The Big Condamine Bell

The bell it replicates is one of the few genuinely Australian inventions in this catalogue.

The Condamine bell, also called the bullfrog bell, was developed in this district in the nineteenth century for bullocks and later cattle and horses running loose in unfenced country. It is made from flat steel – often reused, in the early days, from saw blades or wagon tyre iron – folded and riveted rather than cast, and it produces a deep, carrying, unmistakable note. Stockmen could locate a mob by sound across kilometres of scrub, which was the entire point before fences.