Bowraville Folk Museum

I spent a few hours in the Museum yesterday - didn't even begin to see everything but had a ball! My visit was definitely enhanced by having a tour guide that added personal histories or explanations of various items.

For those unfamiliar with this treasure trove, it is nestled in the town of Bowraville on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. There is over 1000 m2 devoted to maintaining the folk history of the Nambucca Valley. Folk history is the preservation of day to day life - kitchens, clothes, photos, work, tools, entertainment and the church. All of it is run by volunteers.

The oldest item I found was from the mid-1800's, the newest a computer from the early 1980's. I will set myself the challenge to verify this over future visits :-)

And all of this for the princely entry fee of $2.20 (yes you read that properly - two dollars and twenty cents).

I took over 50 photos yesterday, which I will use progressively as time goes on but here are three to start with. I can't call them favorites as such because at this point everything is my favorite but I had to start somewhere.

The Museum has a large collection of the milk bottles used in the Valley. The one with the red label was the one used by the Bowraville dairy.


There is a huge display of photos and portraits of the settlers of the Valley. Some of them look stern, some beautiful but none of them could have had it easy by our standards.


Hey, its a book - and a big, beautiful old book. My sort of heaven :-) Apparently the candlestick was black when it was donated but one of the members took it home and faithfully began polishing until it shined.