Weston Bate Memorial Lecture at Sovereign Hill

Curator and historian Laura Jocic presents 'Women and Dress in Rural Australia, 1840s-1860s'. As emigrants arrived in the Australian colonies, many prepared themselves for a life on the land. Whether settling as farmers, or heading to the goldfields in the hope of finding their fortune, all had to contend with managing their dress, often in harsh and remote environments. While women lived active and productive lives in these localities, it is the image of the male digger and bushman dressed in his loose shirt, trousers and boots and wearing a neckerchief and wide-brimmed hat that dominates understandings of how the quintessential Australian colonial settler dressed. Less is known about how women dressed and adapted to these environments. In focusing on a number surviving items of women’s dress, including those in the Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections, this lecture will discuss what women on the goldfields and in rural areas wore and how they purchased, made, mended and managed their often limited supply of clothing.