What do more than 3000 people from all across Australia have in common? They have long and fond memories of The Australian Women's Weekly.
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And a knack for baking children's birthday cakes.
What started out as a creative way to source community photos for an exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery marking The Australian Women's Weekly's 90th anniversary turned into a flood of pictures from across the nation.
The response showed the incredible impact the magazine has had on Australian society.
Curator of the exhibition Laura Ellis said they asked people via social media to send in photos of children's birthday cakes made from recipes that had appeared in an edition of the Women's Weekly.
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"As we know The Australian Women's Weekly is a very widely read and beloved magazine for nearly a century now," she said.
"It became clear to us early on that the cookbooks, and in particular the children's birthday cake books, are two really important parts of the magazine's history."
Ms Ellis said the team at the Bendigo Art Gallery had an inkling of of how popular the magazine's cookbooks were but they could not have predicted the sheer number of responses they would get to the call-out.
Thousands of entries were sent in that spanned across decades and showed how the magazine had touched the lives of so many Australians.
"We understood it was popular and people were very attached to (the magazine) and had lots of special memories," Ms Ellis said.
"But I think we underestimated just how popular that book actually is and when we did a call-out on social media for readers to send in their home photographers of their birthday cake books in action, we were absolutely overwhelmed.
"We got well over 3000 photographs sent in and just countless beautiful stories of how important those cakes have been across generations."
The birthday cake photos will sit alongside other exhibits, including garments created by Australian designers which featured in the magazine's covers.
There will also be a collection of antique sewing and fashion from historical societies.
Ms Ellis said the exhibition would allow people to "take a trip down memory lane" with the magazine and reflect on how the nearly-century-year-old publication has impacted their lives.
"The most exciting thing about the exhibition is it will really be a space for people to kind of think about their connection the magazine and draw on their own memories," she said.
Ms Ellis said anyone who wanted to share photos with the gallery were more than welcome to.
The exhibition, The Australian Women's Weekly: 90 Years of an Australian icon, will run from May 27 until August 27.
Do you have a memory of the Women's Weekly? Let us know at addynews@austcommunitymedia.com.au
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