Pictures 1956

Catalogue / Memoir
Introduction Pictures Objects Animations

PICTURES are both finished and ephemeral works made for animations.

1949----   1950----   1951----   1952----   1953----   1954----   1955----   1956----   1957----   1958----   1959----   1960----   1961----   1962----   1963----   1964----   1965----   1966----   1967----   1968----   1969----   1970----   1971----   1972----   1973----   1974----   1975----   1976----   1977----   1978----   1979----   1980----   1981----   1982----   1983----   1984----   1985----   1986----   1987----   1988----   1989----   1990----   1991----   1992----   1993----   1994----   1995----   1996----   1997----   1998----   1999----   2000----   2001----   2002----   2003----   2004----   2005----   2006----   2007----   2008----   2009----   2010----   2011----   2012----   2013----   2014----   2015----   2016----   2017----   2018----   2019----   2020----   2021----   2022----   2023----   2024----   2025----   2026----  

Grandma watches from her frame

The Olympic Games is broadcast from Melbourne all around the world.
Neighbours come to Talisman to watch it in our living room.

My father Noel had built a TV with a small round cathode ray tube that transmitted green and white images. He built it with no chassis so he could fine tune it and replace valves quickly without turning off the power so people didn't miss any of the action. Noel knew just where to fiddle and not get electrocuted.

What would Noel's grandma think?

I imagine Lillie watching from her frame on the living room wall, the frame she carved and gilded, that surrounds Tom's portrait of her. The portrait was included in the 2015 Tom Roberts retrospective curated by Anne Graham, and opened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on his return from the Paris Agreement.

Lillian Williamson [c. 1920's] Oil on linen.
Portrait: Tom Roberts
Frame: Lillian Williamson
Collection: National Portrait Gallery

Can you see signs of damage to this picture of Lillie?
I jumped off a chair in the living room and fell into it.
I felt the linen rip against my bare feet.
Noel took it to a conservator in Melbourne.
They repaired it but to me it came home changed.

Me at High Tea 22nd Jan 2016
with Anne Graham,
Curator of the Tom Roberts Retrospective
Australian National Gallery

One day Noel tells me he used to watch 'grand-dad' (Tom) working in his studio in the garden at Talisman. Tom would stand with his back to the picture he was working on, bend forwards and look at it between his legs. If the picture worked upside down, it was finished. Noel said a picture had to work as an abstract arrangement of pictorial elements, or something like that - I was very young and forget exactly what he said. I soon got into the habit of looking at pictures - my own and other people's - from different angles. Another thing he said Tom did, is dance around the studio when he felt a work was finished, when it didn't need you any more. I certainly dance when I am happy with my work. I see my finished artworks as my children leaving home to have lives of their own, independent of their parents.

This painting (upside down) shows Lillie
hanging out washing in the Talisman garden.

Washing Day [c. mid 1920's]
Oil on canvas 29.5x55.2cm
signed 'Tom Roberts' V.S.418.
Provenance: 1932 National Gallery of Victoria.

Tom and Lillie planted English trees, shrubs and flowers around the house. Beyond the gates a rain forest still stands, a native forest of trees, plants and animals. Years after we lived there, Talisman was sold to a woman called Larry Chambers who ran a local plant nursery. She very kindly contacted my father and they corresponded by letter. I wrote to her and asked if she could send me a list of plants still growing on the garden. She sent me a warm and friendly letter and a list of the garden trees and shrubs, listing the native and non-native species. I am hoping to find that letter among the things stored in Tasmania, that arrived in the shipping container. If I find it I will place it here.

Noel would drive every day from Talisman, Kallista, to work at AWA in Melbourne. A long drive. He often called in on Nora and Ca on his way home and be home after dark. Once a week he brought home treats for me and Nadya: 'WK' (as he called a 'White Knight') or a 'VC' (as he called a 'Violet Crumble' bar).

