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00:06We're here after hours at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
00:10I'm just about to head inside to start the show, but before I do, I wanted to introduce you to
00:14this.
00:16Zygomaturus, a giant wombat that went extinct about 45,000 years ago.
00:20Scientists believe it to be the origins of the bunyip from Aboriginal legends.
00:25Speaking of legends, I've got four of them on the desk with me tonight.
00:28They're going to be amazing. We've got an incredible audience.
00:31It's going to be a great show tonight at the Museum.
00:55Welcome to the show. I'm Alex Lee.
00:58And looking to make history, or at the very least make it up, are our four guests.
01:03Playing for the honour of having one of their own items put on display here at TMAG,
01:08can you please welcome Pete Hellyer and his grandfather's golf club.
01:15Danielle Walker and her Pharaoh's bus.
01:20Some beautiful vintage Tupperware displayed here by Alex Ward.
01:27And finally, a signed script owned by Briggs.
01:34We'll find out more about our guests and their wonderful items later.
01:38But first, let's put a label on it.
01:43In just one short paragraph, exhibit labels tell us the fascinating true story behind an object on display.
01:50Think of them as a piece of cardboard with a uni degree.
01:53I'm going to present to you a real object from the museum's collection.
01:57Now, two of our players will each read out a label for it, but no one on the panel knows
02:01which one is correct.
02:03Our other two players have to decide which is the right label.
02:07Let's take a look at the first object.
02:15Pete, can you tell us about this chair?
02:18I'm fascinated with this chair. Always have been, to be absolutely honest.
02:22This is Lady Jane Franklin's chair.
02:27Lady Jane Franklin, as I'm sure we all know, is the wife of the Tasmanian governor, Sir John Franklin,
02:34who I have posters of both of them in my office.
02:39Now, she was more than just the governor's wife.
02:42Lady Jane loved exploring.
02:45She liked to explore by sitting in a chair and having people carry her around.
02:50She traversed the entire state of Tasmania on that chair.
02:53She wasn't obsessed with getting her steps up.
02:55How many people would carry that chair?
02:57She would say, I need four people today.
03:00I've had a casserole, then maybe I need six.
03:04She was the first European woman to travel over land from Port Phillip to Sydney.
03:10Believe it or not.
03:12Yeah, she was like the original Kell Knight.
03:14In a chair.
03:15In a chair, in a chair, in a chair.
03:17Any relation to the cut chair?
03:19I really wish I knew what a cut chair was now.
03:23It's the chair in your room that Briggs sits on sometimes.
03:28Well, I'm not sure who carried Lady Jane, but I'm sure they were well looked after and happy in their
03:35jobs.
03:35We've heard Pete's story.
03:37Alex, what does your label say we're looking at here?
03:40Okay, so the true label says...
03:43Ooh.
03:45This is a chair that was invented, I guess, built in 1887 and belonged to Premier Sir Philip Oakley Fish.
03:55Sir Philip Oakley Fish, not to be confused with some other bloke probably called Trevor Oakley
04:00that may have invented the wraparound sunglasses.
04:04He was an outspoken animal lover and travelled everywhere with his dogs.
04:10He trusted their judgement and refused to work with people his dogs didn't like.
04:15Which I think, if you think that's ridiculous, I disagree because that's how I live my life.
04:20I have two dogs.
04:21I will never work with the garbage man.
04:24I will never work with my neighbour who has a motorcycle.
04:27And I will never work with the guys I pay to bring me stuff from the internet.
04:32Those hooks actually exist because they are to tie his dogs to.
04:37So he could have them by his side while he worked.
04:39Sure, yeah, he tied his dogs to the chair.
04:42Look, it might have been a great cover story when they found leashes on it.
04:45I don't know.
04:46That's what I'm saying.
04:49Alright, what do you think, Briggs and Danielle?
04:51Is this Lady Franklin's carrying chair or Premier Fisher's dog-friendly office chair?
04:56I mean, what are you thinking, Danielle?
04:58What are you leaning towards?
04:59I think I go with Pete because I just feel like if this guy's trusting his dogs
05:03but his dogs can't even be off leash near him, that feels like kind of insane.
