in-a-trans-like-state reblogged your photo and added:
As an Australian I find this post extremely assuming in a similar way to those ‘I forgot what stingrays were called and named them sea pancakes” posts
We call them Hills Hoists and they are So common here that they are both a visual metaphor for Aussie Suburbia and according to wikipedia was named a National Treasure. I have several memories of my dad spotting on in a friends garden and solemnly nodding “Ah a hills hoist, when I was a kid…” as well as them showing up on lists of stereotypical Aussie things we were shown in Primary school; Vegemite, Kangaroos, Pavlova, Kolas, Hills Hoists
#I'm not laughing at OP#i just find it funny#that something ive been repeatedly told is#so aussie is completely unknown overseas and mentioned as a slightly bizarre thing with no mention of australia#also i would not be surprised if the aussie legacy was completely made up by pop culture here#apparently we invented them#but technically hills hoist is a brand name made generic so its possible its just the brand was aussie
I had never heard of this type of laundry line being particularly Australian, as it happens! Nor have I heard of that brand name. Wikipedia backs you up though.
I grew up with a big family so we had one of these-style clotheslines, and also the more typical long-rope-on-a-pulley-between-two-posts style. Those are what you see in old movies about the prarie, but are less common here-- to use them really effectively, you have them on a slope so the far end goes way out over a long drop, and also you need these specialized little spacers, long c-shaped brackets with a little wheel just inside each curve, so that you clip them on the line and they roll along keeping the upper and lower line from sagging apart. Then you hang laundry on the lower line, and wheel it out on the pulley so you stand in one spot and it goes out to hang freely on the hillside? There’s one I pass at 80 mph on the Thruway every time I make the drive to the farm or back, it’s off a second-storey deck of a farmhouse, and goes a good 100 feet up a hill to a giant pole, and the farmer uses it in all seasons, and it always lifts my spirits a little to see #1 what a great laundry line it is-- that’s like, three jumbo loads of laundry, 20 feet up in the air, how amazing-- and #2 how dedicated this person is to air-drying their jeans. There’s always, like, six pairs of jeans on that line-- that is definitely a family of farmers.
My parents have one of these, and the pulley is a little rusty, and in the summer there’s a catbird that mimics the squeak of the rusty pulley and sometimes panics me when home alone into thinking a burglar has come to steal the sheets off the line. But it’s definitely a catbird.
Wikipedia, by the way, also confirms that there is controversy in North America about the use of clotheslines, including a Right To Dry movement.
Personally, I am delighted with my new clothesline, because it does mean a lot less walking back and forth to hang up clothes, and also the length of my yard is not quite enough to hang up a full load and so it’s nice to have the extra room on the lines.
The farm has a pair of big T-shaped poles that are gradually collapsing, but have four lines on them-- one has a pulley system, but the ropes are too loose to work properly. What I want, and may have to make my own project, is to put a pulley-system pole on the hillside, so one can hang out the washing without walking up the hill. But I might instead get another one of these jobbies and just shove it in the lawn behind the house instead of up the hill, because it’s such a pain in the ass to get up there and also the damn poles are falling down.
