Domestic oddities

Coral Coast collections offer a wealth of domestic artefacts, providing an intimate insight into family life in a bygone era.

Take the case of the ‘walkabout hair dryer’ hidden among the artefacts at Cervantes Historical Society collection. This delightful invention was apparently a bathroom staple for many women of the 1960s and 70s looking to set curls and tame unruly locks.

Or what about the sampler on show upstairs amid the artefacts at Walkaway Station Museum? Many a woman would lend their hands to such craftworks but this beautifully crafted sampler was the work of a teenager in the 1860s who died not long afterwards – a moving memento of an everyday life cut short.

Further north at Central Greenough a whole settlement appears seemingly frozen in time. Among the buildings, rooms and artefacts is a simple cot which once cradled the babies born to the police sergeant and his wife, who lived here in the 1870s with their 12 children, in a tiny house adjoining the police cells. Their crammed living arrangements were once considered the norm.

Today’s kids may also turn up their noses at the toys of yesteryear. A simple handcrafted tin rattle on show at the Museum of Geraldton highlights how home-made toys and entertainment were common.

Of course, it wasn’t all poverty and making do in times gone past. A striking velvety green smoking jacket on show at Geraldton Historical Society’s Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage tells the story of one of the district’s wealthiest women - Jane Grant. While other ‘ladies’ of the day stayed inside, Grant would don pants and work boots to work the fields with the men. The divorcee didn’t give two hoots about what people thought of her and lived life as she pleased, probably setting tongues wagging with her unladylike ways.

You can gain an insight into changing domestic practices in everyday items such as the Mix Master series on show at Mingenew Museum. When it came to new kitchen appliances, Mix Masters were the cooks’ choice in the 1940s and 1950s, revolutionising the kitchen by doing away with the need to hand beat a cake mix.

Some of these oddities may have seemed ingenious at the time but didn’t catch on as a trend – like the dog shoes on show at Carnamah Historical Society and Museum. The shoes were designed to protect a trusty canine friend’s paws from the prickly fruits of the double-gee weeds – a lovely idea that never made mainstream production.