Australian fifty-dollar note
| (Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Value | $50 Australian dollars |
| Width | 151 mm |
| Height | 65 mm |
| Security features | Window, Watermark |
| Paper type | Polymer |
| Years of printing | 1995–99, 2003–14 |
| Obverse | |
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|
| Design | David Unaipon |
| Designer | Brian Sadgrove |
| Design date | 4 October 1995 |
| Reverse | |
 |
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| Design | Edith Cowan |
| Designer | Brian Sadgrove |
| Design date | 4 October 1995 |
The Australian fifty-dollar note is an Australian banknote with a face value of fifty Australian dollars (A$50). It is currently a polymer banknote, featuring portraits of David Unaipon and Edith Cowan.
No fifty dollar note was released as part of the initial rollout of decimal currency in 1966, but inflation and demand necessitated its introduction seven years later in 1973. The original paper fifty dollar note, designed by Gordon Andrews, has a scientific theme. On the front of the note is a portrait of Australian pathologist Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey and scenes of laboratory research. On the back is a portrait of Sir Ian Clunies Ross, veterinary scientist and first chairman of the CSIRO, along with scenes from the Australian environment.
On 4 October 1995 a new set of polymer banknotes were released; these were immediately nicknamed "pineapples". Designed by Brian Sadgrove, the new fifty dollar note features a portrait of Indigenous Australian author and inventor David Unaipon on the front, along with drawings from one of his inventions, and an extract from the original manuscript of his Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines. There is also a depiction of the Raukkan Church, a historical landmark in Raukkan, where Unaipon grew up.
. The couple standing in front of the church are Polly and Milerum. Milerum was the last initiated member of the local native tribe. He was highly respected and played a huge role in the recording of history of the native people of the Coorong.(See Australian produced series "Who do you think they are?" on Michael O'Laughlin. )
On the back is a portrait of Edith Cowan, first female member of any Australian parliament, along with a picture of Western Australia's original Parliament House, and an illustration of a foster mother and children.
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