Billy carts

Image: Sydney's Powerhouse Museum

The billy-goat cart, shortened to billy cart, was one of Australia’s favourite make-yourself-amusements.  Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum has a billycart in its collection and a comprehensive historical background is available in the object’s Statement of Significance.  A couple of articles from the 1930s appear below.  I can’t help feeling less than warm towards the ‘socially important resident’ whose influence on Parliament might put a stop to some fun in the streets of Elizabeth Bay.  Australian Women’s Weekly – 10 February 1934.  I love that the police were foiled from solving billy cart crime because the kids weren’t moving the stolen goods on.  Sydney Morning Herald – 26 May 1932

Unfortunately though, many newspaper reports about billy carts are of injuries and fatalities that occurred as a result of collisions with motor vehicles or falls off fast moving carts.

Sydney Morning Herald 26 May 1934

Australian Women's Weekly - 10 Feb 1934

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