Bringing Eugowra's stories back home

Piece by piece, Eugowra's history is finding its way home. Teacups are being cleaned, photographs rehung and textiles carefully restored, from military and nursing uniforms to dancing slippers and needlework, as volunteers prepare the Eugowra Museum and Bushranger Centre for reopening. The museum’s committee took the keys to their repaired building in the centre of town late last year and volunteers have been getting together for fortnightly working bees ever since. This final stage of work comes almost four years after the devastating flood of November 14, 2022, which left display cabinets shattered and generations of local history soaked in mud. Since then, untold hours have been devoted to saving and restoring the community's history and stories, museum president Ray Agustin and museum consultant Hayley Lavers said. It won't be long before the collection is returned to the community and volunteers can once again collect, preserve and share more Eugowra's stories. “The collection wasn’t lost, the collection was saved – it is water-damaged, but it still tells a Eugowra story, it’s very important,” Ms Lavers said. The Eugowra Museum collection is both locally significant and a major visitor drawcard, featuring exhibits linked to the Escort Rock gold robbery just up the road, alongside treasures such as the restored Braveheart Wagon, which hauled record loads of produce to Forbes in the early 1900s. The museum also shares the stories of the community’s sporting legends, agricultural pioneers, military service, businesses, churches and much more. In the days following the flood volunteers, with support from regional museums and conservationists, began the painstaking process of salvaging what they could. Items were given an initial clean before being packed away, while textiles and archives – particularly books and paper records – were frozen in an effort to prevent further damage. Recovery workshops funded further cleaning and conservation work, with the restored items then placed in storage while the museum building was repaired and made ready for their return. Bill Fernell, Ray Agustin and Basil Toohey at work to restore the agricultural exhibits at the Eugowra Museum and Bushranger Centre. State and Federal funding, with the support of Cabonne Council, was secured to repair and upgrade the building. The renovations have delivered volunteers and family history researchers air-conditioned workspaces, new display cabinets, well-lit open display areas and screens for multimedia displays. Damaged wall linings have been removed and replaced with flood-resilient materials, while the timber floors have been polished up. One of the biggest tasks has been planning how the exhibits will be displayed, with the museum’s collection offering visitors a glimpse into the people, places and events that have shaped Eugowra. Unpacking the collection has been a process of rediscovery, revealing not only treasured objects but also records, books and stories collected by volunteers over many years. The museum will reopen its doors with a special event on November 14 – four years to the day since the flood that devastated the town. A new section of the museum will also tell the story of the flood, which tragically claimed two lives and destroyed so many homes in November 2022. For the volunteers who have spent months carefully restoring the collection, the reopening will be an opportunity to welcome the community back and continue collecting and telling Eugowra’s stories. “If any organisation has history they want preserved in the museum we’ve got room for it,” Mr Agustin said. Families who previously donated items to the museum are also being encouraged to come in and see the volunteers, as some of the labelling and information that accompanied exhibits was lost in the floodwater.