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- WOMEN'S
WORK IS NEVER DONE….
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- Introduction
- The
National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame holds a collection of domestic
equipment and craftwork and other artifacts considered traditional
"women's work". For example, items relating to laundering, cooking,
cleaning and sewing and generally maintaining a house and family,
the traditional role of women in society. There is also a developing
section on traditional "women's jobs" - nurse, teacher and secretary
- which can be seen as a continuation of women's nurturing role
as wife and mother outside of the home.
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- Many
of the items on show are perhaps familiar from
our childhood, but for the younger generation
they may seem curiously strange. Today, women
can get through housework with a touch of a
button. In the past, before the invention of
many labour-saving devices, domestic work
involved a lot more muscle power and time.
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- Laundering
- Monday
was traditionally wash day - all day. What takes
a 40 minute wash cycle today, would have taken
around 12 hours 100 years ago and often children
(no doubt the girls) would have sometimes lost a
day at school just to help with the volume of
work.
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- On
display we have a 1920's washing machine - you
had to agitate the soapy water yourself by
pumping the wooden dolly up and down by hand.
And no simple spin cycle - rinsing was by
manually operating the mangle at the side. There
is also an original copper, several washboards,
a 1950's ironing board and an interesting
collection of irons, showing their development
from the simple flat iron to the introduction of
electricity.
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- Cooking
- On
display is a typical Metter's wood-burning stove
as well as several old-fashioned cooking
utensils, many of which seem archaic by today's
standards. There are a number of items relating
to food processing such as hand-operated meat
mincers, a vegetable press as well as dairy and
baking equipment. Most interesting are the
hand-made utensils - knives, scoops, baking tins
- showing the ingenuity of those living in
isolated areas where equipment was not readily
available. Several cookbooks are also displayed
including the series published by the CWA,
considered by many women as their
"bible".
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- Sewing
- In
the early years of the 20th century, the sewing
machine was often a woman's most important piece
of domestic equipment, required for keeping the
family clothed as well as for providing soft
furnishings for the home. Again we show the
ingenuity of isolated women featuring the use of
old mail bags for making oven cloths and flour
bags for clothes. Our collection of sewing
machines shows the variety available as well as
the individual, often feminine floral
designs.
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- Despite
the many hours involved in just keeping the house clean and the
family fed and clothed, women still had time for leisure, which
was often taken up with crafts that are fast disappearing. Fancywork,
as opposed to plain sewing, was particularly popular in the 19th
and 20th centuries in Australia. It could occupy the hands while
still allowing conversation and meant the creation of a number
of small items for the home. It seemed nothing could escape being
made, crocheted or embroidered. We have examples of many typical
items which may seem bizarre today - crocheted sauce bottle covers
and all kinds of crocheted d'oyleys including the great Aussie
icon, the weighted milk jug cover for keeping off the flies as
well as a handmade d'oyley holder. We also have a collection of
crochet hooks and knitting needles, early cotton reels and the
commercially-produced patterns that inspired many women's imaginations.
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 - Donated
by MAGNT
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- "Victoria"
Charcoal Box Iron
- Imagine
the work and potential accidents involved in
using this hefty object. Hot charcoal had to be
placed inside the hollow cast-iron box base by
way of the hinged lid. The flue in front
dispelled hot steam and smoke. The wooden handle
protected the hands (up to a point) from the hot
metal. This design dating from c1900 was later
adapted to create the first gas-heated smoothing
iron.
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 - Donated
by Bill Waudby
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- RFDS
Medical chest
- Many
women in isolated situations were faced with the
health care of their family using only a few
medical books, basic first aid materials and
traditional remedies as well as a lot of common
sense to assist in emergency situations.
Individual medical supplies were numbered so
that the medications could be easily referred to
over the radio.
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 - Donated
by Gabby Floriani
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- Sewing
machine
- An
early example of an electric sewing machine; the
design follows the hand-operated ones of the
day. It was made in Germany by Thomas
Müller of Dresden, using the Veritas
trademark. The gold coloured floral design on
the metal parts is particularly intricate. There
is inlaid decoration on the wooden base and the
machine comes with a wooden cover with the word
VERITAS painted on the side inside an art
nouveau style linear surround.
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 - Donated
by Hank Guth, Panorama
Guth
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- Typewriter
- Remington
12 #LD41490, a typical example of a 1920's/30's
machine made by this US company. With the use of
more and more women as clerical workers from the
1890's, the typewriter became central to the
"woman's world" outside of the home, many
becoming members of "typing pools" or
shorthand-typists.
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 - Donated
by Anne Worden's niece, Marg
Waters
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- Apron
- Anne
Worden (1896-1946) of South Australia made this
fancywork apron, hence the AW embroidered on the
pocket. It is a typical example of the many
calico aprons with different designs - flowers,
everyday items, and patriotic or contemporary
images - that were embroidered by Australian
women during the 1920's and 30's.
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 - Donated
by the National Trust (NT) McDouall Stuart
Branch
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- Butter
churn
- This
type of churn for household use was popular in
the first half of the 20th century. Available in
4 sizes it consisted of a glass jar (the one
pictured is contemporary) with a geared drive to
operate the wooden paddle. With much
muscle-power, the woman's patience was
eventually rewarded with a lump of butter at the
bottom of the jar.
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