The Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston is a highly regarded institution, and the largest outside an Australian Capital City.
A WINDFALL
In 1904 Lady Clara Dry, wealthy widow of Sir Richard Dry, the first Tasmanian born premier of the State, made a significant bequest of antiques. The collection was shared between the Launceston and Hobart museums.
Just a few months later Hobart lost virtually all of their items in a robbery. It was highly embarrassing for the southern institution.
There was salt in the wounds when photographer and collector John Watt Beattie sold his remarkable. private museum in 1927. It was Launceston who snapped up what was known as The Port Arthur Museum, located in the centre of Hobart.
Source – forgottentasmania.com
The Examiner learned this evening that Mr. J.W. Beattie’s famous Port Arthur Museum had been sold to the Launceston City Council for an amount in the vicinity, it is understood, of £5,000…It will be a great asset to the Launceston Museum, to which it is to be transferred.
The date of the removal is not yet known. The collection was at one time offered to the Tasmanian Museum, but the offer was not accepted and now it is too late. (Examiner, 23 Sept. 1927)
It’s interesting that the following photo of the Museum was taken by Mr Beattie.
Curator Herbert Hedley Scott travelled to Hobart in January 1928 to oversee the packing, which took about two weeks. In a letter to the city’s Mayor Barber he wrote;
I have now checked and packed one half of the collection, with special reference to future display. The remainder will have to be dealt with in other ways. Some can be packed in cases, some in sacking, and others simply bagged, In all, 1,100 items are included in this section. (Examiner, Feb. 1 1928)
I love this image of a cartload of items arriving at the Museum. The railways had provided free transport (a saving of forty pounds , so maybe the cart was used to meet the train and complete the final stretch of the journey.
Curator Scott ticking off the consignments.
Pictured in the next photo are men reassembling an old pipe organ from the collection. It was said to have come from Port Arthur Prison, though this now seems to be a matter of debate.
The pipe organ as it appears today.
One pressing problem was a lack of space to hold all the new material. There was a major extension.
Source – Examiner, Nov. 11, 1927
Naturally the Museum made the most of its much prized collection; no doubt to Hobart Museum’s annoyance. A competition was held to design a suitable poster for advertising on the Mainland..
Source – Examiner, Sept. 9 1937
I spotted this poster on an auction site.
The Queen Victoria Museum was the first I ever visited. My sister and I were taken there by our aunt while we were holidaying with her at Deloraine circa 1960. To my shame I never returned, despite living in Tasmania a further 2o years. I would dearly love to go back now, and see some of these wonderful exhibits.
FOR INFORMATION ON VISITING THE QUEEN VICTORIA MUSEUM, CLICK HERE.
