This chair is handmade from old kerosene packing cases and is upholstered in two kinds of floral fabric. It was made by Henry ‘Harry’ Fraser, and was most likely upholstered by his wife, Elizabeth Grant Fraser. The chair was a gift to Ivy Williams (nee Dent), the matriarch of the Williams family, with whom the Frasers first lived upon arriving in the Coffs Harbour area in the early 1920s. It is estimated that the chair dates from around this time.

The Frasers and the Williams lived in an area of modern-day Coramba that was previously known as ‘The Orange Trees’. This site is now home to a plant nursery, but was once largely covered with banana plantations and tomato fields. When the Frasers moved out of the Williams’s home, they built their own home not far away. The donor remembers them as ‘Uncle and Aunty Fraser’. Ivy Williams kept the chair in her bedroom. When she passed away, the chair was handed down to her daughter Daisie Nelson (nee Williams) who used the chair for sewing and reading – the drawers in the arms were used to hold sewing equipment and magazines were kept under the seat. The chair was subsequently handed down to Daisie’s daughter Jill Horton who donated it to the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum. All three generations of women lived on the same site and used the chair in intimate, quiet spaces of the home.

Domestic furniture made from packing cases and other recycled materials was commonplace in the early 20^th century. Though usually associated with the Great Depression of the 1930s, this kind of ‘bush carpentry’ was made in remote locations decades earlier due to the lack of access to furniture makers and the funds to purchase pre-made items. Soldier settlers and people leaving the city for the country were often supported by organisations like the New Settlers League of Australia. The League produced a booklet titled ‘Makeshifts’ that included instructions on how to make furniture from packing cases for every room in the house. A very similar chair design illustrates the cover of the 1924 edition.

Three generations of women used the chair on the same piece of land in Coramba. It is a fine example of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people living in early 20^th century and the ‘making do’ approach to furnishing a house. Though living and working on a farm in Coffs Harbour in the early years of the 20^th century would have been harsh and hard work, the chair is also a reminder of the desire to have beautiful, personal items in the domestic spaces of these farms. This chair was used in intimate spaces such as the bedroom, or for more peaceful pastimes like sewing and reading.

[Researched and written by Nerida Little, 2019]

Chair made from packing cases and upholstered in floral fabric. The company names on the packing cases are: Vacuum Oil Company, Plume Motor Spirits and Kerosene. There are doors on the front of the chair arms which hide four removable drawers. The door catches are made from nails. The seat lifts up to reveal more storage space beneath. The chair has been rudimentarily upholstered in a cream floral on the chair back and arms and a blue floral on the seat itself. There is no padding under the fabric.

Blog post “The Packing Case Chair”- Coffs Harbour Regional Museum on Coffs Coast Heritage.