February 2012
Heroes, Helmets and Hosereels, the latest exhibition at the Waikato Coalfields Museum, is now open to all visitors. The display explores some of the 71 year old history of the Huntly Volunteer Fire Brigade – it also provides a number of activities in which children can learn about Fire Safety.
The exhibition was a collaborative effort with the museum drawing on the stories and resources of both the local brigade itself and the New Zealand Fire Service. Local support came from exhibition sponsors Cowley Stanich & Co Ltd., Huntly’s own “Flamin’ Accountants” who are currently housed in the old Huntly Fire Station. Historic images of the Huntly Volunteer Fire Brigade belonging to Cowley Stanich & Co are now on loan, proudly displayed on the stairwell leading up to the main exhibition area.
The idea for the exhibition first surfaced when the museum was contacted by Gus Roberts - a firefighting veteran with 45 years experience – to assist in the research and preparation Brigade’s anniversary celebrations in October 2011. Jane Ferrier, the museum registrar, then contacted the NZ Fire Service to advise of the project and they generously responded by lending the museum educational resources and recruitment dvds to incorporate into the exhibition. The NZFS have also lent the museum an interactive Firewise computer game that will be on display in our foyer during the next month. This gives children the opportunity to identify home fire hazards that are unfortunately all too common.
There was a good turnout at the exhibition opening on Saturday February 11th, with over 70 invited and local attendees. However, as Chief Fire Officer Craig Bush opened the exhibition there was a quieter moment of reflection as he explained that there would have been more firefighters in attendance but the resources of the Brigade had been diverted to assist in the search for a missing local teenager. The brief reference reinforced to all present the inestimable value to our community of these volunteer heroes. Even the younger guests left the event knowing that there is more – much more – to being a fire fighter than hoses, flashing lights and sirens.
December 2011
We have had over 62,000 hits on our website and 2000 visitors through the museum for 2011. Museums do matter!
Why is the museum important to our local community? One of the defining things that sets the Waikato Coalfields Museum apart from other regional museums is that it performs not one, but two important roles. With a collection of 25 000 objects, this museum tells stories that are not only of regional importance, but also those of national significance.
This will be formally recognised when we move to our new museum and take up the name Te Waro: The National Coalmining Museum. This is a museum that clearly belongs to both the nation and the region and that fact makes it unique.
We are, however, still skirting around the notion of what makes the Waikato Coalfields Museum of value to the community it resides in. To understand this we need to understand what a community is, to understand what a community is we need to know who we are and how we got to where we are. There is a constant dialogue between "yesterday', "today" and "tomorrow". The recipe is further complicated by concepts of "youth", "elderly", "Maori" or "Pakeha". However, with an extensive collection of 25,000 objects, this museum can weave together threads that might have at first appeared contradictory.
What connects these vastly different objects is people - the community infuses them with stories and histories - old and new - and they are here in the museum to represent the cultural stories that explain who we are and how we got here.
We extend ourselves far outside the boundaries of our own collection to touch events in the wider community - for example, our next exhibition will retell stories of the Huntly Volunteer Fire Brigade.
No other museum speaks our dialect or can represent us so intimately - and as our museum is nurtured this voice can only amplify and extend outwards. It is an exciting thought.
November 2011
The Railway Station chugs along. Final coats of paint and polyurethane have been applied to interior of the main part of the railway station and flooring for toilets, kitchen area, office and primary gallery are needed to complete this part of the interior. The uprights aupporting the wide station verandahs were sandblasted and undercoated before being put in place but are now waiting for their final coat of paint. And speaking of painting, we are always looking for volunteers but particularly painters. If painting is your thing, we would love to hear from you.
If you are able to help, please phone the museum on 07 828 8128. Your help will be appreciated. Let's make it happen.
October 2011
The daily operation of Waikato Coalfirleds Museum is about to change drastically. Since 2001 the Waikato District Council has provided an annual grant sufficient to employ staff professionally quallified in museum procedures and to provide the services many of you have enjoyed: the ability to research for geneology or specific projects; purchase quality copies of old photographs, restored and produced to a high standard; and to enjoy regular special exhibitions related to our heritage.
The Council has decided the museum should go back to being a volunteer run museum from July 2012 and while the society will still be able to apply for limited funding from council and other funders, the society will no longer have the secure income required to employ staff. While we recognise the need for prudence in council spending, the consequence of this move could spell disaster for the museum.
