Large wooden frame for displaying betting boards

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Display equipment
Place: Hay, New South Wales, Australia; Young, New South Wales, Australia; Albury, New South Wales, Australia; Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia; Tumut, New South Wales, Australia; Adelong, New South Wales, Australia; Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia; Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Materials: Wood
Collection: Jim McMahon collection
Accession number: 2004.0022.0026

Description

Large wooden frame with shelf. Metal brackets. Used to display betting boards.

About the collection

The Jim McMahon Collection consists of a horseracing bookmaker's betting board, a greyhound racing bookmaker's betting board, bookmaker's betting tickets, ticket holders, personalised bookmaker's bag marked 'Jim McMahon Canberra', betting board stands and four carrying cases. These items were used by Jim McMahon in Canberra and the Southern Districts region from 1983 until 1994. Horseracing has played an integral role in Australian sporting, social and economic history. Bookmakers were once a vital and colourful presence on the racetrack and betting on the horses, through a bookie, was the first legal form of gambling in Australia. Developments in computerised betting technology and an increase in the available choices of other gambling attractions has seen the number of bookmakers steadily decline. The bookmaker's profession is fast becoming redundant and their equipment obsolete.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:14:50 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-19. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.