Dead Finish Museum

You can almost smell the beer flowing, and the conversation of sandalwood cutters and haulers in this museum, which is named after the old hotel in which it is housed. The hotel was affectionately referred to by locals as the 'dead finish' because the workers would run out of money on their way back to Beverley and this was the last spot, or the 'dead finish' of their money. Beverley was an important stop on the Great Southern Railway and, in the 1900s, it was a bustling town of four hotels and four banks. The Museum unpacks the history of Beverley through a series of displays around the building. Visit the town's glory days, including the sports memorabilia room, which features an extensive collection of photographs and local stories. In the hallway you can find out about the early settlers of the region, such as James William Broun, Elijah Quartermaine, Terrence McGrath and others, and also learn about the life of the schoolteacher, Annie Lucy Robins who lived in the small room off the veranda in the 1870s. This hotel was also once a morgue. The early innkeepers agreed to take in dead bodies and keep them in the cellar until the coroner arrived. The cellar in the hotel was the coolest place in town!