Industry & Museums in New South Wales

Of course, what vacation of ours would be complete without a little archaeology, industry, and a museum or two?


Lets start with the first blast furnace to smelt iron ore in Australia! You probably can't read the sign, but this site was originally built in 1864 to create iron. The history of the operations were not nearly as successful as the WPF in NY, but there were similarities: huge stone foundations, salamanders the size of a desk, iron bolts a-plenty. I stumbled upon this place, which was adjacent to a car parking lot that interpreted and left open some of the archaeological remains.



Like many industrial complexes, this one was pretty substantial. The area is rich not only in iron ore but also granite to build the facility. The interpretation was very well done. Cam & I even picked up a little lunch and were yelled at by a security guard because we touched a sign while discussing the process.


Between Sydney & the farm is Goulburn and they boast at having a very powerful waterworks with in-situ original pumping engines and boilers. They rev them up each month and have a bit of an open house that helps to draw visitors. The town of Goulburn relied on this station from 1885 until the 1977.


There is an Appleby Beam Engine that transmits motion from the pistons to a crank. This engine was steam powered and later replaced by an electric engine.









These boilers needed to be kept going throughout the night when the beam was rocking. There is a small house that was built at the same time to accommodate the boiler - keeper and his family. Today a care-taker resides on the property. While we were there, the spot was very well-visited by the local youth as a swimming hole. I'm pretty sure that people have been swimming there even when it was the town's water supply.





Finally on our tour, I'd like to take you to an exhibit about "lace" in different forms. This wasn't your grandmother's lace, but thinking of patterns where the empty space is as important as the actual space.



This was at the Powerhouse museum and Cam, Lachlan, and I went there one afternoon. The web of iron and the aluminum shield were both amazing pieces, especially with the light. I could appreciate the movement of the pieces of material as they gently swayed with people walking by.



Lachlan wanted to see if his hair was going to stick up, but it didn't. All well, the trip was fun nonetheless.