We never did get to see any of the old tin mines so we will need to go back again one day to look at them.
We began our day with a visit to the local Information Centre which is also a mining museum and the local Herberton museum. Well designed and full of time-lines and facts about the mining history of far north Queensland and Australia in general. They have an impressive array of rocks. Very educational.
From there we went to the Herberton Historical Village.
Wow. This is the most comprehensive collection of collections we have ever seen.
There are 47 buildings all from times gone by, some of them moved from other towns and relocated in this wonderful display. Each building houses a different collection of memorabilia.
They say you can see most of it in 3 hours, however people have been known to spend a whole day there and still not see it all. They have plans to open up more of the area with displays of things yet to be restored.
We started with the jail buildings and moved on to the newspaper office complete with a manual typewriter collection and cupboards and drawers full of old fashioned typeset lettering.
The music shop has a brilliant display of old sheet music and 78's and gramophones. Next door was a camera display, they even have an old theatre projector. The school was full of the original books just sitting there on the desks and bookselves. You could if you wanted sit right down at the old school desks and answer the Arithmetic and English questions on the blackboard!
There was a fully equipped dental surgery and a small hospital display. It came complete with old surgical instruments and ancient wheelchairs and beds. The post office had a display of old telephones and an original telephone exchange operator desk. It also had the post boxes and automated stamp dispenser.
The dress shop held gloves, bags, shoes,stockings, underwear, hats, hatboxes, suitcases and dresses for ladies and children. One of the things I saw was removable lace collars which took me back to the beautiful crocheted collar that Grandma made for me in the early 60's. I wore it with pride as it was a work of art and highly fashionable.
The sewing machine repair shop was a display of sewing machines and old patterns and exquisite embroidery. Next to that was the radio shop full of old radios from the big heavy pieces of furniture down to the portable transistor radios. The music room held pianos and violins. The toy shop was a walk down memory lane with golliwogs and snakes and ladders and dolls and bikes and marbles and toy trucks and the best collection of cap guns I have seen for a while.
The pub had a collection of old fashioned ice boxes and kerosene refrigerators. Their bridal suite was impressive and I liked the water trough out the front for the horses. The coach house had some of the nicest horse and bullock drawn vehicles I have seen anywhere. It included a very ornate but lovely horse drawn hearse!
The garage held old cars and a couple of motorbikes but what I liked was the spare parts like spark plugs and bearings still in their original packaging along with a display of the old bottles they used to use to top up the oil in your car. Naturally there was a display of tools as well. Out the front of the garage was four old manual petrol pumps.
The butcher shop had huge original butchers blocks that looked like cut down tree trunks and they probably were! The chemist was closed but, through the window, you could see bottles of pills and potions on the shelves behind the counter.
There was a shed full of axes and cross-cut saws and some older chainsaws. Next to that was a display about the Queensland wood-chopping champions. There was a railway station with a rail ambulance waiting at the station.
In the outer buildings was machinery of all sorts. Outside was also a collection of old bulldozers and trucks waiting to be restored.
I know I have missed bits but honestly this really is a must see place. There is lots to see of interest for both men and women.
We do all get a bit ho hum about museums, when you have seen a few there is not much new to look at but this one is outstanding. So much history and memorabilia it really is mind boggling.
We will definitely be making time to go again and this time we will take a spare battery for the camera as the battery gave out from over use about half way.
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