© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
1945 saw the first Hills Hoist come off the manufacturing line in Adelaide South Australia, in Lance Hill’s backyard. Lance produced it at his wife’s request, as a cheap replacement clothes line to the old line slung across the back yard that used a prop to gain some height. When Lance’s brother-in-law returned from the war in 1946 he was instrumental in developing and producing these wind-up, height adjustable, rotary clothes lines as a business. Production remained in the backyard, then moved to a small factory premises but by 1958 they required larger premises and became the Hills company.
Almost every Australian house had a Hill’s hoist in the backyard in the sixties and the house I live now is the first I have experienced without the iconic feature. A friend once said to me that she couldn’t live in my house as you couldn’t see the Hills Hoist from kitchen window. It was one of her joys to watch the clothes flying round in the wind. Certainly I knew a few puppies who were not popular with their owners as they had enjoyed grabbing the clothing as it enticed them on their path. Come to think of it as kids we used to grab hold of it like monkey bars and use it as a piece of rotating playground equipment. Perhaps that is why the Hills Company today also manufactures apparati for playgrounds.
The Hills hoist is so common it is often used by artists to depict Australia and has been listed as a National Treasure by the National Library of Australia.
In response to Shadow Shot Sunday
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
A great invention but boy where they difficult to get rid off. It wasn’t so much what was above ground but more of what was below. Usually a solid lump of concrete into which the hoist had been set.
The Hills Hoist was a natural for kids to swing around in, often resulting in the structure getting an angle to one side. It features in The national Museum in Canberra too, rightly so, a true Ikon.
My mum must have hung tons of clothes when we were all living at home in Revesby, Sydney. She used an electric washing machine that she took with her from Holland. A beast of a machine that had an oak barrel with a dangerous wringer that used to catch your loose hanging shirt or tie. .
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Thank you so much Gerard for sharing these memories. I agree that lump of concrete at the bottom was a killer. We only tried to remove one and gave up in the end. Isn’t it a pity that we didn’t take photos of items such as that washing machine your Mum had. I’d love to see it. My Grandma had a copper and a wringer but I don’t think it was as dangerous as the one attached to the one you had.
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I’m not sure I’d seen a HIlls Hoist, so I looked it up and yes, I have. In fact, Costco sells them. When I was growing up, we had a large, enclosed laundry area outside. The walls were woven slats with trumpet vines growing all over them and five clothes lines stretching from one end to the other in a row. The trumpet vines attracted bees and hummingbirds. And oh, did the clothes smell good when they were dried outside. Don’t see clothes drying outside much any more.
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What lovely aroma memories. It actually sounds as though your clothes drying area was a nice space to be. We still dry our clothes outside although in places where flats are the normal they probably have clothes driers.
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The thing about them is that they’re so efficient! Far better than hanging your clothes in stationary rows where a decent wind wraps one row around the next, or if the wind direction is wrong, they sit in sullen sogginess for hours. Not pretty, of course, but you can now get demountable hoists, and canopies to turn your hoist into a giant umbrella if the mood takes you. And either way, I’m so glad I don’t live in one of those communities where hanging clothes outside at all is forbidden.
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I agree Helen. There is something nice about the whole procedure of hanging the clothes out, seeing them flying around and then bringing them in before the night moisture damps them again. Ironing …… now that’s another story.
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Ahh the Hills Hoist was a familiar treasure in most backyards when I was growing up. But my Mum preferred the old lines strung between two raising and lowering sails on a post. She also persisted in using a clunky old wringer and a copper.
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So you missed out on swinging around on the metal struts Gemma. I don’t understand persisting with a copper but my favourite machine was definitely a twin tub with a spinner on the side. I’d still have one except my husband insists that we are totally mechanised.
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Very appropriate for this long W/E!!
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And perfect weather here today for washing also.
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Playful shadow shot!
Cobbled Shadows
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🙂
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She’s like a spider in a web!
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What a good description Colleen. I like that.
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Two words: Classic! Precious!
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Perfect for a post so close to Australia Day.
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Wow, you just made me sorry I missed growing up in this part of the world! None of the clothes lines I’ve see are adjustable, but I think the idea is the same here in NZ.
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Thanks for dropping by Bettyl. I think for kids and adults alike these clotheslines were a joy (for different reasons.) I believe they made it across the Tasman and are very popular in NZ also.
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Pingback: Times Past: Prompt 2 Women’s Work? | Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)
Oh, now I see the Hills Hoist – in the shadow cast across baby Irene! Great photo! You are adorable.
We had a washing machine in Hawaii the two years we lived there, but not a dryer. Hanging the laundry fell to me – baskets and baskets of it, draped over about 6 long strands of line in one section of the yard. Siblings were much younger and very spoiled, so their only job was making a mess. I hated hanging the laundry as the lines were way over my head and my arms and shoulders always ached, but I made sure to do a good job. Then of course I had to haul them in and fold them. The laundry did smell fresh and sweet. When we moved to California and had both washer and dryer, I often ironed for the whole family. It seemed that no matter how much older my sibs got, they were never old enough to take on any household tasks. Never found doing work for the entire family rewarding in any way. Baby boomer, oldest kid in my family.
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I was the proverbial girl who had a little curl right down the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful memories of laundry. It sounds as though it was back breaking work for you and perhaps being the oldest will turn out to be more important than what generation you belonged to. I’m including you in the compilation.
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