Pick-Up Sticks Game

A traditional Australian game of concentration and coordination for two or more players. The objective is to reach the highest score by removing sticks from a pile. One player grasps together and drops a bundle of coloured sticks on a flat surface where they land in a tangled heap. Each coloured stick has a numerical value and players proceed in turn to remove sticks, one by one, without disturbing any other stick. The players' scores are tallied once all sticks have been removed and the game is completed.

Introduced to Australia during early European settlement, the game grew in popularity as toys became more commercially available. With common mention in newspapers of the 20th century, it was a favoured pastime and social activity with a strong following across the generations. ‘Pick Up Sticks’ is also known by the names: Pell Mell, Fiddlesticks or Mikado and is popularly constructed from painted wood.