You may not know this, but when HAMMERSMITH started back in 1946 we use to make Australiana souvenirs for tourist shops our of Mulga wood.

So "what is Mulga wood ?" I hear you ask. Well Mulga wood is an Australian hardwood that is grown in the more arid areas of Australia. The timber is extremely hard and was used extensively by Aboriginals for the making of traditional hunting tools such as spears and boomerangs.

I don't believe that it commercially available today, but back in the 1940's and 50's it was readily available and was used by a number of manufacturing businesses throughout Australia to produce Australiana themed souvenirs.

Our business was started with the sole purprose of making the Mulga wood pieces, and did so for the first 10 or so years. In fact it was the buildup to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne that helped really drive the sales of these types of products.

The photo is of 3 different pieces that we made. One is a wheel barrow ash tray, another is a seat ash tray and the final piece is a cribbage (game) board.

These 3 pieces were recently generously donated to us by someone who had them and thought that we might like to keep them as a piece of history of our business.