05:09What are you thinking, Briggs? What are you leaning towards?
05:11I'm leaning towards the dog story because I kind of zoned out
05:15and then I came back when the dogs...
05:19It is the funnest story.
05:22Let's put a label on it.
05:29It is Lady Jane Franklin's carrying chair.
05:38Yeah, so Lady Jane was a governor's wife but she wasn't a measly plus one.
05:43There was a time when women were expected to be very passive
05:46but she founded a museum, she influenced the founding of a scientific society
05:50and she was a champion of the arts and women's education.
05:53She did like to be carried around the bush in a chair.
05:56It was carried by convicts and she was the first European woman to climb Mount Wellington.
06:02Well, not climb.
06:05The poor guys that carried her are like...
06:09But before we start making TikToks about how Lady Jane is the original girl boss,
06:13she also adopted two Aboriginal children in an attempt to civilise them
06:18before abandoning them both when she returned to England.
06:21Knew it.
06:23Yeah, the woman who gets carried in the chair.
06:25How's in that?
06:28And as for Philip Oakley Fish, he was a real Premier of Tasmania.
06:33I don't know if he loved animals or not, to be honest.
06:35I just like his name was Philip O. Fish.
06:37It makes it sound like he was in the election to be Mambic Cheese.
06:41And Danielle, you are correct.
06:43So two points for you.
06:44Briggs, no points for you so far.
06:45Ready to see your next object?
06:56Briggs, what are we looking at here?
06:58This is the OG wellness story.
07:00This is the story of Charles Underwood and the snake bite antidote.
07:05So Charles Underwood, he sold snake bite antidote,
07:08claiming it treated bites from snakes, venomous reptiles and insects.
07:14Because he's selling it to people like, hey, take this with you on your next chair-carrying expose.
07:19Yeah.
07:20If you want more of your convicts to get you there.
07:22Because if one of those got bit, it would be like having a flat tyre.
07:24You know, so you want more of four.
07:26You just bring another one, wouldn't you?
07:28Just bear in your back.
07:29Yeah.
07:31I digress.
07:32Underwood was challenged by a man from Launceston, Mr. Joseph Shires.
07:38Joseph Shires also claimed that he had his own cure, his own snake bite antidote.
07:43Really?
07:44Underwood offered Shires 10 pounds to get bitten and apply his own remedy.
07:51He took it.
07:52He got bitten by a snake.
07:53He survived.
07:53And when Shires put it to Underwood to do it, Underwood replied, I don't get high on my own supply.
08:04And he refused and he left Tasmania shortly after.
08:08So is it just there's two snake oil salesmen and just one?
08:11Yeah, one from here and the other one from Launceston.
08:15It's like Bogues versus Cascade, basically.
08:17That's what we're talking about here.
08:20Hey man, don't start anything.
08:22Alright, Danielle, what story do you have?
08:24In mine, it's a mercury refill bottle from 1880.
08:27And so back in the day, just before the early 20th century, mercury men they were called.
08:34They'd have to go sort of house to house refilling the mercury in your household thermometer.
08:39There was no regulation though on the mercury in the thermometers.
08:43And so therefore people were having issues with that mercury poisoning being the main one.
08:50And then I think it was, yeah, 1910, that's what it says here,
08:55the World Health Organization said, we reckon that's not so good.
09:01And so they said, let's not do that anymore.
09:05And only the highest quality mercury can be put in these thermometers.
09:09And so there were no more mercury men.
09:12That's obviously the story that we all know.
09:19Mercury looms large in Tasmania though.
09:21Isn't the paper, the biggest paper mercury?
09:24Oh, yeah.
09:25Good point.
09:26I just blew this open.
09:29Yeah.
09:30Pete and Alex, which label do you think is the correct one?
09:34Is this a cure for a venomous snake bite or a vial of poisonous mercury?
09:39Pete?
09:39I mean, I would love Danielle's story to be true for the way you told the story.
09:44I really appreciated that.
09:45But I do love the story, you know, of the will I, won't I, of the snake oil.
