A woman boils billies over an open fire at the beach in the 1930s. The billy, a simple container for boiling water, was a standard item of picnic equipment for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Billies could be bought ready-made, or manufactured at home from old jam tins with a bent wire handle attached. Fire restrictions and the widespread use of the thermos have meant that billies are less common in the 2000s.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
PAColl-3052-02-07
Photograph by Thelma Kent
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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