POCKET GUIDE TO AUSTRALIAN BANKNOTES 1 Australian Panorama THE NATION'S FIRST BANKNOTES

Economic Environments

The new currency represented eight denominations from 10 shillings to £1,000. The front of each banknote showed the Commonwealth coat of arms with the badges of the country's six states.¹ The images selected for the back of the banknotes displayed diverse views of regional Australia – coastal, pastoral and, for mining, subterranean. The banknotes' landscapes were presented in varied, decorative borders and ‘frames’ that enhanced their characteristics and sense of pictorial depth. The succession of scenes complemented the coat of arms' badges and constituted a type of panoramic mural of the federated nation, encompassing the majority of its states. Wheat is harvested and oysters cultivated in New South Wales; sheep graze in South Australia and Tasmanian trees are felled. Victoria demonstrates advances in engineering. While specific to their individual states, the scenes also suggested expanses of the country as a whole.

The banknotes' illustrations alternated between natural environments and industrialised scenes in a gallery of vistas that reflected the main sources of the country's economy.

The banknotes reminded the public of the close connection between the exertions of industry and the rewards of prosperity, testified by possession of the banknotes themselves. Water is harnessed for irrigation in the depiction of the Goulburn Weir, while views of free-flowing waterfalls evoke the pleasures of holiday resorts in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and Victoria's Upper Yarra River.

References

1. The revised Commonwealth coat of arms was granted by King George V in 1912. Whereas the official version shows the state badges in two rows of three, they are presented in three rows of two on the banknotes.

---