Historical information

Research is still being carried out regarding the inscription on this bell. Perhaps it was used for horses during the war. It may have been a souvenir or perhaps just a political statement, similar to 'Buy Australian'.

Cow bells were common to colonial agriculture and transport, used wherever animals were turned out to graze overnight and had to be rounded up again next morning. Bells were fastened around the necks of household milking cows, domestic goats, bullock teams, horse teams, and camel teams, to help find them in the pre-dawn light. Station shepherds and cattle drovers also used them to warn of any disturbances to their flocks and herds overnight.

The bells were a necessary item in a largely unfenced continent. So important, that Anthony Mongon began making his pot-bells at Yackandandah from 1861, August Menneke produced the “Wagga Pot” from 1867, and Samuel Jones started manufacturing his distinctively shaped “Condamine Bell” in 1868. However, these deeply resonant Australian bells were made from iron — Mongon and Jones were blacksmiths who simply beat old pitsaw blades into shape. Few genuinely brass cow bells were made here, the vast majority being imported from Britain where the industry of brass founding was already well established. (Some bells were also imported from the United States, but these too were nearly all of iron).

Significance

This bell is historically significant as typical of a cow bell used by farmers and herdsmen in Colonial Victoria.

Physical description

Cow bell, brass, topless pyramid shape, inverted "U" shaped pin attached. Pin and clapper are iron. Bell is embossed on sides.

Inscriptions & markings

Embossed "ADVANCE / VICTORIA" and "WWI"