POCKET GUIDE TO AUSTRALIAN BANKNOTES 2 Change & Stability AUSTRALIAN BANKNOTES FROM THE 1930s TO 1950s

1950s Series | 1953–1954

10s

Between 1801 and 1803, Matthew Flinders (1774–1814) made surveys of Australia's coastline as commander of HMS Investigator. He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the continent.

Matthew Flinders promoted the single name ‘Australia’ for the continent that he helped to chart through his circumnavigation. The image of first Parliament House, Canberra, represents the seat of Australia's unified, federal government. The Liberal Party of Australia led the government from December 1949 until December 1972, with Robert Menzies as Prime Minister from 1949 until 1966.

£1

Intrigued by the possibility of a vast lake or ‘inland sea’ at Australia's centre, Charles Sturt (1795–1869) conducted a series of explorations of the country's interior. In 1828 he began to explore the region of the Macquarie River in western New South Wales, with the assistance of Hamilton Hume; the expedition located the Darling River, named after the Governor, Sir Ralph Darling.

Hamilton Hume (1797–1873), was born on his family's property known as Seven Hills, near the present-day Sydney suburb of the same name. In 1824 he established with William Hovell an overland route between New South Wales and Port Phillip Bay, at the site of Geelong, Victoria. He is commemorated by the Hume Highway, the principal road between Sydney and Melbourne.

£5

Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) was a naval officer and navigator who became the Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania from 1837 to 1843. He was influential in establishing an education system and founding the Tasmanian Natural History Society, the first scientific Royal Society established outside Britain. He perished on his voyage to navigate the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean.

The prominence of rural activities in Australia's exports ensured their continued representation in the new series. The tableau suggests a harvest festival display in its symmetrical arrangement; it includes wheat and barley, species of fruit, a Merino ram and ewe, and a Hereford bull and Jersey cow. Aboriginal culture was represented for the first time on issued Australian banknotes through the inclusion of shields and a boomerang.

£10

Arthur Phillip (1738–1814) was appointed by the British Secretary of State, Lord Sydney, as the first governor of the penal colony of New South Wales. Botany Bay had been recommended as the colony's site, but Phillip sailed further north to Port Jackson, the traditional lands of the Eora people. On 26 January 1788, he named the colony Sydney Town.

Industry and science are represented on the banknote with symbols of electrical power, chemistry, a pair of scales and gears. A classically draped figure holds a pair of dividers and a scroll of paper, symbolising planning before manufacture.

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