Southern Aurora Pty Ltd

Designer
Maker	Southern Aurora Pty Ltd
Marks
Description	Plain bowl with footring.
Condition	Good, some have small chips to rim.
Number
Production Date	1970s
Width	118mm
Depth	47mm
Length (with handle)	155mm
Weight	245gm
Volume	315ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antiques 28 Dec 2011
Rameking Reference Number	SAU 001-21

Southern Aurora Pottery Pty Ltd operated from the late 1960s at 329 Warrigal Road Burwood Victoria, the same location as Lane, and now an antiques auction house.  By 1974, Lane was gone but Southern Aurora was still operating.  The potters got their clay from the now abandoned Burwood Brickworks quarry, bordered by Burwood Highway, Middleborough and Eley roads, Melbourne, Victoria.  Southern Aurora Pty Ltd were then found in the outer suburb of Bayswater, Victoria from 1975 to 1977, I don’t know if it was the same company though.  Strangely, the company registration appears not to be recorded in the Victorian Government Gazette.

Lane, Kemp, Willis Potteries Pty Ltd were first established at 109 Highbury Road Burwood Victoria in 1936 and produced a variety of pottery until the late 1960s.   Their old building is long gone.  After over 25 years in Highbury Road, they moved up the road and around the corner in 1962 to 329 Warrigal Road Burwood.  This building was originally built as a bakery in 1928 and operated as a bakery until 1960.  The ramekins that Southern Aurora produced appear to have been of one pattern, but with varying decoration.  Most have a plain cream exterior and harlequin interior. Some have a mottled green high gloss glaze sprayed to the interior. The external glaze is matt.

All of the ramekins I have seen from Lane have had paper stickers attached to the base of the interior of the bowl . These have no sticker or marking. nor are there any cracks, chips or crazing, but a label inside the box identifies them. These are a late 1960s-early 1970s ramekin set.  They have a mid green glaze with brown and olive mottling and a finish called “Green Pewter” in this range of ramekins.

The name Southern Aurora comes from our equivalent of the Northern Lights.  Auroras are the result of emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere.   It was a popular name in its day, having both a train and an aircraft named after it.