “Big Pineapple”. They don’t as much any more but they should as there is should be a market for “retro chic hipster tourism”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Pineapple
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: China
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 18.5cm high x 7cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Brisbane, Queensland , Australia (specifically Queensland Parliament)
ITEM: Coasters
NOTES: Four coasters in a tin case depicting the Queensland Parliament’s coat of arms.
Queensland’s Parliament sits in Brisbane and is often quite surprising. Well, more surprising than this souvenir.
It’s a good thing the coasters don’t depict governments as they seem to change frequently.
Why would anyone buy a souvenir like this? Perhaps an ex-politician took it on the way out.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: tin , rubber (base)
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 9.5cm diameter
PLACE REPRESENTED: Ballina , New South Wales, Australia
ITEM: Coasters
NOTES: Ballina on the NSW North Coast is a small, urbanised, seaside town, hence the, perhaps, unspectacular pictures on the coasters.
I note the bikini swimmer on two of the coasters seems to be the same girl, albeit in different bikinis. Must have been the photographers girlfriend? I think I saw her the last time I was in Ballina.
Most people head off to the beaches of nearby Lennox Heads or Byron Bay.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: cork
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Murray Views
DIMENSIONS: 28cm x 9cm (packet)
PLACE REPRESENTED: Grenfell, New South Wales , Australia
ITEM: Fridge Magnet
NOTES: A outback man and his swag. How, err, outback Australian. Henry Lawson, the bush poet, was born near Grenfell so this is appropriate.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Crystal Craft
DIMENSIONS: 4.5cm x 7cm (at its biggest)