Collections Can Be Curious and Quirky!
Sometimes, collections are so dense (as in – there’s so much stuff!) that it’s easy to miss the detail. That’s why it’s great if you can linger longer, and properly absorb what it is that you’re looking at. The following are just some of the items and places we encountered that were particularly curious!
There is an extensive set of old dental equipment at the Coalfields Museum in Collie, including a huge number of false teeth of every conceivable size and tooth-type, in the original dentist’s cabinet.
When we were at the Margaret River Historical Society we saw a message that had been found in a bottle in the wall of a house in the 1920’s, that captured the aspirations of two young men. Labelled, To the Finder, Stop Look Listen, the message recorded their dream of owning a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.
How wonderful that there is a museum about Ernest Shackleton and other Antarctic explorers in the tiny Wheatbelt hamlet of Shackleton – of course there is! See the Shackleton Memorial Hall and Australia’s smallest bank.
The team gasped as we went inside the Dolly Mix in Esperance – which holds a huge collection of large dolls presented amongst generous swathes of red velvet, chandeliers and other theatrical accessories.
A major highlight was seeing a Wardian Case at the Waroona Historical Society and Museum. Wardian cases were used in the 1800’s to transplant numerous plant species around the world. This is the only known original Wardian Case in a public collection in Australia, and it’s in Waroona! Deliciously, the case was at one time used as a dog kennel, and so has a little door cut in at one end for a canine friend to enter and exit through. It is a fabulous example of a highly significant item with layers of history and use.
Another delightful item was a little 1960s booklet in the Ballidu Heritage Centre, with the inspiring title ‘Slim as You Clean’!!!
However one of the most curious items the project team discovered was a little handbag made from an armadillo at the Bruce Rock Museum!
