Gallery highlights

An Australian aid worker assists European displaced people

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Australian teacher Valerie Paling travelled to Germany to work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

Her job was to help resettle some of the thousands of people displaced during the war. Paling received the Little Red Riding Hood wall-hanging in thanks for her work at a displaced persons camp near the town of Ulm.

The hanging was created by Olga Basylevich, a Ukrainian refugee, using a United Nations issue blanket and scraps of fabric and fur.

Paling returned to Australia with the wall-hanging. She donated it to the Forest Hill Kindergarten in Melbourne, where it was displayed until 1990.

Read more about the Little Red Riding Hood wall-hanging

View the Little Red Riding Hood animation (MPEG4 18.3mb) duration 05:24
An animation of the Grimm Brothers' 1812 version of the Little Red Riding Hood story, based on the wall-hanging, appears in the Australian Journeys gallery.

 Listen to 'Re-presenting Little Red Riding Hood'
Curator Karen Schamberger detailed her research on the Little Red Riding Hood wall-hanging in a presentation at the National Museum on 30 May 2008.

A postwar Latvian migrant and her national dress

Guna Kinne (née Klassons) made this Latvian national dress over a period of 30 years.

She began, as a schoolgirl in Riga, sewing the blouse and skirt for a school project, and her father bought her the crown when she turned 16.

Kinne finished the jacket as she fled Latvia at the end of the Second World War. She wore the completed dress for the first time in a displaced persons camp in Germany.

Kinne migrated to Australia in 1948 and settled in Wangaratta, Victoria, where she added the bonnet, silver brooch and amber necklace to her national dress. She donated the outfit to the National Museum in 1989. 

Read more about Guna Kinne's Latvian national dress

 Listen to 'Guna Kinne and her Latvian national dress' audio
Curator Karen Schamberger detailed her research on the Latvian national dress in a presentation at the National Museum on 14 May 2008.

Capturing an Italian migrant's journey through Australia

Sicilian-born Carmelo Mirabelli arrived in Sydney on the ship Assimina in 1951, and immediately headed north to cut sugarcane.

He followed seasonal harvests across the country for five years, then settled in Brisbane because its climate reminded him of Sicily. He later moved to Melbourne in search of work.

Mirabelli used this Zeiss Ikon camera to record his experiences as an itinerant worker in Australia during the 1950s. He photographed himself, friends and workers on the sugarcane fields of Queensland and the orchards and vineyards of Victoria.

Migration did not end Mirabelli's connection to Sicily — he sent money to his mother back home and photographs that showed what life was like in Australia.

Watering an English garden in Australia

David and Margaret Ride met and married in Hong Kong and later moved to Oxford, England. In 1957, David was offered the directorship of the Western Australian Museum, and the family, assisted to migrate by the Australian Government, settled in Perth.

The Rides' new home had a garden featuring English favourites like rose bushes, a willow tree and a lovely expanse of lawn, but the Rides didn't understand that to make it flourish they needed to water it!

Eventually the willow tree died, and the family purchased this 'set and forget' tractor sprinkler. The Nomad has a painted metal chassis, cast iron wheels and copper tube sprinkler arms.

Film of the tractor sprinkler at work, evoking the nostalgic sounds of the sprinkler mechanism and water spray in a time before water restrictions, appears in the Australian Journeys gallery.

View the tractor sprinkler in action (MPEG4, 12mb) duration 05:00

An Australian in London

Australian artist and musician Rolf Harris invented the wobble board in 1959. As a young portrait painter living in London, he tried to cool a piece of primed hardboard he'd been drying over the heater by shaking it between his palms.

The 'whoop whoop' of the board fitted perfectly with a song he'd written for the crowd at the Down Under Club in Fulham: Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.

Three decades later, in 1993, Harris performed his cover of Stairway to Heaven on the British television show Top of the Pops. Led Zeppelin's rock classic was transformed by the addition of Harris's trademark sound.

This was Harris's second wobble board. He used it from 1961 to 2004.

Read more about the Rolf Harris wobble board

Tania Verstak becomes the first migrant to win the Miss Australia Quest

Tania Verstak was born in Tianjin, China to Russian parents who escaped the 1917 Russian revolution. When the Communist Chinese government began pressuring Russians to leave, the Verstaks fled to Australia, arriving in Sydney in 1952, where they settled in Manly.

In 1961 Verstak became the first migrant to be crowned Miss Australia. She also won the United-States based title, Miss International. The Miss Australia Quest ran annually as a fundraiser for the Australian Cerebral Palsy Association.

By the 1960s Australian society was becoming more multicultural. Verstak's win reflected a change in the national image.

Miss Australia crown collection highlight

More on the Miss Australia Quest