Funding to Tell Stories

We were delighted today to receive the news that the Arts Minister, the Hon Lynne Kosky, has announced funding of $3,000 to Old Gippstown to allow us to publish a "a book on Gippsland's history using examples (written and photographic) of the buildings and objects held at Old Gippstown."

The funding is part of a package $350,000 to preserve Local History across Victoria, and is administered by the Public Record Office Victoria.

This will allow us to tell the stories of our buildings, and of a number of significant Gippsland objects. The difficult job may be choosing which to feature. We only have 32 pages.

Skiing and Camping with Dr Andrew

We have to admit that, as we are working through the Dr Andrew collection, we did overlook the significance of this piece for a time. In fact, one cataloguer, who should have known better, thought it was for carrying ferrets, and wondered why it was there.

It is, in fact, a camp safe, made from a packing case, with flywire at the back and a hinged flywire flap at the front, with carrying handles of window sash cord. (If she had thought it through, she should have realised ferret carrying boxes usually had chicken wire, not flywire! Therein lie the perils of working through a collection such as this.)

Dr Andrew was an active camper and fisherman, and long-time member of the Alpine Rover Crew. Much of his camping and skiing equipment from the 1930s and 1940s has been preserved in the collection. We wrote about his hiking pack HERE and HERE, but also have a collection of his wooden skis and some early stocks:

Obviously not all wooden skis survived. But even when broken, they had a use. Two ski tips are held, one from a 1937 trip to Cope Hut, and another from a 1945 expedition (below), signed by members of the Alpine Rover Crew.

The collection also includes a range of very black billies and his much-used down sleeping bag. Items such as these do not often survive in collections - especially as they are so well-used. So we are fortunate that Dr Andrew's son David recognised the camp safe on a recent visit. Otherwise its significance may not have been appreciated.

Catching Up on Odd Things

We have been taking the opportunity, since we have the 1970s curator working with us, of catching up on odd things that are not in the catalogue, that usually wouldn't make it into the catalogue, that should be in the catalogue.

Sound convoluted?

Things like these:

The Millstones from Rosedale - about 45 minutes' drive away. They don't look big here, but believe me, they are. They are on our land, but outside the fenced boundary.

Then, there are the street lights:

Three of these gas street lights were sourced from the City of Westminster, London, in the early 1970s. They were operated for a number of years on bottled gas.

There are four electric street lights. They were specially made for Old Gippstown by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, in the mid-1970s. They were copied from one light found on a building in Fitzroy, in Melbourne.

We even know now where the bluestone pitchers and the hitching posts came from. Sometimes you wonder where to stop making catalogue entries. The Hitching Posts made it in (purchased in an antique shop, just so we have a record), but the bluestone pitchers did not.

Percy Masters and the Yallourn House

The Yallourn House / Dr Andrew's re-opened on the weekend. We have been waiting a while for this day, as the corridor and kitchen have been repainted, carpet laid and new viewing arrangements (glass in doors) set in place.

In the meantime, we have have been cataloguing the collection, which mainly comes from the Andrew family. This is the latest piece to take our eye:

It seems to be the work of Percy Masters, an artist and souvenir-maker from Walhalla. Percy, who was born in Walhalla about 1893, lived to be just over 105, with an exhibition of his work being held at the Gippsland Art Gallery at Sale just after he turned 102. Percy wrote a small book about Walhalla, and at the opening of his exhibition spoke lovingly of his life growing up there.

His souvenir work usually features Australian birds and animals as painted cutouts on woodwork of his own making. Ollie Dobratz believes he was one of the earliest to recognise the commercial opportunities of the tourists visiting Walhalla.

Just like the piece above.

Here is a closer look at the Koala:

We are looking forward to further discoveries as we work our way through the collection. And we are delighted with this one.

The Mousetrap

Absolutely no reason for posting this picture of a mouse trap - except the more we look at it, the more beautiful it becomes.

It is in the Narracan General Store.

STOP PRESS- Miniature Ploughs

I know I can edit the old post to add the material, but I thought I would mention it quickly here "at the top", and then add more later.

The Miniature Plough mentioned in the last post is not a "sample", although John, our blacksmith reckons he can find one in the collection, as that one has cast components.

This one is a final piece of work by an apprentice blacksmith - apparently it was a common graduation test, much the same as a toolbox/saw box was for a carpenter, dovetails and all.

I have seen a few of these boxes (and had one described with pride by its maker), but never miniature ploughs for blacksmiths. Ollie, our first curator c.1972-1976 knew the history of this one, and he has pointed me to where I can find the name of the maker, hopefully.

Has anyone else got one?

Back later with more photos.

Thirty Years Ago

Thirty years ago, there was a ground-breaking exhibition at the National Gallery in Melbourne. The curators toured Victoria, visiting many small museums, and then put the best items together as Colonial Crafts of Victoria.

The catalogue is a wonderful reference.

Old Gippstown lent a number of items - here is the page that shows the table in the Miners Hut, and a chair.

You can see the full-sized page HERE.

Just flicking through it solved one problem immediately - we can now understand this miniature plough, currently in the Woolshed.

There is a similar-sized one in the catalogue - this one is 185 cm in length - apparently blacksmiths made them as samples to take to agricultural shows, or to take orders from.

It had us puzzled - it obviously wasn't for a home garden, or a child's toy.

Stand by for its relocation to the Blacksmith's. There is another miniature set of harrows there that need re-examination.

The catalogue can still be picked up on the secondhand book market - anywhere from $30 to $80.

How and When did it all Begin?

As part of the Significance Study, we have become quite fascinated with the history of Old Gippstown, and how, when and why it all began. So we have been reading through the old minutes.

Old Gippstown was started in late 1967, when the City of Moe Development Association was looking for a tourist attraction to "grow" Moe. Local pharmacist Terry O'Callaghan took his family to look at the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, and on his way home came upon a collection of horse-drawn vehicles at Ravenswood, near Bendigo. One thing led to another, and the collection was purchased and came to Moe on a convoy of twelve trucks loaned by local businesses over a weekend in January 1968.

The MDA committee then set about collecting Gippsland items to augment the initial collection, and went into partnership with the City of Moe. In October 1968 a public meeting was held at which three members of the public joined three city councillors and six MDA members as a committee of council to form the Gippsland Historical and Folk Museum Committee.

By this time the Church and Loren (the Iron House) were already on site. The public were visiting from a very early stage (at twenty cents a head), and we became the Gippsland Folk Museum.

The official opening did not take place until March 1973, when the Premier of Victoria, Dick Hamer, came and declared the Park open. Other notable visitors followed - including Princess Margaret and at least three Victorian Governors.

The Cataloguing Team are still working on some of the items that came from Ravenswood to set up the collection. We suspect this is one of them:

This chair is not on exhibition, but is stored in the loft. It is made of solid wood, and is unusually high. It also appears to have once had a headpiece. Is it a very early Dentist's chair? We don't know. But it is a wonderful part of the great variety of chairs we do have in what is a collection that is now over forty years old.