Herberton Mining Museum artefacts and archives

Wooden gin wheel

Leffel turbine

Artefacts: the rapid growth of the Museum since its inception in 2005 means that conditions for many of the objects is not to museum standard. None of the artefacts outside the main museum buildings, or in the courtyard, are under any kind of cover, and are exposed to tropical sunlight and rain, so some are showing damage.  Mining equipment has to be robust to survive the taxing conditions under which it operates, but many items have  been disused and lying idle, not stored under cover, for some years.  winches in the ‘jig’ area, the Scott shaking table, the Leffel turbine, and the two air compressors in particular are in urgent need of cover and at least a minimum of conservation. They are intact at present but this will not last. The greatest amount of conservation for an item has been to preserve the Tea Claim gin wheel. This wheel was in a mine being worked by Billy Collett and his sons John and Douglas, and was reported to Graham Greaves who suggested to the Museum that it be recovered and conserved. It has been restored by the volunteers. Those items within the buildings are well protected, though their condition varies. Fortunately little has been done to ‘restore’ objects apart from the conservation necessary to preserve them, so wear marks from use, surface rust etc. are evident.

Archive Room

Archives: the archival collections have the advantage of a pest-free, air conditioned space, and are stored in archive quality boxes.