Published on Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:00:00 AM
In 2015 we conducted a significant assessment of objects in the museum collection associated with farming. At the time, the Wicklow Shearing Shed in the Newcastle Gaol Museum precinct had a dirt floor and was being used for storage with entry permanently blocked off.
In order for this building to be opened for public use, most of the agricultural material located there had to be moved, either around the museum site or into storage. We tried to locate the original donors but had no success.
Some of the objects moved into storage were in poor or incomplete condition, were duplicates of other objects in the collection or had an unknown history. Some had not even been recorded as being a part of the museum collection.
So that we can make better use of our limited resources to care for our heritage collections we are now moving to dispose of the following:
- Four wheel trap, incomplete and partially restored
- Mangle, upright, missing flat board
- Mangle, upright Swift brand
- Metal components of horse-drawn vehicles (smaller parts in separate bags):
- Light two wheel cart
- Four wheeled dray
- Light two wheel tipping dray
- Sulky
- Sulky
- Roll of barbed wire on wooden frame
- Assorted metal parts for farming vehicles
- Metal bath in 2 sections
- Shingles, long, cedar, approx. 200
Other museums in the Wheatbelt (and then state-wide) will be approached to see if they would be interested in retaining some of these objects in their own collections. The objects remaining will then be offered for sale to the highest bidder via public auction or public tender.
The objects that cannot be disposed of in any other way may be destroyed. We will keep you informed as we go through this process.
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