A Hills Hoist is a height-adjustable rotary clothes line

Clothes line

A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points , outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line to dry, using clothes pegs or clothes pins...

, manufactured in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 by Lance Hill since 1945. The Hills Hoist and similar rotary clothes hoists remain a common fixture in many backyards in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. They are considered one of Australia's most recognisable icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s, and are used frequently by artists as a metaphor for Australian suburbia

SubUrbia

subUrbia is a play by Eric Bogosian chronicling the nighttime activities of a group of aimless 20-somethings still living in their suburban Boston hometown and their reunion with a former high school classmate who has become a successful musician...

 in the 1950s and 60s. 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

Gilbert Toyne

Gilbert Toyne Australian inventor.Gilbert Toyne was born at Darriwill, Victoria, Australia and trained as a blacksmith, wheelwright and farrier. He went on to invent, patent and market four rotary clothes hoist designs in Australia...

 of Geelong patented four rotary clothes hoists designs between 1911 and 1946. Toyne’s first patented clothes hoist was sold though 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.

Lance Hill began to manufacture the Hills rotary clothes hoist in his backyard in 1945. His wife apparently wanted an inexpensive replacement to the line and prop she had for drying clothes.

Lance Hill's brother-in-law Harold Ling returned from the war and joined him to form a partnership in 1946. Ling became the key figure in expanding the production and marketing of the Hills Hoists. In 1947 Hills Hoists began manufacturing a wind-up clothes hoist which was identical to Gilbert Toyne’s expired 1925 patent with the crown wheel-and-pinion winding mechanism. Initially the clothes hoists were constructed and sold from Lance Hill’s home on Bevington Road, Glenunga

Glenunga, South Australia

Glenunga is a small suburb of 2,539 people in the South Australian city of Adelaide. It is located three kilometres east of the Adelaide central business district . The name Glenunga is taken from an Aboriginal language and was given to the area by the natives before European settlement...

. Soon production moved to a nearby site on Glen Osmond Road

Glen Osmond Road, Adelaide

Glen Osmond Road is a major state Highway 1 road in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. Connecting the Adelaide city centre with the Adelaide Hills via the Adelaide-Crafers Highway; Glen Osmond Road carries half of Adelaide's freight traffic and is the major hills commuter route...

 and within a decade the factory had relocated to a larger site at Edwardstown

Edwardstown, South Australia

Edwardstown is an inner Southern suburb located 6 km southwest of Adelaide in the City of Marion.Edwardstown is in the South Australian House of Assembly Electoral district of Elder and the Australian House of Representatives Division of Hindmarsh. Edwardstown is home to the Castle Plaza Shopping...

. The company Hills Hoists became Hills Industries

Hills Industries

Hills Industries is a diversified Australian company that makes home, hardware and electronics. The company has been described as an Australian legend, and was founded on the production of a single product, the Hills Rotary Hoist.-History:...

in 1958.

External links

• Hills Holdings Australia Parent Company
• Greener Garden Solutions Hills sole appointed official distributor for the UK & Europe