09:52What about you, Alex?
09:54Girls support girls.
09:55Ladies.
09:56I'm so sorry I didn't do that round one.
10:00From now on, let's put a label on it.
10:08It is a snake bite antidote.
10:12So snakes were a huge issue in colonial Tasmania.
10:16There are plenty of venomous snakes.
10:18But it was sort of a problem of their own making
10:19because they started doing grain production,
10:21which brought heaps of rats and mice.
10:24And they also brought over rabbits.
10:25So the snakes were like awesome.
10:28And they got huge.
10:29And the English people were terrified of them.
10:32He'd sell it to anyone gullible enough to believe it worked.
10:35And Lady Jane Franklin, who we know, not love,
10:39even offered one shilling for every snake killed.
10:43She spent 600 pounds killing 12,000 snakes.
10:48And it did nothing to fix the problem.
10:50And yes, as for Charles Underwood, fittingly,
10:52he died in Melbourne a few years later of a snake bite.
10:56I thought you were going to say he fell off a carrying chair.
10:59So after our first round, Briggs and Alex yet to score,
11:04and Pete and Danielle on two points each.
11:13Let's hear a bit about some of the items
11:15that might be staying here in the museum should you win tonight.
11:19Now, Danielle, your item is a real case of one man's trash
11:23is a Danielle Walker's treasure.
11:25Yes.
11:26I, can you believe, found this in hard rubbish.
11:30Yes.
11:31Well, who would be throwing this beautiful bust out?
11:35It's a Pharaoh, I don't know which one.
11:38Um, it's just sort of King Tut adjacent.
11:41I...
11:41It looks like Pharaoh Trevor.
11:43Yeah.
11:45I just sort of fanned him on the side of the road
11:47and felt like he should come home
11:49and then, you know, the brief for this was, you know,
11:52bring something that might stay in the museum for six months
11:55and I thought, oh, he'd probably love that.
11:59He looks like he's supposed to be here, you know?
12:03Luckily, unlike Facebook,
12:04marketplace, TMAG will come and pick up your item
12:07at the time you agreed upon.
12:13Museum educators play a vital role here at TMAG,
12:16bestowing wisdom on anyone willing to listen.
12:19It's a role that needs years of experience and research
12:22and not something you could just make up on the spot.
12:25Or could you?
12:26Well, earlier today I asked our players
12:28to deliver a presentation
12:29to some unsuspecting museum visitors.
12:32The only thing was, our players were seeing the exhibition
12:36for the very first time.
12:42Hello, feel free to clap.
12:45Welcome.
12:46My name is Alex.
12:47I'll be the exhibitionist.
12:48Get it.
12:49Oh!
12:49No, no, no.
12:51OK, I've prepared a very special exhibition.
12:54Presenting Still Waters Run Deep.
12:57Here we have three very particular items
13:00found in the decommissioned jacuzzi from Parliament House.
13:06This artist is one of the few that is a full-on climate change denier.
13:11Would anybody like to try and have a guess
13:14at what this particular object is?
13:15Is it a hard rock?
13:16A potato?
13:18Wrong.
13:18Wrong.
13:19Wrong.
13:21This is actually David Boone's liver.
13:26Is a petrified earwax from Tony Abbott.
13:30This object right here.
13:33Is Malcolm Turnbull's spine.
13:39Is the penis of the Australian Inland Porpoise,
13:43which existed many years ago
13:45and unfortunately was hunted to extinction
13:47by sort of the settlers
13:50who were really wanting the porpoise penis.
13:55This here is to represent the big middle finger
13:59to the rest of society
14:01and their wacky takes on climate change.
14:04This was the original.
14:08Dory in Finding Nemo.
14:11That's actually the soul of Pauline Hanson.
14:15And he eats small children at night.
14:18He climbs into their ears.
14:21And eat your brain.
14:22These are all items that were found
14:25within the filter of the decommissioned hot tub.
14:29Sorry, didn't you find any Labor stuff?
14:31I was just liberal.
14:32No, Labor weren't allowed to use it.
