Invented in Sydney & NSW

Australias great ideas and vision can be seen by the many Sydney inventions that have helped improve the lives of people all over the world.

Sydney Inventions

Made In Sydney & NSW

For more information about each invention, see links at the bottom of this page.

Australian Crawl

Originating from the Front Crawl, which was used as early as 1844 in London though considered barbarically un-European, the Australian crawl was later adapted using elements of the flutter kick from Native Americans, the Trudgen stroke, which was later improved on by the Australian champion swimmer, Richmond "Dick"Cavill (1884-1938), which was further improved on after he was inspired by Alick Wickham, a young Solomon Islander who was living in Sydney and swam a version of the crawl stroke that was popular in his home island at Roviana lagoon.

This was later modified into what we now know as the "Australian crawl", ehich like Australian society itself, today can be said to be a multicultural hybrid sourcing components from all over the world.

Beach Life-Savers & Surf Life-Saving Reel - 1903-1906

Australian surf lifesaving clubs were the first in the world. In 1903 a group of swimmers formed the Bronte Beach Surf Club. They rigged up some rescue equipment: a coil of rope on a pole stuck in the sand at the centre of the beach.

In 1906 Lyster Ormsby of the Bondi Surf Bathers Lifesaving Club built a model from a cotton reel and two bobby pins of a portable horizontal reel for the rope. The first full-size reel was built by Sgt John Bond of Victoria Barracks in Paddington; and was improved on in the same year by Sydney coachbuilder G H Olding whose final design was used until 1993.

The Box Kite - 1893

The Box Kite was invented by Lawrence Hargrave through his investigations into the lifting properties of curved surfaces, which he found have more lift than flat ones. Hargraves work formed the basis of many manned flights that followed, and he is credited with a hand in the invention of powered flight.

An engraving of Lawrence Hargrave with a number of his gliders appeared on the Australian $20 note from 1966 to 1994.

Dynamic Lifter Fertiliser - 1986

Norm Jennings created a method of collecting and treating the droppings from his cage chickens to create and patent Pelletted Poultry Manure Fertilizer, later known as Dynamic Lifter fertiliser, now used throughout the USA, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Electric Pacemaker - 1928

The first electric pacemaker was used on a stillborn infant at Sydneys Crown Street Womens Hospital. A portable apparatus which was plugged into a lighting point. One pole was applied to a skin pad soaked in salt solution, while the other consisting of an insulated needle with an exposed point was injected into the heart. The infant was revived, and its heart was able to continue beating on its own after 10 minutes of treatment.

The Fairlight CMI - Digital Sampler - 1979

The first Digital sampler, The Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument), was the first polyphonic digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie in Sydney, Australia.

Lagerphone - 1952

The lagerphone is a musical instrument consisting of a many metallic beer bottle caps nailed loosely to a long stick and shaken, making the bottle lids rattle. The first recorded use of the lagerphone was near Halbrook, NSW, at an amateurs night. It was popularised in the 1950s by the Heathcote Bushwackers as an alternative to the American wobbleboard.

Moon Landing - 1969

In 1969, Australia broadcast mankinds first steps on the Moon. The radio telescope in Parkes, New South Wales, received and relayed to the world the first pictures of the first moon landing.

Powered flight - 1894

Lawrence Hargrave, inventor of the Box (or Cellular) Kite, was experimenting with with monoplane models in the 1880s, and by 1889 had constructed a rotary airplane engine, driven by compressed air. In 1894 he connected four of his box kites together, added the engine and seat and is said to have flown five metres.

He corresponded freely with other aviation pioneers, including the Wright Brothers, though unlike others who patented and commercialised their ideas, Hargrave left all his research and prototypes to the Munich Museum so they could be of free use to the public.

Pre-paid postage - 1838

James Raymond, Colonial Postmaster-General of New South Wales, introduced the worlds first pre-paid postal system, using pre-stamped sheets as envelopes.

Race Cam - 1979

The Race Cam, a tiny lightweight camera placed in the car that could provide views of the track from within the car, was first used in the 1979 Hardie Ferodo 1000 endurance race at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales. It was devised by Geoff Healey in the late 1970s while he was working with ATN-7 (now the Seven Network), the first network to use the camera.

The Self-Propelled Rotary Hoe - 1912

Cliff Howard of Gilgandra attached hoe blades to a powered axle that simultaneously hoed the ground and pulled the machine forward, making for far greater land cultivation and much-relieved farmers and land owners.

Splayd - 1943

The knife, fork and spoon combined into one apparatus was invented by William McArthur after seeing ladies clumsily balancing three pieces of cutlery and their plates on their laps at barbecues. Released in 1962, when buffet lunches and barbecues were becoming popular in Australia, Splayds caught on quickly and were a favourite wedding gift in the 1970s. They were easy to use, informal and more socially acceptable than eating with the hands. They also saved on washing up.

Splayds are often considered as an icon of Australian product design. The initial design by William McArthur in the late 1940s was sold to Stokes Pty Ltd in 1960. The company then redesigned the product for mass production. By 1991 Stokes had sold 4.75 million Splayds in 52 countries.

Wave Piercing Catamaran - 1984

Designed by Sydney naval architect Phillip Hercus, the design of the Wave Piercing Catamaran is now the basis for the ocean going catamarans produced by Incat in Tasmania.

In 1989 an Australian-made Wave Piercing Catamaran set the speed record across the Atlantic Ocean on its delivery voyage. In 1998 another Australian made Wave Piercing Catamaran took the record.

Xerox Photocopying Technology - 1907

The dry photographic copying process called xerography, works by forming an electrostatic mirror image of the item to be copied on a selenium-coated surface by exposing it to light. The charged surface attracts the dark powder particles, which are transferred to a sheet of paper and cured by heating. A research paper on the photoconductivity properties of selenium, published in 1907 by Professor O U Vonwiller from the University of Sydney, provided the key technology for the subsequent invention of the xerographic process in the United States by Chester Carlston in 1937. The result was the Xerox copier.