Practice Makes Perfect

When a young apprentice stepped into the railway workshop in Bathurst for the very first time, he must have been amazed at the noise and activity. During the steam era, ten tradesmen and another apprentice moved about the workshop as they manufactured and machined various components for the engines. Behind the hammering and banging of […]

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Tackling Speed

This wooden sheave block – which houses a metal wheel (the sheave) and, together with its rope (called a strop) and hook attachment, functioned as a pulley – is a relic from the celebrated nineteenth century steamship called the SS Sophia Jane (1826-1845). English-built in 1826, the Sophia Jane sailed to Australia in May 1831. […]

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First Light

Tamworth was the first town and municipality in Australia, and the Southern Hemisphere, to install electric streetlights. The Veness Letter Book, pictured here, documents the unfolding story of this celebrated occasion. Installed in 1888, the electric streetlights replaced poor performing gas and kerosene lamps, which dimly lit the centre of town. The installation of electric […]

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