MEND & MAKE DO as practised by the Porter Women.

People who lived through the Depression years of the 1930s and the Second World War learnt to reuse and recycle, often continuing through life. The Porter women made their own clothes, remodelled older clothes and mended tears and rips. They knitted, crocheted and sewed, made baskets, embroidered pillowslips and stencilled tablecloths. Whatever could be repaired, was repaired. Explore the workings of household equipment from the early 1900s - the soap saver/sud maker, a butter cooler, a darning egg and see how flour bags, that once contained flour, were reused. Ella and Hazel Porter were not rich, their father, Herbert, died in 1919 when they were young children and so were brought up by their mother Florence. After leaving school, girls worked as secretaries, typists and shop assistants, supporting themselves and their widowed mother. Their carful lifestyle was a necessity. PRICE: Adults $12, Concessions $10, Families $34, NT Members and Children under 5 free.