quilts made for travelling rough

Since I wrote about the waggas I found at the museum in Rockingham, another one has turned up much closer to home. The Royal WA Historical Society's curator of costume, Jo Pearson, has recently accessioned a wagga into the collection.


The wagga is made from two layers of suiting samples. It is quilted by machine around the edges,

but a large portion of the centre of remains unquilted and forms an envelope which could be filled with newspapers, hay, grass or whatever else could be found to add some extra warmth.

Jo put the wagga on display in time for the Society's May 19 Open Day. The donor, Fr Ted Doncaster, accepted Jo's invitation to attend and I was pleased to meet him and hear the wagga's story.


The wagga was apparently made for the Reverend John Frewer by a kindly parishioner, during his time as a Bush Brother in the 1920s. He would have been grateful for its warmth on cold nights camping out in the Great Southern, as he travelled around by horseback or horse and buggy, then later in a car called Lizzie. He was not likely to have needed it so much on his subsequent appointment as Bishop of North West Australia. Yet the wagga was one of few possessions which he retained all his life, so it must have been special to him.

I also brought along some quilts to display at the open day. These came from diverse cultures, but all had the common purpose of making do with available materials to create something useful. One of these quilts bears a strong resemblance to the wagga, and is from the same era.

This American handman's quilt is one of my precious possessions, a gift from US friend and colleague Rosemary Claus-Gray. It would have been used by a handyman travelling the highways and byways looking for odd jobs, and would have kept him warm at night as he slept in the barn or by the roadside. The quilt is made from recycled suiting and furnishing fabrics, and is lined with old shirt fabrics.


Open Day visitor Rosemary Fitzgerald, from Museums Australia WA, was intrigued by the one edge of the quilt (the blue one on the left) which was made of soft cotton flannel cloth instead of wool, so that the rough woollen cloth would not scratch the handyman's neck as he slept.

wartime gifts

I start this post with a mystery object, a detail of a 'gift' to my grandfather, Harry Sinclair, whose embroideries I've written about previously. The object's identity will become clear as you read.


Today is ANZAC Day. For those of you who live overseas, I should explain that this is a day great historical significance in Australia. April 25th each year is a hallowed day of remembrance, the anniversay of the day in 1915 when many people believe Australia came of age.


At dawn on that day Australian troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, my grandfather Harry among them, landed on the hostile shores of the Gallipoli Peninsular in Turkey. By the end of that day 2,000 'ANZACS' lay dead. After eight months of bitter fighting and many more deaths the campaign was lost, but the ANZACS had forged a name for themselves, built on courage, resiliance, mateship, a healthy disrespect for undue authority and a sardonic sense of humour.

This seems an appropriate day to share some more of my grandfather's story. When Britain declared itself at war, he lied about his age in order to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. By late 1914 he was stationed in Egypt, where his Christmas was brightened by a gift, given to each soldier, from Princess Mary of the royal family.


I don't know what the tin originally contained, but it was accompanied by this card.


Harry survived the inital landing at Gallipoli, but was wounded six weeks later and shipped to England where he eventually recuperated sufficiently to return to Australia, along with his royal Christmas memento. He was followed some months later by the English sweetheart he had met whilst in hospital and persuaded to become his bride. Sadly, he never fully recovered from his wounds or the tuberculosus he had caught in the trenches. He died a young man when his daughter, my mother, was only six.

Princess Mary's tin now belongs to my mother, and today we looked once more at the memorabilia stored inside it; a small patriotic doll which was most likely part of the gift, and a cardboard jewellery box containing a cigarette paper protecting the colour patch off his uniform.


The colour patch in turn protected the final layer of objects.


Alongside the uniform badge were placed these three war souvenirs, gifts from the Turkish army.....

These pieces of shrapnel were among those removed from my grandfather's head wounds. The many they were unable to remove were eventually buried with him.

