Gallery highlights

Travels of a World War One soldier

In November 1914, as Australia followed Great Britain into war with Germany, grazier Thomas Rutledge joined the Australian Imperial Force. In four years, he travelled and fought at Gallipoli, and in Egypt, Malta, Italy, England, France and Belgium.

Rutledge used this 'swag' during service with the 2nd Australian Pioneers on the Western Front in Belgium in 1917. At the end of the war, he carried the swag home to Gidleigh, near Canberra, and later used it during camping trips in the Snowy Mountains.

A swag is a portable shelter that is rolled, often with blankets or other belongings inside, for transport.

Preparing for a soldier's return

Between 1916 and 1918, Muriel McPhee sewed, embroidered and crocheted over 100 items of table linen, nightwear and underwear.

She was creating her trousseau — the clothes and drapery she would need in married life. But McPhee never wed and, after she died, her family found her trousseau, unused and stored in calico bags hidden around her house.

It seems that in about 1916, 18-year-old McPhee became engaged. It was the First World War and while McPhee stayed and worked on Arulbin, her family farm near Grafton in New South Wales, her fiancé went off to fight in Europe. Like 60,000 other young Australians, he never returned home.

 Listen to 'Stories of sadness and loss' audio
Curator Susannah Helman detailed her research on the trousseau in a presentation at the National Museum on 13 June 2009. The talk also covered the Alexander Mussen ambrotype and convict tokens

Clearing the land

Group settlers — known as 'groupies' — were mainly British migrants brought to Australia and given land for farms as part of an Empire-wide migration scheme.

They lived in 'group settlements' of 20 farms, helping each other establish their properties. But conditions were so tough, especially in the Great Depression, that many were forced to abandon their farms.

In Western Australia, group settlers were given land in dense jarrah and karri forests, which they had to clear by using hand tools and horses.

This image shows group settlers resting on a giant karri tree at Denmark, Western Australia, in the 1920s. A horse-driven stump puller and saws used in tree clearing are also on show in the Australian Journeys gallery. These objects were lent by the Denmark Historical Society.

Photo: Denmark Historical Society.

Filming Kokoda Front Line!

The Second World War arrived on Australia's doorstep in July 1942. Japanese forces advanced across the island of New Guinea to the north of Australia, and Australian soldiers rushed to meet them on the steep, forested slopes of the Owen Stanley Ranges.

Australian cameraman Damien Parer accompanied the 21st Brigade to New Guinea where he filmed the troops' gruelling trek along the Kokoda Trail.

His film, Kokoda Front Line!, brought the campaign home to Australian audiences. This Eyemo camera is believed to be one of several he used to make the award-winning documentary.

A family reunited after World War Two

In 1942, during the Second World War, Iris Adams went to a Red Cross dance in Sydney. She met Jim Craig, a master sergeant in the United States Army who was stationed in Australia. Four months later they were married.

Their daughter Erin was born in Sydney in May 1945. Jim Craig returned to the United States at the end of the war and Iris and Erin left Australia to join him.

En route to San Francisco, Erin won a prize in a competition for the child with the reddest hair on the SS Lurline. Her prize was this toy pig, treasured by Erin for 60 years and donated to the National Museum of Australia in 2007.

Read more about Erin Craig and her toy pig

Promoting Indonesian independence

In 1926 a Javanese court musician named Pontjopangrawit was imprisoned by the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. He was held at the remote Tanah Merah camp, on the Digul River, in Irian Jaya, now West Papua.

Pontjopangrawit appropriated wood, nails and tins from camp supplies and used them to make a suite of instruments for a gamelan orchestra. It is known as the gamelan Digul, or the orchestra made on the river Digul. The gendèr barung pélog is one of the instruments from this orchestra.

When the Japanese invaded the East Indies in 1942, the Dutch government sent its Tanah Merah prisoners to a camp at Cowra, New South Wales.

Pontjopangrawit's gamelan Digul travelled with the prisoners to Australia. Two years later, the prisoners were released. Many moved to Melbourne and worked towards Indonesian independence. The gamelan's music became an integral part of their campaign.