House plan hand-drawn by George Weir, who worked as a carpenter for the Snowy Mountains Authority

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Type: Architectural plans
Date: 1950
Place: Jindabyne, New South Wales, Australia
Materials: Graphite, Paper
Collection: George and Mary Weir collection
Accession number: 2002.0017.0010

Description

A hand-drawn house plan in blue and red pencil on discoloured white paper. Two exterior angles, situation, and one floorplan. title handwritten at top - 'PROPOSED COTTAGE, TIMBER FRAMED, FIBRO FINISHED, GEORGE F WEIR, JINDABYNE'. In the bottom right corner is written '~SCALE 1/8 REP 1 FOOT~'.

About the collection

This collection was owned by George and Mary Weir, who emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1949 ' for a better life'. The collection comprises: a plane, rule, saw, house plans, two photographs, a blowtorch and glue melting pot. augers, photocopies, and a receipt for rates from the Snowy Mountains Council. George Weir used the carpentry tools in his work in NSW as a carpenter and joiner, first to build his own home at Jindabyne, then for work on facilities for the Snowy Mountains Scheme, and property maintenance in rural NSW. He then built another family home at Heme Bay (Villawood, NSW), again using the tools. This collection illustrates several aspects of life in post-Second World War Australia: the migrant experience of moving to a comparatively remote location to work, and using skills learned elsewhere to build a home; work on facilities for the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which was largely carried out by migrants; and participation in suburban development and building construction in a Sydney suburb . The object s in the collection are also comparatively rare, as full sets of workmen's tools from this period, provenanced to a particular individual, are unusual.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:16:01 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-09-30. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.