In an Adelaide backyard, returned serviceman Lance Hill used scrap metal to develop a rotary clothes hoist in 1945. His wife had complained that the fruit trees were competing for space with the 'prop' clothes line.

The clothesline was popular with friends and family, so Hill and his brother-in-law Harold Ling established a business to supply the demand - the order book records early sales, when a hoist cost 10.10s and installation an extra 1.5s.

A rotary clothes hoist had been patented earlier by Gilbert Toyne, but Lance Hill's design was the first rotary clothes hoist to achieve national sales success.

The clothesline is now exported overseas and the 'Hills Hoist' has become an Australian cultural icon. Today, Hills Industries operates internationally and produces a wide range of products from building and industrial parts to play equipment.

This advertisement appeared in a May issue of The Australian Women's Weekly magazine; the theme is Mother's Day - the advertisement suggests that a 'Hills Family Benefit Product' is the perfect gift for to make Mother's washdays easier.