14:33People out there say that our creeks are drying up.
14:36But they're not.
14:37Because still, water runs deep.
14:42Oh my goodness.
14:48Amazing.
14:49Great work.
14:50Look, the theme, still waters run deep,
14:53actually refers to the fact that all of these objects
14:55are from the ocean.
14:56Our first item we had is something called Ambergris.
15:00Now that's used in perfume production and it's not cheap.
15:03It's worth about $60,000 per kilo.
15:06But it comes from a whale's guts.
15:09Scientists disagree which end of the whale it comes out of.
15:12Is it vomit or is it fecal matter?
15:13Either way, it's known as floating gold, the treasure of the sea.
15:17I might quit this and just sort of go find the whales
15:22and then chase them around.
15:25Yeah, wait for stuff to come out.
15:26Yeah.
15:26Sounds much easier than comedy.
15:28It really does.
15:28Yeah, yeah.
15:29And so, what did you say that was again, Danielle?
15:33That big bone?
15:34Um, I said it was a porpoise penis.
15:37Well, it was the penis bone of an elephant seal.
15:42Whoa.
15:43Come on.
15:44Come on.
15:46You've got an eye for it.
15:50It's called a baculum if you want to be scientific.
15:53Many placental mammals have a penis bone but not humans,
15:56which I learned from reading Dolly Doctor.
15:58Now, Pete, are you giggling because I said penis lots of times?
16:01Yes, I am.
16:03And finally, that was a spotted hand fish.
16:07The only fish that could help you carry the shopping in from the car.
16:10They're critically endangered with only 2,000 estimated in the wild.
16:15But, while they're usually found in Tasmania's Derwent Estuary,
16:19this one was actually picked up on a street in the Hobart CBD.
16:23I would have taken it down the flippers and just asked them to pick it up.
16:27Crunch on those little tiny hands.
16:29Yeah, it looked delicious.
16:31Alex, but I liked that you were the only one who made it into an art exhibition.
16:35I'm not sure you had the crowd 100% on your side,
16:37the climate change denier artist,
16:39but you would have polled well with men in their 60s on Facebook.
16:43I'll give you one point.
16:47But I think, Danielle, for showing a significant knowledge of the penises of marine mammals,
16:53I'm going to give you two points.
16:56Well done. Give it up for Danielle.
17:02Our panel are one step closer to having their item on display here at TMAG.
17:07Now, Alex, please tell me you didn't just steal someone's lunch from the TMAG fridge.
17:11No, it looks like it, but I didn't.
17:14What I've brought, I've had with me my entire life since I was born,
17:17and it is a genuine, iconic Tupperware salad bowl.
17:22So this my mum bought in the 70s, and then she gave to me when I moved out,
17:26when I was about 20.
17:27Aww.
17:27And I have a lot of fond memories going to, like, Tupperware parties
17:31before they sold these in shops.
17:33Like, they used to just have Tupperware parties as a kid.
17:35I have a lot of fond memories of going to those.
17:36I don't know if that's just because I also got dragged to lingerie parties,
17:39and that was my preference.
17:42I will, obviously, caveat here and say,
17:44I do have a feeling that this was, like, the family spew bucket.
17:49I feel like it, I have to admit, I definitely remember using it myself,
17:53particularly after I saw my auntie trying to slip dress at that lingerie party.
17:58Alright, we'll find out soon which one will get to be on display
18:01and which three will be stuffed into overhead lockers on the flight home.
18:12As the old adage goes, history is written by the victors.
18:16But tonight, we're going to give these four losers a go.
18:19Here we have something you will recognise.
18:21A plate of fairy bread.
18:23It's actually a Tasmanian invention.
18:25The first mention of it was in the Hobart Mercury in 1929.
18:30Which really makes you wonder,
18:31what were they doing with the hundreds and thousands
18:33before they put them on bread?
18:36Now, our collection staff will reveal an object from the museum
18:41and all you need to do is tell me if you think it came
18:44before or after the invention of fairy bread.
18:48Let's see our first object.
18:56This is a food drop bag.
