The Surprising Scarcity of Imperial Weights made in Australia, Rick Willis

Article from Vol 48 no 3, August 2026

The Surprising Scarcity of Imperial Weights made in Australia, Rick Willis

Abstract:

Imperial weights in pounds, ounces and other units were essential for commerce and were used throughout Australia until the 1970s, when the more rational international metric system displaced them. Fifty years on, Australian-made imperial weights are now rare. Rick Willis has tracked down and illustrated some of the Imperial weights likely to have been manufactured in Australia, both before and after Federation. He also explains the verification marking of British weights in Australia.

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The Australiana Society acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.