We need your support: encourage councillors to change their minds; join us as a member for a small annual fee; tell your friends and family. Help us continue our dream of keeping our stories alive through the years to come for the generations of the future.
May 2011
Our thanks to all of you who came to help us celebrate 30 years of the museum. It was great to have the cake cut by Delcie Dodds, celebrating her 93rd birthday on the following day and Mary Clark may have smiled down to see her great-grandchildren blowing out all those candles.
Work on the museum garden was rather frantic leading up to our birthday party and while it certainly looks very much better than it has for many years, the garden still has a long way to go. Next spring, when the perennials have had time to develop, the effect of the planting should become obvious. The Margaret Merrill roses in the front garden were in bud for the birthday party but now, two weeks later, they are blooming well.
Our excuse for the oxalis that is proving so persistent is that original mine manager, William Tattley, may have first brought it here in the 1890s, like so many early settlers wanting memories of their English gardens. Perhaps this present day garden pest had another purpose for apparently oxalis flowers and young leaves add a “zesty sour lemony taste to salads”. Early settlers may have brought it to New Zealand because of its use as a herb, rather than seeing it as an addition to the flower garden Onion weed likewise came to this country in very early times. If you pull up onion weed once it shows signs of drying off after flowering, you are rewarded with lovely little onions that taste delicious when pickled. (I have found it best not to tell people the weedy origin until they have tasted these crunchy little pearls.)
An article in NZ Gardener tells us that about 75% of NZ weeds are garden escapees. Although they were not all brought by pioneers (sadly many date to later times when we should have known better) no doubt many an early settler was cheered by oxalis flowers, reminding them of home.
Those of you who have been connected with the museum for some time will know of the lovely rose gardens of the past. Dedicated volunteers dug plants from old Rotowaro township gardens once the town was practically empty and houses were being demolished or removed. Our volunteers first sought permission to collect these old roses from State Coal but others did not. Stories are told of Aucklanders coming to dig up roses for their home gardens. Indeed one resident who still lived there after many had left Rotowaro came home one day to find a prized rose had been dug out and removed from her front garden! Fortunately these outside collectors were more interested in the modern rose plants, so many old ramblers and climbers remained for the museum garden.
Sadly not all of the roses listed in this booklet still thrive in the museum’s garden. One of the negative things about change is the loss of institutional memory. The committee and volunteers change and what was common knowledge becomes lost if not passed on. This booklet, and the history of the museum’s roses, had disappeared by the late 1990s and many of the roses themselves had succumbed to neglect and the ongoing battle with weeds. The same thing could happen to photographs and objects within the museum, except for careful recording of details by the registrar when each item is received. In this way these treasures will remain available for future generations, carefully stored in an acid-free environment and with all known details recorded for posterity.
April 2011
In April we’re celebrating the museum’s 30th birthday with a party. Yes - the Coalfields Museum really has been open in Huntly for THIRTY years. When the Huntly Historical Society was formed in June 1974 one of their main objectives was the creation of a museum to house objects and photographs of local interest. ‘The Pines’ in Harlock Place was built as a mine manager’s house in 1890 but by the 1970s lay vacant and vandalised. No longer required by the Department of Mines, the house was given to the society.
The trustees of The Huntly Mining and Cultural Museum Trust, formed to operate the museum, were Mary Clark, Venna Fry, Campbell Fletcher, Vera Burke, Joseph Holm, Graham Pickett, Elsbeth Slade-Gully and Ross Carroll. Their objective was to create one of the finest small town museums in New Zealand, featuring Huntly’s main industries, coal and brickmaking, as well as reflecting the culture and family life of early Huntly.
Correspondence from the time shows a flurry of letters requesting money or products to help with the completion of the museum as well as dissension and concerns about renovations which changed a classic twin gabled, single story house into a far less attractive but certainly more spacious double storied museum.
Also recorded in minutes and newsletters from those years are the flea markets, garage sales, wine and cheese evenings, and street stalls that helped fund the project, as well as the very many hours of volunteer labour.
The museum finally opened on 2 November 1980. Our celebration is a little late but on 17 April we will have a Sunday afternoon garden party featuring music and refreshments with an old fashioned theme. If you would like to join us to help celebrate you will be most welcomed but we do need an RSVP by 13 April for catering numbers – admin@coal.net.nz .
