Muriel Binney

Muriel Mary Sutherland Binney born Muriel Hasler (December 26, 1873 – May 11, 1949) was an Australian painter and inventor. She won a silver award for a 19 metre long painting at an international exhibition in 1908 and a silver medal for her inventions in 1929 at the International Exhibition of Inventions.

Life
Binney was born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 1873. Both her parents, Emily (born O'Shannessy) and George Henry Massey Hasler were born in Ireland and involved with photography.

In 1907 there was an Exhibition of Women's Work in Melbourne which had been organised by the Governor General's wife, Lady Northcote. The artists associated with the Women's Work exhibition included Binney, Portia Geach, Eirene Mort, Dora Serle, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite and Agnes Goodsir. Her entry was a huge almost twenty metre wide mural titled "Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset" which was an entry for the "Best original design for a frieze" in a strongly contested class of 23 other artists.

On the 16 October 1907 she registered the design of "Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset". She had originally made the watercolour for her own home but now realised that the image might be licensed as a basis for a wallpaper design.

Her work went on to the Franco-British Exhibition in London where it won the silver prize in 1908. Another entry was a wooden dining set carved by sixty people including members of The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW and designed by Susanne Gether.

Binney was awarded several patents for inventions including a folding cot (1908), a prosthesis for a missing leg and a shoe-stand. Her husband had not supported her interest in inventions. He died in 1927. In 1929 she was in Britain where she presented her ideas to the British Society of Inventors. Some were included in the International Exhibition of Inventions and she was awarded a silver medal. She entered again in 1930 and it was reported that some of her ideas were to be manufactured.

Binney died in Parramatta mental hospital in 1949. Her frieze of Sydney harbour was kept by her family in storage. It became part of the Australian National Maritime Museum's collection. In 2002 it was included in the Sydney by Ferry exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.