18:59So bags like this were filled with food
19:01and dropped into Tasmania's rugged wilderness
19:04in the hopes that walkers would find them.
19:06So, is this food drop bag before or after the invention of fairy bread?
19:11Write down one for before or two for after.
19:14Okay.
19:15Okay.
19:16Some consensus here.
19:18Pete, you've put one.
19:19You think it came before fairy bread?
19:21How come?
19:22Well, I think those kind of bags were around.
19:24I think it's a good idea.
19:26I think the Hobart Wilderness Commission would have been
19:29right on top of that.
19:30That's what HWC stands for.
19:31That's HWC, is it?
19:32Absolutely.
19:32I've got no doubt about that.
19:33And thank you all my friends at the Hobart Wilderness Commission.
19:36You're doing a great job.
19:37What about you, Alex?
19:38Mine's just based on vibes.
19:40It's a fun vibe.
19:41And I'm just sort of thinking like,
19:43I don't feel like we went there after.
19:45Do you know what I mean?
19:46I feel like that was some sort of desperate times,
19:48dropping food for people to find.
19:50And only later where they're like,
19:51now we can focus on the party food.
19:53So it's just a vibe.
19:55Was the food drop bag before or after fairy bread?
19:59Let's find out.
20:081970?
20:10You're a whale.
20:11That's crazy.
20:12I'm disappointed that my friends from the Hobart Wilderness Commission,
20:14they've been lying to me.
20:16Okay, so it was after 1929.
20:19This bag was used by the Hobart Walking Club in 1970.
20:24They've really been lying to me.
20:27To deliver food by aeroplane to bushwalkers on long hikes.
20:32So can you imagine surviving the rugged Tassie wilderness
20:35only to die by a can of baked beans falling from 10,000 feet?
20:40Forget drop bears, drop beans are the real killers.
20:43No points for any of you there.
20:45Time for our next object.
20:54This is the holy dollar.
20:56You've heard of Bitcoin.
20:57Well, this is a bit of a coin.
20:59This currency was produced in Australia and in circulation for just eight years.
21:04When was this coin created?
21:06Position one, two or three?
21:10Let's see your answers.
21:14Briggs, why'd you go with one?
21:16Because I couldn't be bothered erasing my last answer.
21:18Great.
21:20Okay, what about you Pete?
21:21I seem to remember my great grandfather telling stories about paying for fairy bread with donut coins.
21:29Let's place it on the timeline.
21:36It was before fairy bread in 1813.
21:42To address a coin shortage in New South Wales, Governor Macquarie imported a bunch of Spanish reals and got a
21:48convicted forger to cut holes out of them.
21:52Creating two coins, the holy dollar and the centre was called the dump.
21:55Luckily we changed the name otherwise in 1983 Paul Keating would have floated the dump.
22:00And our final object is this Tasmanian Aboriginal scraper.
22:11Through an intimate knowledge of country and its resources, Palawa quarried and worked suitable rocks and materials into highly effective
22:19tools for cutting and scraping.
22:21When was this scraper crafted?
22:23One, two, three or four?
22:28What was your thinking, Danielle? You've gone with one.
22:31I just thought you'd want to have an earlier number and you can go way earlier.
22:35Great. What about you Pete?
22:37Well, I just thought the obvious thing in my mind was, of course, it's indigenous, it's going to be really
22:42old.
22:43You know, they've been here for so long. I think, yeah, I think it's a trick.
22:46And what about you Alex?
22:47Well, I feel like a scraper had to be invented before the butter knife.
22:56You're going to fit very great.
22:57I'm not saying there's a direct crossover in ingredients, but that's my theory.
23:03I feel like it's a very ancient scraper, like, and then these sort of, you know, old cultures inspired, those
23:07tools inspired modern tools.
23:10Oh, okay. Good thinking. And what about you Briggs?
23:12Oh, we've been using, you know, rock tools for eons. So I figured, actually, one of those eon joints.
23:21Let's see where in the timeline it belongs.
23:30Yes, this is from the 1830s.
23:37It is a scraper made from glass.
