Historical information

These badges and emblems were issued by the Winter Olympic committees for the Games in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994 and Salt Lake City, USA in 2002 to commemorate the holding of the games in their respective cities.
The badges were owned and donated by Diana Patterson who was a talented cross country skier.
She was born in Tasmania and originally pursued a career as a physical education teacher. After making a major career change, she applied to join the Australian Antarctic Division. She applied four times before she was accepted. Diana first travelled to the Antarctic in October 1987. By this time only ten Australian women had spent a winter there. She first worked at Casey Station, before becoming leader at Mawson Station therein becoming the first female leader of an Antarctic base of any nation. After retiring Diana guided tourist expeditions to the Antarctic for many years, as well as continuing work in research and conservation.
In 2012 she published her story “The Ice Beneath My Feet: My Year In Antarctica”. Diana Patterson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to conservation and the environment”.
As well as these outstanding career achievements, Diana has been a Board Member of both the Mt. Buller Alpine Resort Management Board, including a period as Chairman, and also the Falls Creek Resort Management Board.
She was also a founding member of Falls Creek Historical Society.

Significance

These badges belonged to a highly recognised Australian and founding member of the Falls Creek Historical Society.

Physical description

Two badges issued to represent the Olympic cities of Lillehammer in 1994 and Park City, Salt Lake 2002, The badge for 1994 is rectangular and has a stylised figure of a skier in the centre. It has a chain attached at the top, so may have been part of a keychain. The 2002 badge for Park City is round and bears the emblem adopted for the Olympic Games held in Salt Lake as well as the Olympic rings.

Inscriptions & markings

Badge 1: Lillehammer 1994
Badge 2: Olympic Venue City, Park City, Olympic Winter Games, Salt Lake 2002