What is a 'Hills Hoist'?

A Hills Hoist is a height-adjustable rotary clothes line, designed to permit the compact hanging of wet clothes so that their maximum area can be exposed for wind drying by rotation.

The Hills Hoist has been manufactured in Adelaide, South Australia by Lance Hill since 1945. The Hills Hoist and similar rotary clothes hoists remain a common fixture in many backyards in Australia and New Zealand. They are considered one of Australia's most recognisable icons, and are used frequently by artists as a metaphor for Australian suburbia in the 1950s and 1960s. Although originally a product name, the term "Hills Hoist" became synonymous with rotary clothes hoists in general, throughout Australia.

As early as 1895 Colin Stewart and Allan Harley of Sun Foundry in Adelaide applied for a patent for an 'Improved Rotary and Tilting Clothes Drying Rack'. In their design the upper clothes line frame tilted to allow access to the hanging lines. Gilbert Toyne of Geelong patented four rotary clothes hoists designs between 1911 and 1946. Toyne's first patented clothes hoist was sold through the Aeroplane Clothes Hoist Company established in 1911. It was Toyne's 1925 all-metal model (Australian Patent No. 24553/25) with its enclosed crown wheel-and-pinion winding mechanism that defined clothes hoist designs for decades to follow.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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10 Comments

Gary Chadwick

Easy one for an Aussie. So many of us grew up with one in the back yard.. infact it's such an iconic symbol it appeared in the Sydney Olympics

Raymond Cardona

I have one of these clotheslines and I call it an umbrella clothesline as it opens and closes just like an umbrella Bonnie

Joy Holbrook

Gemma, but we all did. 😉😊

Joy Holbrook

Debra Coleman, an almost obscene waste of electricity. And nothing smells better than washing dried in our glorious Aussie sun.

Gemma

Also great for swinging on as a kid, which clearly you shouldn't have done

Debra Coleman

When I was growing up every backyard in Australia had one. Not so much these days more clothesline’s attached to the outside wall of the house. I was surprised when visiting the US they mostly dry everything in clothes dryers. I like my things dried by the Australian sun.

Barbara Roman

I have one in my backyard 😁

Julie Allen

The Hills Hoist is listed as a National Treasure by the National Library of Australia. In January 2017, Hills Industries sold the manufacturing and sale rights of its Hills Home Living brands to AMES Australasia, a subsidiary of the American Griffon Corporation.