23:40So Palawa incorporated European glass into their toolkits, so the thick glass from bottles was fashioned into tools using the
23:48same techniques by which stone had been worked for thousands of years.
23:52Pretty resourceful, to be honest, I just put my empties in my neighbour's bin.
24:05Now we're close to seeing who will have their item on display at TMAG.
24:10Alex and Briggs with a bit of work to do, Pete in second place and Danielle in the lead.
24:16Well, it's all on the line in our final game.
24:19Let's take a quick detour to the museum's Antarctic display for a quiz called The Ice Is Right.
24:30Hands on buzzers.
24:32Chin strap, macaroni and rock hopper are all types of what?
24:38Briggs.
24:39Mustache.
24:41Emperor might be another one.
24:44Okay, Danielle.
24:44Penguin?
24:45Yes, it is Penguin.
24:47I would also have accepted pasta.
24:49Anything can be pasta if you've got a big enough pasta maker.
24:53There are two ATMs on the continent, but what currency do they dispense?
24:58Pete.
24:58US dollar.
24:59Correct.
25:00Yes.
25:03There's nothing worse when you get to the ATM and they're out of cash, you've got to go to the
25:06other one.
25:06It's a nightmare.
25:08If you wanted to move to the Chilean Antarctic settlement, what would you have to remove first?
25:16Alex.
25:17Is it something called, like hair?
25:20It's something, it is something from your body.
25:22Foreskin!
25:27I have come prepared.
25:31I know it.
25:32Alex, what is it?
25:33Appendix.
25:33You are correct.
25:35Yes.
25:37You know how I thought of that?
25:40How?
25:41Because I don't have an appendix or foreskin.
25:45Yeah, well you're ready to go.
25:47The nitrogen rich poop of penguins is known to release large quantities of which giggly gas?
25:55Pete.
25:56Nitrous oxide?
25:57Correct.
25:58Yes.
25:59Otherwise, no laughing gas.
26:00Yes.
26:01When penguins poop, the nitrogen in their feces reacts with microbes in the soil and is converted into nitrous oxide.
26:08So much so that researchers that study penguin colonies in Antarctica have known to get high while studying them.
26:15High on their own supplies.
26:17That's right.
26:18This guy called Charlie Underwood.
26:20The one rule.
26:21That's it.
26:22What is this coming out of Taylor Glacier?
26:26What's coming out of Taylor Glacier, Pete?
26:29It's the mercury from the...
26:32Something...
26:33It's something that's oxidised, right?
26:36Iron...
26:36Is that right?
26:37Yeah, it is.
26:38It is iron oxide mixed with water.
26:41You got it.
26:49Oh, it's on now.
26:50It's on.
26:51Okay, alright.
26:51Here we go.
26:52They're taking it seriously now.
26:53You're lying in bed on a six month long dark and spooky night in Antarctica.
26:59Possibly missing your foreskin, I don't know.
27:02What is making this ghostly sound?
27:08Pete.
27:10A sea lion.
27:12No, not a sea lion.
27:14Alex.
27:14Is that the penguin gas?
27:16No.
27:19Danielle.
27:20The wind?
27:20It's the wind.
27:21Yes.
27:25Well done.
27:26I think...
27:28I think I'm like something's...
27:30Do I know heaps about Antarctica?
27:33You might.
27:35It seems that way.
27:37I didn't know.
27:37I knew...
27:38Wow.
27:39It is vi...
27:40It is...
27:40So it's the wind vibrating snow on the ice shelf.
27:44Yeah.
27:44Final question.
27:46The Davis Plateau airstrip in Antarctica is also known informally by what Australian slang term,
27:54starting with W, meaning a far-flung place?
27:58Danielle.
27:59Whoop whoop?
28:00Correct?
28:01Oh, my God.
28:01Amazing.
28:03She knows heaps about Antarctica.
28:07That's the end of the show, which means, Danielle, you are the winner of the night at the museum.
28:17Well done, Danielle.
28:19What a journey Sarah has had hitchhiking all the way here without bones.
28:27It is now in the very good hands of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
28:32Thank you so much for playing with us.
28:34Goodnight.
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