National Wool Museum, Geelong, Victoria



 

Visited: 2023

Museum type: Local and social history



I wanted to visit the museum as I thought it would be interesting and I had never been to Geelong before. Something a little different from the museums that I had visited before. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was expecting, but wanted to learn a little more about Australian history. The museum itself was actually easy to find as its near both the train station and local shopping centre. I wont go into too much detail of the whole museum especially when it has its own website. I would likely get some information wrong or even mixed up.

 

The building housing the museum was once used as a woolstore, which was to do with wool brokering, so has plenty to do with the topic of wool within the museum. The building was purpose built for the storage of wool and the marketing of it. The building is heritage listed. Geelong has along history within the wool industry. The website for the museum has more information about the wool industry and its impacts on the lives of people.

 

 If you look around at the buildings in Geelong especially near the wool museum and along the water front, you will notice the name CJ Dennys & Co on the sides of them. They may have another purpose now, but you can still clearly see the past is still present.

 

From the ground floor you will walk up a ramp stopping at each floor, which has a different topic on the journey wool has from sheep to manufacturing. In the middle of the ramp is the Axminster loom, which when is working requires a specific type of jute that is used to make rugs. With the machine in the centre of the ramp, you get a great view of all sides.

 



The museum exhibits tells the story of the sheep industry in Australia from the beginnings of the colony, farming practices including the environment. The tools used to shear the sheep and about the early days in the shearing shed including how people went from farm to farm. It is mostly Victoria centric due to the location of the museum, but has some information about the whole country including the strike actions in the 1800s.

 

There are bales of wool from the great stockpile after the price of wool dropped and the government took over until it ended in 1991 and the last of the stockpile was sold in 2002. Another example is on the other side of the spectrum and that is a bale from the $1 million dollar bale that was sold in what is now the wool museum.

 

There is a large display about the Geelong textiles industry and how large it was. Its all related to the wool industry as it turns the wool into fabric. There are all sorts of machines that were used including explanations on the terminology used. One display provides a timeline from the beginnings of the building until it turns into a museum with interviews and what was occurring during the time period like the appearance of the telegraph. It is worth going to visit the museum even if you have a passing interest. The shop itself is worth browsing through and might be something to pick up.

 

 

 

Links

National Wool Museum website

https://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/nwm/default.aspx

 

About Dennys

https://www.dennyslascelles.net/the-first-wool

 

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