Paula Xiberras
Chris ‘Roy’ Taylor, graphic designer and author, has an appreciation for Tasmania having visited Launceston a number of times. Chris loves Tassie’s ‘foodie’ culture and compares Tasmania to another place he has spent a bit of time in, New Zealand. Chris says he wouldn’t mind settling in Tasmania someday but for now he’s pretty happy living as he does in close vicinity to Hanging Rock in Victoria, a place that one could say has provided much for the inventive imagination and that very inventive imagination is the subject of Chris’s latest book.
Chris’s interest in invention may have started when his aunty gave him a book of William Heath Robinson, an English cartoonist and illustrator who drew ‘complex machines’. This sparked Chris’s interest, which only grew with his fascination with the ‘mysterious’ inventiveness that went into the creation of Australia’s yacht for the America’s Cup.
Chris says most books on inventions have been heavily technical volumes and so he takes a more light hearted look at inventions, utilising his skill as a graphic designer in a cartoon style, illustrated book which even includes cameos of his own family! Says Chris the book contains ‘bite sized pieces of information’ to both capture the attention of the reticent reader and also to spark a desire for further reading for the avid reader.
Chris says that many Australian inventors have not achieved the same level of fame as inventors in other nations and in spite of the fact the work of Australian inventors in some cases were early renderings of inventions that were later perfected and credited to other inventors ie Australian Henry Sutton who had an early idea for the television which was picked up on and developed by John Logie Baird and then there was the case of Lawrence Hargrave, the inventor of the box kite, among other inventions, whose work informed that of the Wright brothers.
Chris has a theory that the inventive spirit of Australians might in part be due to the fact that with the tyranny of distance and isolation we needed to be resourceful, working with whatever materials were available.
Perhaps one of the most ancient Australian invention was the woomera (spear) of the indigenous population. It was the fastest weapon prior to the invention of gunpowder!
Tasmanian readers might be surprised to know that some well-known inventions actually originated here in Tasmania. The Akubra hat’s inventor Benjamin Dunkerley came to Tasmania from the UK to set up a hat making business in Tasmania. He later relocated his business to NSW and the Akubra was born.
The humidicrib was invented in Tasmania in the 1930’s by brothers Don and Edward Both and the notepad was invented by Tasmanian JA Birchill when he glued pieces of paper together to create the widely known item we use today.
Chris hopes the book will be picked up by schools and educational institutes and it is already proving a popular present or souvenir for travellers to Australia to take back home with them.
This book certainly deserves to be widely read by all ages, introducing the young to Australia’s great inventive heritage and as a point of exploration for readers who may not have been made familiar with this important part of our history at school.
The Great Big Book of Aussie Inventions is out now and can be purchased from http://www.readings.com.au/products/18269352/the-great-big-book-of-aussie-inventions
