Newsletter No. 6 - Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage ...

Railway station home for Mt VictoriaHistorical Society’s museumHistorical societies often are locatedin heritage buildings and some evenend up in railway properties, whichis the case for Mt Victoria HistoricalSociety Inc. which has operated amuseum in the former railway diningand refreshment rooms part of theMt Victoria railway station for almost40 years.The station building itself is aheritage listed building, andcollected railway material isnationally significantIt is one of the few sandstonebuildings of State Rail. It wasopened in 1868 as a very smallstation, and significant additionsbuilt in 1872, 1884 including thefirst floor, and 1911.Numerous photographs andresearch material are held of staff,and stories documented of theirwork and social life. At least fourpeople still living in the village,worked when they were young, inthe dining rooms.Early freight was sent to Sydney forsupplies and export - livestock,meat, and wool, because the earlymountain roads were too steep fortrucks so animals were herded upto Mt Victoria.In 1971 the historical societyopened its museum under a leaseagreement with State Rail.More recently the old manager’s flaton the first floor and the old groundfloor kitchen have been added tothe lease. All society activities,monthly meetings etc. are held onthese premises.The society, then named Mt YorkHistorical Society was formed in1966 by residents of the BlueMountains villages of Mt Victoria,Blackheath and Hartley.The collections were initially housedin members’ homes, where regularmeetings were held, often with aguest speaker.may have been called, Glen Ogieby then.Outings to places of local interestwere organised. In the late 1960sthe name was changed to MtVictoria Historical Society, followingconfusion with the Mt York NaturalHistory Museum which operated inthe “Kiosk” building at Mt York.The railway station premises haveprovided the museum with a rangeof room sizes. The dining room hasmostly glass display cabinets,vertical and horizontal, for smalleritems and documents. The largerefreshment room has been usedfor a wide range of medium to largeobjects from farm machinery, tools,horse buggy, furniture display etc.arranged in subject groups.There are 11 smaller rooms, mostused for displays and most of thesehave a specific theme; - Mel WardNatural History; Photographic -items and notable photographerspictures; Gowns; Trains; Mt Victoria;Osborne Ladies CollegeBlackheath - Ron Brasier collectionand the Old- time school room.The collections include; about 2600artefacts 350 books 700 historicphotographs, of which 500 arecopied and are organised in folders,230 framed pictures, 260 researchfiles,160 maps, survey plans,drawings etc.The old kitchen which has beenonly recently cleared out by StateRail is currently being set up forresearch.Some years ago curatorsembarked on spread-sheet dataentries for much of the accessioncollection - some 1700 items eachunder approx 20 headings- donor,origin, details ; and much of thephotographic collection - some 500,again under numerous headings.After a lull in updating the data, thishas been re-commenced. Materialheld relates primarily, but notexclusively to the villages and areabetween Katoomba and Hartley.It has been suggested thecollection is significant it beingpossibly, the only collectionrecording the exploration, surveyingand building of the first roads andrailway across the Blue Mountains.It is significant in encompassing thestory of convict labour, thedevelopment of farms, villages andtowns, and the extensive number ofContinued page 14For a time some were also held inMr Rienits Private School inMontgomery St, Mt Victoria whichA phaeton (buggy) circa early 1900s. This carriage is 2-seater, pulled by twohorse for light duties in country or town.HERITAGE13November - December 2009