The Miss Australia contest ran over 93 years, from 1907 to 2000 and from 1954, was a major charity fundraising effort for Spastic Centres of Australia, raising more than $90 million for The Cerebral Palsy Association. To celebrate this monumental historic and altruistic undertaking, The National Museum of Australia is presenting Miss Australia: A Nation’s Quest.
The exhibition will feature gowns, trophies, sparkling sceptres and also documentation of the quest from its very beginning through to it’s last year.
The most prized pieces of the exhibition will be the Miss Australia Charity Queen tiara and the Miss Australia crown, which features 800 Japanese pearls, six large Australian pearls and a silver wattle design.
The first ever winner of the annual Miss Australia Contest was Alice Buckridge and the last was Sheree Primmer, gaining their titles not just by fundraising but by answering perplexing questions like…
How would you eat soup or cereal

The Miss Australia Quest was succeeded by the Miss Universe quest, made popular in Australia by Jennifer Hawkins.
Miss Australia: A Nation’s Quest, fundraising for The Spastic Centres of Australia and The Cerebral Palsy Association will be at The National Museum of Australia from March 9 until June 12, and will travel to The Melbourne Museum for a November to February showing.