PLACE REPRESENTED: Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
ITEM: Fridge Magnet
NOTES: Animal caricature fridge magnets with youthful phrasing and attitude (apparently).
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2014
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: China
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 5.5cm across x 7cm high each
PLACE REPRESENTED: Goondiwindi, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Pens
NOTES: Pens (in blue and purple) signifying a visit to a newsagent in Goondiwindi. Goondiwindi is remote … about 350 kilometres (220 mi) south west of the Queensland state capital, Brisbane. The name is from an Aboriginal word meaning “the resting place of the birds”.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 13cm long
PLACE REPRESENTED: Hervey Bay, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Fridge Magnet
NOTES: Caricatures mixing it up: a koala riding a dolphin. Not likely.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 8.5cm x , 5cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Noosa Heads, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Calendar
NOTES: Beaches, rest and relaxation. Who needs a calendar? Time is suspended in Noosa? Perhaps. But development isn’t. Noosa doesn’t look like that anymore.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 11cm x 11cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Gold Coast, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Ashtray
NOTES: Tourist mecca, the Gold Coast as an ashtray. Some would say that’s apt. That’s harsh perhaps.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: Taiwan
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 13cm x , 13cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Mt Tambourine, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Fridge Magnet
NOTES: Beautifully detailed, hand painted and crafted fridge magnet from Mt Tambourine in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Someone has hand painted a nut, which seem to be gumnuts from a eucalypt tree which are prolific on Tambourine. The mountain has had a long history of arts and crafts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamborine_Mountain
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1990s
MADE FROM: wood , magnet
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 5cm long , 3cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Cairns, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Fridge Magnets
NOTES: Cairns boomerang fridge magnet with colourful tropical relief.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2014
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: Citer Souvenirs
DIMENSIONS: 12cm long
PLACE REPRESENTED: Middlemount, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Keychain
NOTES: Middlemount is a mining town in Central Queensland, Australia. Hence the depiction of the dragline excavator. Middlemount, like many other mining towns in Queensland virtually sprung up overnight in the early 1980s. It services two large coal mines, Foxleigh and German Creek. At the 2011 census, Middlemount had a population of 1,914. It’s population, I suspect, is dependent of the fortunes of the mining industry. Maybe that’s why the image is framed in a horseshoe … for luck? If solar or green energy become a easily accessible reality who knows what will happen to Middlemount, or Queensland for that matter.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: steel
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 9.5cm length overall
PLACE REPRESENTED: Brisbane, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Ashtray
NOTES: Brisbane’s freeway system is depicted here. The inside of the ashtray is glass and the picture can be removed. The picture is a postcard which leads me to believe that it may not have been the original, given the plaster ashtray was made in England …but who knows. Anything is possible in Brisbane.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: glass
MADE IN: England
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 9cm x 9cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Nambour, specifically the Sunshine Plantation, Nambour, Queensland , Australia.
ITEM: Plate
NOTES: The Big Pineapple just north of Brisbane, depicted in all its spledour. A State treasure.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood (bamboo?)
MADE IN: Taiwan
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 20cm across, 30cm high