Kandos Museum

When we visited Kandos a week ago, our main destination was the Museum.  Have a look around the town on my last post.

The museum is only relatively new, commencing in 1988.

It is housed in a beautiful old building, with a commanding view over the town to the front and to the old Cement Works site to the rear. Originally, it was built as the Methodist Church. It is unusual, in that it is built from cement, not bricks.  It makes perfect sense, though.

You can read the details here, if you zoom in.

Let's have a look around.

These skips transported the lime from the quarry to the cement works.  The cables ran across the main road, so you drove under an arch with steel pylons and a mesh under the skips to stop anything falling on your car.  This continued up to 2011, when the cement works closed.

There was industrial equipment outside, but we didn't have much of a look, as it was about to rain.

This is a rather weird contraption from the cement works.  It is a very early AD/DC converter.  I'm amazed that it has survived intact, or at all.

Of course I homed in on any sewing machines, and there were a few.  This was the most intriguing.

More modern cement bags.  They would still have to have been sewn by something.

The main display area is in the hall of the church.  It is lovely and light.  The coloured windows seem to glow.  So different for our usual churches.  Apparently, the floor was originally tiered, but was leveled when they started the museum.

There is a wide variety of exhibits, all so well displayed.

I love this wall showing the changes in technology.  I do remember using some like these.  I'm glad they have included some more recent machines, as they are often overlooked, and before long there won't be many around at all.

Isn't this the most impressive pram you ever saw.  A German couple, who started a family in the late 1950s, had it imported from Germany.

This takes me back to my childhood.  I was never a Brownie.  I so wanted to be, but circumstances meant it didn't happen.  There was quite a bit of memorabilia from the Scouts, Guides and Brownies.

I was also impressed with this early Kenwood Chef.  I have seen plenty of early Sunbeam mix masters, but hadn't seen any Kenwoods earlier than the popular 1970s versions.  It's in beautiful condition.

A high school student made this ensemble from cement bags for a street parade.  I'm pleased it has made it to the museum.

Another item that caught my attention was this little boiler suit made from flour and oat bags.  Quite unusual.  The ladies knew nothing of its background.

Finally, the old Cement Works ambulance is looking in fine condition.  It is still used on occasions in parades and the likes.

There were a lot of photos of the old cement works, which was the whole reason for the town's existence, but there was too much reflection to take photos.  There was also a film showing of the early days of the cement works.  The old trucks and excavators were very impressive.  They are so fortunate  to have movie footage from those early days.

We really enjoyed having a look around the museum and it was nice to have the place to ourselves, to take as long as we liked to wander around.  Everything was well displayed and the rooms were nice and bright.  It was the perfect time to pop over and have a visit.