In A stronger spring for David: toas for a modern age, Lin Onus pays homage to David Unaipon, an Aboriginal inventor active in the early 1900s, whose contribution to the development of the spring-loaded shear was acknowledged with the appearance of his image on the 1995 fifty-dollar bill. Onus said:

It appears that for many years David worked the agricultural shows in rural areas. In a sideshow tent, he had erected a spring upon which a steel ball would fall. The steel ball would bounce back but not quite as high as the point from whence it came. At this point David would explain to the audience his theory of perpetual motion and then pass around the hat, suggesting that if people were to give him some money he could then buy a stronger spring – hence the title of my piece.

Unaipon’s brand of humour appealed to Onus, whose work is charged with similar wit and capricious energy.