Photograph - Theresa Joy Hodge Wearing Fox Fur Coat, 1995

Historical information

This photograph shows Theresa Joy Hodge wearing the fox fur coat her father made, which is now part of the National Wool Museum Collection, NWM-9090.

"The foxes were shot in the 1950's by my Father, Charles Winnet Daniel Allen at two properties around Bacchus Marsh. One was Greystones at Glenmore, owned by the O'Keith family and the other was at Parwan, owned by the Miles Family. In the late 1940's and early 1950's, the Government put a bounty on the fox head. A pair of ears were sent to the Council and you were paid 2 pennies and the skins were sold to a skin buyer.

My Father would go out on moon lit nights and shoot the foxes then skin them, which he would peg on a board to dry. He took 21 fox skins to Nettlebergs Pty. Ltd., Furriers at 173 Elizabeth Street Melbourne, Victoria, to have this coat made for my Mother, Gladys Eileen Allen. It cost Twenty Pound and Nine Shillings to have the skins made into this coat.

My Father died on the 1st July 1982 and my Mother on the 15th October 1993, aged 76. This coat was inherited by me Theresa Joy Hodge (nee Allen) on the passing of my Mother. I have worn it on cold days, but seeing that I am 84 and the coat is 74 years old, I would like to donate it to you, as I have no-one to leave it to and hope that you and the visitors to your Museum
will enjoy looking at it."

Theresa Hodge, 2025

Theresa was a dairy farmer, who grew up in Bacchus Marsh with her parents, before moving to South Australia in 1980 to a 167 acre farm in Burrungale.

Physical description

Colour photograph showing an interior view of a woman wearing sunglasses and a fox fur coat. She is standing in front of a doorway, and beside a dresser which has a mirror, ornaments and a photograph.

Inscriptions & markings

back: [handwritten] 1995 Winter / Theresa Allen
back: [printed] Kodak / Official Sponsor / of the / Olympic Games

Other parts of this item

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