One sunny afternoon (it must have been one of his days off work), Noel sits with me in the garden of Talisman, and tells me, 'Nature has no lines, only places where tones and colours meet.' As he's speaking I watch spots of sunlight dancing on leaves. I watch silhouettes of sun-lit twigs dancing against the dark shady spots beyond. What was my father seeing?

INTERACTIONS

I email this story to my childhood friend Anne and invite her comment.
Anne's father Colin and Noel were best friends since their school days and our families became very close. Anne studied and worked all her life in science and technology and I am always curious to hear her perspective.
She writes,

That's lovely! I well remember the green TV and how amazing it was. Also that painting which I thought was of a very severe lady, possibly a headmistress! I never knew that it was Lily. I may have been told, but I thought she was scary.

Mum and dad finally bought a TV, but dad had to investigate its workings. Mum went out one day, so dad started pulling the TV apart. He pulled out the whole chassis and put it on top of the chassis, tilted it and the tube fell out, hit the hearth and broke off the pointy bit at the back. Dad went cold all over and when he stopped trembling, rang Noel. Noel arrived soon after with a new tube and installed it. The picture wasn't as good as before, but it worked. Mum came home and commented that the picture wasn't too good. Noel was a hero and possibly saved a marriage!

Email from Anne Russell,
French Island, Victoria
Thursday Sept 10, 2026

In 2006 I get an email from Geoffry Williams
who had worked with Noel at AWA.
He writes:

"I started with AWA in 1956 as an apprentice and spent several years in the Marine Dept where I met Noel and Arthur Dixon, Arthur was an enthusiastic bird watcher. When Arthur, Noel and I worked on the ships at Williamstown, we would park by the waterfront, watch the water birds and eat our lunches. Arthur retired about 1958. There were also John Clarke, Bruce Ayling, Ted Lovell, Sir Lionel Hooke (who went to Antarctica with Shackleton's expedition) John Fear, Peter Varco (who had a severe stutter) Archie Miles, Neil Hill, who had Austin seven car, Eric Facklamb, Eugene Tiermanus. Colin Wilkinson, (2 way radio) Don Leithead, (Public Address) who was a Ford v8 believer. Clive O'brien, Paul Tattam, Ron Jenkins. The last three were Benardo boys who were sent out from England as orphans after the war. Noel will know these people

Noel and I worked on the wharfs, on tugs, (one tug Noel will remember was the Howard Smith), ships etc also two-way radios and radiotelephones associated with the marine and port authorities. One day Noel and I went to the Yarra docks in response to a call from a bulk coal carrier. They had a damaged echo sounder. The coal grabs had damaged the lead-sheathed cables, which ran from the WheelHouse to between the double hull bottom. We borrowed a huge spanner from the engine room and removed a cover on the upper hull. Next thing we heard was a person shouting at us from three stories up. Apparently this cover should not be removed unless the ship is in dry dock. I can't remember what happened after that except that I threatened the shouter as I thought he was very rude and over the top.

Noel was a big influence on my early life with the training he gave me. I remember going to the docks one day where there had been a fire in the radio room of a coastal trader steamship the Euroa. I said to Noel we might as well throw every thing overboard as it was burnt. Noel said no a coat of paint would fix it. I thought he was joking. He said open it up. It was an ancient AWA K13 spark transmitter still used. There are no people around today who know what a spark transmitter is or was.

Another event I remember was a group of us went to Rosebud or Dromana where a large ship had missed the channel and gone aground on the mud close to shore. We installed a radiotelephone so the crew could talk to their families."

Geoffrey Williams, November 2006

EVENTS

1956: August - The Murray River flooded (the biggest flood in recorded history), affecting many towns near the river.

1956: Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games.

1956: September 16 - television began in Australia.

1956: The Federal council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders was established.

22 November - The 1956 Summer Olympics opened in Melbourne.
The opening ceremony was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with 107,700 people watching.

The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985

Written by me, Lisa Roberts/Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill), on

10/09/2026