As part of our Open the Doors training in the Goldfields, our enthusiastic participants were asked to complete a final project to demonstrate what they had learnt during the workshops. The brief was ‘digitise an item from your collection and write an engaging story to accompany it.’ Here are some of the results.
Tim Moore – City of Kalgoorlie Boulder
Doors and Seal of the Municipality of Boulder (1908)
Seal and Council Chamber doors of the Municipality of Boulder constructed in 1908. Gazetted as a municipality in 1897, Boulder continues to exist within the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The seal has a Black Swan, the symbol of Western Australia. A windlass and a pictorial representation of the Great Boulder gold mine represent mining which is at the heart of the town. You can also see an approaching train and the leader of a camel train, two critical modes of transport in the area.
DIEU ET MON DROIT translates to “God and My Right” which is also the motto of the British Monarch. The doors are made of Queensland coachwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum) and crafted with frosted glass panels with the seals painted on them. These doors are in situ at the Boulder Town Hall.
Diane Scott – Shire of Coolgardie Museum
The Coolgardie Safe
No, this is not somewhere to keep your ‘precious possessions’ but somewhere to keep your ‘precious provisions.’
In the 1890s food provisions did not keep for very long during the long hot summer days and nights. Arthur Patrick McCormick worked on an idea to keep food cooler and prolong its life.
He knew that covering bottles with wet bags left in the breeze kept them cool. He tried wooden box covered with hessian and wet the sides, but this did not work very well.
Not to be deterred, this clever man added a small water tank on the top of the box and hung strips of hessian or flannel from the tank, which carried the water down the sides. This wonderful idea was a great success and saved many a food provision from rotting.
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