Meet you outside the swinging lass!

The story of the quote

“Until 1939 (in Bendigo) the local constabulary wore helmets like their counterparts in London. There would always be a constable walking the main block and if you stopped to talk he would say ‘Move along please’. You could talk to friends and relatives as long as you kept moving. It was a habit of people to circumnavigate many times around the main block with several deviations. The policeman would not allow people to stop and chat thus blocking the promenade footpaths around the city. On being made to keep moving, people would quickly say ‘Meet you outside the “swinging lass” meaning (Doug Pain’s) jewellery shop in Allan’s Walk’, Allan’s walk was a popular thoroughfare for many years and was filled with shops.”

From the memoirs of Tom Luke 2019

The history of the clock

On reading that the ‘swinging lass’ resided in the Bendigo Historical Society collection, I decided to track it down and see what it looked like. I was surprised to find this relatively small silver clock with a cherub on a swing. Further reading told an interesting story. The clock was made by the Ansonia clock company in New York around 1886 and was described as a Bobbing Doll Clock. It arrived in Australia in the late 1800s, in the company of Reg Field. Later it was purchased by Fred Field and in 1922 by Bendigo jeweller, Doug Pain. On the back of the clock is a label that reads “I started to wind this clock on the 17th October , 1922. Doug Pain”.

The clock was a feature of the window display in his shop in Allans Walk and later in his shop in Victoria Lane. The son of Doug, Bruce Pain, was apprenticed to his father. He inherited the business and the ‘swinging lass’. In 2019, Bruce and his wife, Patti, donated the clock to the Bendigo Historical Society.

Felicity Woodward for the Bendigo Historical Society July 2025