What is that?!

Ever wondered what happens when curiosity gets the better of someone? For Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia in the late 1500s, meant amassing a collection that could rival even the most eccentric flea markets – think dragons and unicorn horns.

Inside the dedicated northern wing, he constructed inside Prague Castle to house his phantasmagorical kunstkammer or wunderkammer – his cabinet of curiosities, Rudolf kept art, scientific instruments, the Holy Grail, crystals, fossils, corals, a grain of Earth from which God made Adam, two nails from Noah’s Ark, a serpent king and taxidermied birds, animals and fish. You know, the usual stuff.

It wasn’t only stuffed animals either; Rudolf tried to keep as many exotic animals living on his royal grounds as possible. Historians know the details surrounding this because Rudolf’s accountants kept tabs on the compensation payments the monarch had to pay to the families of his staff who’d lost a relative to his peckish pet tiger and lion.

At least today’s ultra-rich men are utterly normal – right?

“When we see others enjoying the collection, we get a real thrill from it too.”

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Yet learning about this unbelievable wunderkammer now, as an adult, falls short of the sensation you felt as a child walking into Griffiths Sea Shell Museum in Lakes Entrance or Coal Creek Community Park and Museum in Korumburra.

Hopefully, this is an experience you can relate to. It’s the summer school holidays, you’re maybe with your grandparents or family friends, and you wander into one of Gippsland’s more eccentric collections and your brain begins to explode. There’s too much to see. It’s so weird. Is that a shark in a glass jar?! How did you get a car soooo shiny? And, off you race, inevitably to touch something you shouldn’t.

Orbost’s Exhibition Centre (itself an example of beautiful timber construction) was built in 2004 to house the Australian Wood Design collection, which now holds over 30 years worth of prize-winning wood works. Coal Creek Community Park and Museum was opened in 1974 as a tribute to the region’s rich coal mining heritage. Peter and Rose Smolenaars' Museum of Timeless Memories has its roots in a car collection that began 40 years ago, had to be sold-off due to some challenges then was reborn again, initially as a tool collection, like a Phillips- headed phoenix.

All these collections are a tribute. A celebration.

While our mate Rudolf’s wunderkammer was largely curated as a tribute to the might and creative talents of God, many of Gippsland’s collections honour the ingenuity, creativity and craftsmanship of people – frequently Gippslandians. Others, like the Griffiths and Inverloch Shell Museum and the Maffra Gemstone Collection, seek to stoke your awe of nature further.

In curating their objects on display, these collectors become storytellers and historians. For Coal Creek and Old Gippstown, in presenting a ‘glimpse back in time’, they become a valuable educational resource and play a crucial role in preserving, researching and recording the history, heritage and culture of our backyard.

It feels that many of these collections are cunning (intentionally or not) in how they teach you stuff – often using wonder or surprise to seed their knowledge. As Peter shares, “Rose’s father had been in the Army, worked in a hardware shop and had been familiar with hand tools for most of his 80 years of life, but he’d never seen a bent shifter before. He accused me of bending it with my blowtorch! I’d found a set of them.” The act of delivering a ‘never seen this before’ type moment provides Peter and Rose with a buzz, adding, “When we see others enjoying the collection, we get a real thrill from it too.

“This is particularly true when we have groups visit from nursing homes or of those who are dealing with dementia, and they look through the collection and their face just lights up when an item triggers a memory.”

In visiting the Gippsland Vehicle Collection, Museum of Timeless Memories and the shell museums, the repetition of objects almost forces your brain to start grouping or categorising the items. As you wade through the 3,500 model cars or the 600 types of barbed wire, your brain can’t help but start pitting them against each other – because who doesn’t love a good, ‘which strand of wire is pointiest’ debate?

Many of these collections present the evolution of the artefacts: the advancements in car design over the past 130 years provide a clear example. And, as you stroll past each vehicle, you clock many of the improvements. It’s almost learning by osmosis. Damn it! No wonder school groups love these places – the kids are learning without realising it.

But, we’re not here to explore the psychology behind effective museums; this article aims to celebrate the quirkiness of these often-kitsch collections.

Largely, they’re run by couples, families or community groups, such as local historical societies. Unlike Rudolf, they can’t easily flip a chest filled with kilograms of gold ducats for a curio or to cover their annual insurance. They don’t generate sufficient revenue to employ people. Love, passion andvolunteers keep the doors open.

A quick glance at the Facebook pages of these businesses during the period of Covid lockdowns provides a glimpse as to how much the operators rely on their visitor revenue.

Furthermore, many of these custodians of miscellanea are getting older, what then? Their collections are valuable, but will other family members want to continue the operation of the museum, or will they seek to sell it off? You can imagine the heartbreak of a life’s work being split apart and auctioned off as individual items.

The Maffra Gemstone Collection provides insight into one possible option, as this important collection of mineral specimens, gemstones and fossils are the result of a lifetime of collection by Italian immigrant Guiseppe “Pino” Deriu. Leaving Italy in 1952, Pino, a fully qualified accountant, came to Australia and soon joined his brother, Mario, in prospecting for opal around Coober Pedy, which led to a lifelong love of fossicking and trading minerals and gemstones. As detailed by Monument Australia, “[Pino] donated a significant part of his collection to the then Shire of Maffra with the request that it remain in the town and be accessible to the public.”

But, how many of these museums can our local governments eventually take on?

It’s a question some municipalities are already facing. For instance, at the time of writing, a Draft Coal Creek Strategic Plan was open for public feedback as the South Gippsland Shire Council and community seeks to chart a direction for the future of Coal Creek.

When you hear the joy in Peter and Rose’s voices as they chat about the school groups dancing wildly to their original jukebox; or hear of how astonished people are at the Griffiths’ huge octopus or that they’ve bought a shell figurine there for every visit to the Lakes for over a decade; or that the Orbost Exhibition Centre has a unique bowl by Lindsay Thomson crafted from a 2200-year-old southern mahogany tree retrieved from the Brodribb River after a major flood, you can clearly see that these collections have value.

A notorious recluse, Rudolf didn’t want to let anyone into his cabinet of curiosities (it doesn’t appear he was too concerned about them getting eaten either!). Yet, Gippsland’s collections require a steady stream of visitors to continue to thrive. So, maybe pause on that next jaunt to Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria and visit a unique local collection instead.

There’s a world of wunders here in our backyard, just waiting to be discovered. Hold up, is that a real dragon opposite the hundreds of old kerosene lamps?!

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A selection of Gippsland’s unique collections.

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Gippslandia - Issue No. 32

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