Model staircase at TasTAFE’s Clarence Campus is reunited with the medal it won 100 years ago

The beautiful model staircase on display at TasTAFE’s Clarence Campus now sits alongside the medal it won at the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1925.

The grand ellpitical staircase made from Tasmanian blackwood was built in the early 1920s by William Michael – Head Building Trades Teacher at the Hobart Technical College (as TasTAFE was known at the time) from 1921–45.

In 1925, the model travelled to the British Empire Exhibition in London, representing the best of Australian craftsmanship – and it won Mr Michael a medal.

Held at Wembley in north-east London from April to November 1924, then again from May to October 1925, the British Empire Exhibition brought examples the world’s best engineering, industry and culture to the UK – celebrating the bounty of the British Empire at its peak.

The Exhibition was also a chance for countries like Australia to promote themselves as destinations for investment, tourism and migration.

The site at Wembley was huge – a 215-acre expanse, criss-crossed by 24km of roads. The 27 million visitors who attended enjoyed all kinds of exhibits and quirky distractions: a rollercoaster, a dance hall, a boating lake, an elephant pageant, a coal mine, a recreation of Tutankhamen's tomb…and dozens of pavilions dedicated to the Empire’s many territories.

The Australian Pavilion was one of the biggest, featuring a 5m-tall bale of wool, a model of Sydney Harbour, a refrigerated cricketing sculpture made of butter – and William Michael’s model staircase.

Back in Australia, the staircase was badly damaged in the 1970s, but was restored for the Hobart Technical College centenary in 1988 – with guidance from Cyril Harvey, an apprentice who worked on the original build with William Michael in the 1920s.

In 2024, William Michael’s great niece, Mrs Margaret Nicholls, who now lives in Adelaide, contacted TasTAFE seeking to reunite Mr Michael’s staircase with his winning medal. Mr Michael’s widow gave the medal to Mrs Nicholls’ mother, and it was passed on to Mrs Nicholls in 1993. And after some investigating, she discovered that the model staircase was on display in F Block at TasTAFE’s Clarence Campus.

Mrs Nicholls remembers her childhood in 1940s Hobart with fondness – catching the tram to visit her Great Uncle ‘Billy’ in Lenah Valley, and being taken to see his model staircase at Hobart Technical College and “viewing it with awe and admiration.”

Mrs Nicholls said that she, her brother Donald Woolley and their families were delighted to gift the medal to TasTAFE, to be displayed alongside the staircase.

“I am so pleased to be sending this interesting and valuable curio to a safe and permanent home with the work of art and craftsmanship for which it was awarded – and to honour my great uncle William Michael,” she said.

“I am most grateful to TasTAFE for the care and custodianship given to my great uncle’s treasures.”

Now, 100 years after the British Empire Exhibition in London, it is fitting that William Michael’s model staircase has been reunited with the medal it so clearly deserved.

Paul Baker, TasTAFE Education Manager, Construction, is pictured above, alongside Mr Michael’s staircase and framed medal, and some photos of the 1988 restoration.