‘I find my sewing powers of great advantage here’: Needlework on the diggings

Guest speaker: Dr Lorinda Cramer

In 1856, Maggie Hoey wrote to her sister in Scotland: ‘I find my sewing powers of great advantage here’. By ‘here’, Maggie was referring to her new home on the Victorian goldfields. By her ‘sewing powers’, she meant her skills in needlework that ranged from making and mending clothing to furnishing her tent. This lecture will explore the ‘great advantage’ of women’s and men’s sewing on the diggings: how it made them comfortable by clothing and housing them, but how it also helped assert their place in the tumultuous gold-rush society. It will draw on diaries, letters and memoirs written on the diggings, on the illustrations and photographs that richly captured those experiences, and on the rare surviving examples of needlework now preserved in museum collections. It will show just how important sewing could be to transform daily life.

Dr Lorinda Cramer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Australian Catholic University, where she is currently working on the ARC Discovery project Men’s Dress in Twentieth-Century Australia: Masculinity, Fashion, Social Change. Her research into dress, fashion and textile history is underpinned by material culture and inspired by her work for more than a decade as a museum curator and collection manager. Her PhD, completed in 2015, explored the lives of Victoria’s female gold-rush migrants through their needlework: from the clothes they sewed for themselves and their families to the textile goods they made for their homes and the relentless demands of mending and darning.

This research was published by Bloomsbury in 2020 as Needlework and Women’s Identity in Colonial Australia and has recently been released in paperback.

Dr Cramer’s research will be presented alongside Sovereign Hill’s former Costume Production Assistant, Megan Anderson’s research on Lieutenant-Governor Charles LaTrobe.

Extravagance, Tradition and Power: Governor Latrobe’s Uniform

Guest speaker: Megan Anderson

Megan’s project will explore the significance, history, tradition and symbolism encompassed in the uniform of Lieutenant–Governor Charles La Trobe. Within the garment industry, tailoring is extensively revered as the highest standard of garment construction, with the highest quality achieved. Ceremonial uniforms, including that of Lieutenant-Governor, are from an even higher echelon – every element of this uniform was designed to impress, emphasise and enhance the wearer in both status and stature. As holder of the highest office in the new colony of Victoria, a distinguished uniform to solidify that position was absolutely necessary for La Trobe. The outcome of Megan’s research will include an impeccably tailored suit with accents of gold and silver.

This is a COVIDSafe event and will be held under the current government guidelines. Visitors 16 years of age and over must show their COVID-19 vaccination status as a condition of entry. This requirement will extend to visitors aged 12 and over once phase D of the roadmap is reached (indicatively 24 November).