Rockingham visit

On Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting the members of the Rockingham District Historical Society, in their museum close to the beach to which I made many childhood excursions. This was the first of a number of talks I will be giving for the Historical Society's affiliated societies as part of the residency public programme. It was a great opportunity to talk with interesting and knowledgable people and a chance to learn more about local history.


Rockingham museum has some wonderful displays of the early days. I was surprised to discover group settlements were sited in the Rockingham area, much closer to Perth than I'd realised. Among the collection relating to group settlements was a familiar cupboard made of recycled kerosene cans.


Best of all, I found a domestic 'wagga' quilt, a utilitarian covering made from a variety of old clothes patched together.


This detail of the wagga shows the coat front with button holes. My own grandmother made a similar quilt during the depression using her old coat.

exploring the collection

I've been exploring the objects currently on display at the Historical Society. Among them I found some which brought back fond memories, like this paper doll and her clothes, although she comes from an era half a century earlier than my own childhood paper dolls.


I was fascinated to find this album, which contained something quite unexpected.


Apparently, collecting and pressing seaweed was a popular activity at the turn of the twentieth century, as in this album containing seaweed collected on Rottnest Island.

a quick trip into the past

It might seem from my recent silence that things have been quiet, but in fact the opposite is true. So much has been happening that there's been no time to write.

I've just returned home to WA from a quick trip to Victoria, where I travelled some of the ground my paternal ancestors trod as they moved from town to town in goldfields and farming districts. A number of the family are buried in the peaceful Newstead cemetary.


I was struck by the contrast between the two states. A multitude of Victoria's small goldfields communities still exist, unlike the many remote WA communities which sprang out of nowhere then just as quickly disappeared when the gold was depleted.

My grandfather broke from the family tradition of bricklaying and came West as a young man around 1899 at the height of our gold rush, gaining employment as a telegraphist at Southern Cross, Coolgardie then Leonora post offices.

In 1901 his Victorian sweetheart Lily Arthur left her parent's comfortable home in Carlton and travelled by sea, rail, then Cobb and Co coach to remote Leonora.


There they married in style in a double wedding with friends

then started their wedded life in a small white-washed hessian walled hut with a dirt floor!

I will be visiting the WA goldfields area as part of my residency, an excursion which I eagerly anticipate.

A close encounter

Earlier this week I was fortunate to be invited by the Society's Hon Curator Costume, Jo Pearson, to join a group of embroiderers who had an appointment to view the collection under Jo's expert guidance. The visitors (and I) received a welcome bonus in the form of an encounter with conservator Patricia Moncrief who arrived bearing a large storage box containing a newly conserved garment.


Patricia, on the left, unpacked the garment to give Jo Pearson, second from the right, a report on the work she'd done to conserve this important historical garment. Part of the Lovegrove Collection donated to the Society in the 1030's, the dress was worn by Elinor Eliot at her wedding to Dr Lovegrove circa 1869.


Patricia explains the process of making a 'soft sculpture' padded shape to support the garment.


A detail of the garment's sleeve


The neckline of the bodice resting on its soft sculpture padding


Returning the garment to its storage box.

Since I last posted I've been in the Eastern States teaching, but before I flew out I had a session with the Society's Honorary Librarian, Jill Maughan. Jill kindly taught me how to use Collections Mosaic, the computer program via which information about items in the Society's collection can be accessed. This cleverly designed search engine can find the needle in the proverbial haystack when in the hands of an experienced user.

Since my return I've been getting to know Mosaic, and found it very helpful as I applied the logical left side of my brain to locating some specific information. However, the problem my right brain has with with this sort of logical search process is that in order for it to succeed, you need to know what you are looking for.

My more flighty right brain prefers to browse until it finds stimulation, not knowing exactly what it is looking for until it finds it. Fearing that Mosaic is not designed for such silliness, I thought our time together might be limited. However, I found that Mosaic's layered research tags allow me to browse through the collection until I find an area of interest, then to look at all the items listed in that area. This has led to some fascinating discoveries warranting further investigation.