Great museums in Bathurst

We visited three very interesting museums today in Bathurst. The first was the Rail Museum which, instead of focusing on various types of steam engines etc , tells the story of the lives of those who built and ran the railway system at Bathurst and beyond. The railway opened in 1876 and employed very many people in the growing town. It provided education and a social focus for the people working on the railway and their families. The Museum contains a model railway system which takes up the area of what used to be a tennis court. It is remarkable. The extra shows a rather tragic story of an accident on 25 April 1890.  25 years later, to the day, was  the disastrous day for  the Australian army when 1000s were killed in Gallipoli in 1915. 25 April is now Anzac Day in Australia. 

Our next stop was the Ben Chifley House Museum. Ben Chifley was the Prime Minister of Australia between 1945 and 1949. He had worked on the railways in Bathurst for a number of years and became passionate about workers’ rights and the rights of the disadvantaged. He is a hero of the Labor Party in Australia. Unlike most Prime Ministers, he chose not to move and live in the Lodge in Canberra, instead staying his own simple home in Bathurst. The second extra shows ‘Burradoo’ in front of his home in Bathurst.

We finished day with a visit to Miss Traill’s House. Miss Traill was a well-to-do long-term resident of Bathurst. She died in 1976 and her house is just as she left it. It now belongs to the National Trust and is the fascinating insight into her interesting life.

Thank you for the excellent tips ‘59’.