''On the wallaby track'' is a

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

painting by the Australian artist

Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...

. The painting depicts an itinerant family; a woman with her child on her lap and a man boiling a

billy Billy may refer to: * Billy (name), a name (and list of people with the name) Animals * Billy (dog), a dog breed * Billy (pigeon), awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945 * Billy (pygmy hippo), a pet of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge * Billy, a youn ...

for tea. The painting's name comes from the colloquial Australian term "On the wallaby track" used to describe itinerant rural workers or "

swagmen A swagman (also called a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag. The term originated in Australia in the 19th century and was later used in New Zeala ...

" moving from place to place for work. The work has been described as "among the best known and most popularly admired of Australian paintings". McCubbin painted the work near his residence in

Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Brighton recorded a population of 23,252 at the 2021 census. ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. He used his family as models—his wife Annie for the woman and his young son John for the baby. Michael Moriaty, Annie's younger brother, was the model for the man. An infra-red photograph of the painting revealed that the head of the woman was originally painted facing the viewer and only later turned to face away. The painting is now part of the collection of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, having been bought in 1897 for £126. The work is popularly known in Australia due to its use in an advertisement for

Kit Kat Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, United Kingdom, and is now produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United Stat ...

chocolate bars in the 1980s. On 17 June 1981, the painting was used on an Australian $2 postage stamp. Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) wrote the poem 'The wallaby track' which was printed in '' The Bulletin'' on 6 June 1896, the same year as McCubbin's painting. The poem was later included in Ogilvie's inaugural anthology ''Fair girls and gray horses''.

References

External links

''On the wallaby track'' (1896)
at the

Paintings by Frederick McCubbin 1896 paintings Collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Paintings of children {{Australia-stub