Hills Hoists and beyond: from play equipment to a homemaker's dream – in pictures
When you hear the words ‘Hills Hoist’, what do you think of? A quintessentially Australian backdrop to your favourite backyard memories? Or an ugly and obtrusive metal structure, a constant reminder of domestic duty?
The Perth-based photographer and journalist Frances Andrijich has travelled the Western Australian coast since the early 90s, capturing clotheslines in all their glory. In her images they take the roles of play equipment, Christmas trees and, in the summer, a homemaker’s dream. Andrijich admits she is hopelessly hung up on clotheslines; her latest book celebrates them under the spotlight of the Australian sun
• Consider the Clothesline: Vibrant Images of Laundry and Life by Frances Andrijich and Susan Maushart is published by Echo Publishing in Australia
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Vera Germanis hangs out underwear in Frances Andrijich’s grandparents’ backyard. This was the photographer’s first clothesline shot, taken in Midland Junction in 1991. All photographs: Frances Andrijich
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Jean Hunter’s beloved mob of magpies on her clothesline at Home Farm in the Margaret River
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‘The Little Piggies’, aka the children of folk rockers the Pigram Brothers, sing around a clothesline in Broome in the Kimberley
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A storm blows up from the south at the Naval Base Shacks at Henderson, Perth
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A sea breeze sweeps through the shacks
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Under a Christmas clothesline in Swanbourne, Les Cook and his mate cook up the holiday feast
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A dog’s eye view of a Hills Hoist at South Coogee, Perth
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Adam and Elliot Sollis hang out in their Melville backyard while their dog Baxter pants for a go
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It is easy to love a sunburnt country on washing day. A man hangs his towels on the line at Leonora Motor Inn in the Leonora goldfields
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The Bussell family clothesline in the Margaret River. The family’s ancestors were early settlers in the region; the town of Busselton is named in their honour
