Hood Penn Museum

Get directions

A family collection which turned in to a museum

This quirky museum includes several very realistic mannequins, including the friendly bartender from the old Edna May Hotel Bar! The collection was acquired as a donation from the Hood-Penn family which previously owned the Burracoppin Store, and includes Chris Penn's impressive bottle collection, acquired as a result of walking around Burracoppin. You can learn about the gold rush and mining history of Westonia, which was settled in 1910. The Museum features a variety of scenes highlighting early life in the shire, such as the pub, doctor's office, blacksmith/farm workshop and shop/hardware store. Visitors can enter a makeshift mine shaft that shakes to simulate blasting and rocks falling underground.

Visit website

Address:

38 Wolfram Street
Westonia WA 6423
Australia

Tel:

(08) 9046 7063

Email:

shire@westonia.wa.gov.au

Opening Hours

Mon to Fri 9am - 4:30pm, except public holidays; Sat to Sun 10am - 12pm; Summer Holiday weekends open by appointment only; Admission fees apply

18 carat gold brooch

Westonia's first nugget

In 1910, whilst prospecting and sandalwood cutting, Alfred David Weston found the gold nugget on this brooch. The nugget was the first of three he found in the area, and he had all three nuggets set...

Blue wool bathers

Salt air outback

These blue bathers were owned by a local man in the 1940s. Bathers like these, from the 1930s and 1940s, were made of wool and could be worn by men or women. Westonia was unusual in the region, as it...

Little blue truck

Recycled joy

In the early 2000s Richard Dunkley-Cooper found this truck, along with various other toys, in a shed on a friend’s farm north of the shire. He took them home and painted them for his two children, to...

Norseman Historical Museum

A lucky horse finds gold and over a hundred years later a museum moves into the old School of Mines.

This museum has one of the most unusual and quirky items you will ever see - ask to see the typewriter keys! (Story below). Norseman Historical Museum celebrates the Goldfields, mining and local...

Wyalkatchem CBH Agriculture Museum

Wylie Museum

Agriculture and farming go hand in hand with sheds and machinery. This is a phenomenally large collection of tractors, cars and machinery in Wyalkatchem, in a historic wheatbin, and a series of sheds...

Goldfields Aboriginal Language Centre

Saving Goldfields Aboriginal languages for all of us

The Goldfields Aboriginal Language Centre (GALC) is an Aboriginal research organisation focussed on the recording, linguistic analysis, preservation and use of the Aboriginal languages of the region...

Goomalling School Museum

Remember the days of the old school yard

You can't miss this museum: look out for the vintage school bus next to the old Headmaster’s house. Inside, the museum feels like someone just upped and left the house, without packing up, and just...