Australiana, Vol 40 no 2, May 2018

The Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award is an annual award which has been generously sponsored by Peter Walker Fine Art of Walkerville, South Australia since 1999. Peter Walker is a valued member and longstanding supporter of the Australiana Society. The Society is most grateful for his continued interest in its activities, and in Australiana in particular. All articles published in Australiana in 2017 are eligible for the 2017 Award.

The Australiana Society committee recently voted to make financial grants of up to $5,000 to museums to acquire Australian-related material that they could not otherwise obtain. The Sydney Jewish Museum situated in Darlinghurst, Sydney and celebrating its 25th year in 2018, was the successful applicant for the first grant to be presented, allowing it to acquire several items of Australian Jewish history.

The design and manufacture of a writing desk for the Bank of New Zealand, Dunedin (1879–83). We are familiar with immigrants trained in Britain or Europe coming to Australia and continuing their craft, or with Australian artists travelling to Europe to learn and expand their skills and ideas. Rarely have we looked at exchanges and collaboration across the Tasman. Dr La Nauze outlines the interchange among bank architects and the building and furnishing trades by exploring who designed and made an extraordinary Australian cedar writing desk for a New Zealand bank.

John Hawkins speculates about the origin of a massive gold bracelet with cast and chased decoration, mounted with polished Queensland boulder opal, and its possible connections with the colourful discoverers and promoters of late 19th century and early 20th century Queensland opals.

Firstly thank you to Jim and the Society Committee for demonstrating the faith you have in me to deliver what I regard as this most important lecture. We all owe the late Kevin Fahy a significant debt for the time that he took researching, collecting and preserving Australia’s heritage, particularly in the books and or articles he wrote either independently or in conjunction with other recognised experts.

“Bring forty members to Tasmania to celebrate the Australiana Society’s 40th anniversary” was president Jim Bertouch’s brief. The new Tasmanian Chapter of the Australiana Society accordingly set to work under the leadership of chairman Colin Thomas to emulate the success of the Society’s 2015 Tasmanian tour. The eight-day tour from 7 to 14 March was designed as a rich and varied experience of Australiana in its many permutations – art, design and social history, public and private collections and collections seen in the contexts for which they were made, as well as showing how they were underpinned economically by maritime and rural industries. The tour provided opportunities to meet custodians of historic places and collections, dealers and fellow collectors.

udith White, Culture Heist. Art versus Money, Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 2017. Paperback 246 pp

Glenda King, Maude Poynter: painter and potter. Tasmanian Chapter of the Australiana Society Inc., Hobart, 2018. Soft cover, 108 pages, plentiful colour and black and white illustrations. ISBN 978-0-646-98281- 6,