Pastimes & hobbies

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Come in spinner!

Gambling in Australia is regulated by the state and some types of gambling are illegal. The game Two-up, with its catch cry of ‘Come in Spinner!’, is legal only on Anzac Day and only in some states

Patrons, drinks raised, crowd a pub bar with a clock showing 10 pm.

Sydney’s Pubs: liquor, larrikins & the law

Sydney’s Pubs: liquor, larrikins & the law explores the colourful and complex history of the city's watering holes

Illustration of man on horse.

Lennie Gwyther

Lennie ‘the Legend’ Gwyther spent his childhood running around the foothills of Leongatha in country Victoria with his four younger siblings and his prize-winning pony, Ginger Mick

Child's stoneware tea set

Child's play

The imagination of a child can turn the simplest toy into a prized possession

The story of how to move a zoo

In the early hours of Sunday, 24 September 1916, an elephant named Jessie walked out through the gates of the Zoological Gardens at Moore Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and began an extraordinary journey through the city

Clay pipe with effigial bowl, spur and part stem with relief script. Maker Samuel Elliott, Sydney

Up in smoke: clay tobacco pipes

From the earliest days of the colony, Sydney-siders smoked them, broke them, and discarded them into drains, rubbish piles, work sites and hidden cracks and crevices of buildings

Black and white photo of group on path framed by Norfolk Island pines.
WW1

Cupid camouflaged: a Red Cross silent movie

Cupid camouflaged is a lost film from the era of Australian silent movies, and was produced in 1918 as a fundraiser for the war work of the Australian Red Cross

Objects on table in the morning room, Elizabeth Bay House

Here and there: music at home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845

On the 28th of March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds

Watercolour of Warrawang
Songs of home

The Odyssey of an Early Australian Piano

Imagine for a moment if all the old pianos lying around Australia could speak. One can only guess at the stories they would tell