Where the "Hills Hoist" Comes From
The Hills Hoist is the rotary, umbrella-style clothesline found in backyards all over Australia. Adelaide sheet-metal worker Lance Hill built the first winding-mechanism version in his own backyard in 1945, reportedly because his wife's existing line kept clashing with a lemon tree.
By 1958 the invention had grown into a full company, Hills Industries. It's since become such a genuine cultural icon that it featured in the Sydney 2000 Olympics closing ceremony and appeared on a 2019 Australian coin.
Mum still hangs the washing on the old Hills Hoist out back.
How Aussies Actually Use It
Still a fixture of suburban Australian backyards, and shorthand for a certain kind of ordinary domestic life.
Often mentioned nostalgically — spinning on the Hills Hoist as a kid is a shared Australian childhood memory.
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