On Saturday, November 28 the museum will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its opening, not just with a cake and party but with the opening of its largest display building, packed with items and information on a subject dear to most Australians’ hearts. 

And all of Millthorpe is invited to the gala event.

The new Trevor Pascoe pavilion features Australian inventions and inventiveness says museum president Peter Whiley. 

“Despite its short history since European settlement, Australia has generated a remarkable number of important inventions in the last 200 years. We have achieved at a level well above what would be expected for a country of its population,” he said.

“Did you know,” he enthuses, “that Australians were actually the first in the world to build a successful wheat harvesting machine, make a feature length movie film, build a refrigeration system, build the self-constructing tower crane, put wine in cardboard casks, explore both the Arctic and Antarctic by air, invent a portable pacemaker, manufacture and market the one-piece bathing suit, develop the wire-guided missile.”

The list of Aussie brainchildren takes you many places you wouldn’t expect, such as the Aeroplane black box in 1953, the army tank (1912), car radios (1924), defibrillators (1926), electric drills (1889), and Google maps (2003). 

You can probably guess the Hills Hoist (1945), Victa Lawn Mower (1952) and Long Service Leave (1960s), but how about ice-making machines (1855), pre-paid postage (1838), secret ballot (1855), underwater torpedoes (1874) and wi-fi (1992). 

Peter and museum secretary Jacki Irvine showed the Murmurs around the new pavilion in which more than 30 inventions are already on display with room for more as they are collected. Each invention has a descriptive panel, while on one impressive wall are over a hundred descriptive panels for those not yet acquired. 

The new pavilion is named in honour of Trevor Pascoe, mainstay of the museum for nearly two decades until his untimely death in 2012. It has been built at a cost of nearly $300,000, partly gained through a State Government grant and large donations from Cadia Valley Operations, but with many individual donations and determined fundraising by the museum committee.  

In addition to money, it has taken countless hours of work by the Museum’s small volunteer workforce to bring a magnificent display and display area to fruition.

The new pavilion will be opened and the celebrations kicked off on November 28 by someone eminently suited to the theme of inventiveness. 

Dick Smith AC will fly to Millthorpe in his helicopter to unveil a plaque at a ceremony beginning at 11am in the museum grounds. 

Following the ceremony, the museum will be open for free for the rest of the day. 

Jason and Chloe Roweth, the village’s resident musicians, will provide the music, and barbecues, Devonshire Teas and coffee will be available. 

So come and share the fun, and look at the enormous improvements that have been made to your museum which now covers a complete village block. 

Press buttons to make ancient machines work. And if you’re so minded, support the museum with a small donation or, best of all, join up as a member. 

l Something for the Murmurs? 

Contact Laurie Williams at mm@goannagraphics.com or drop a note in at Galvanised, 17 Pym Street, Millthorpe