As the final “sold” call echoed through the museum on Sunday night, Mr Horsfall said it had dawned on him that his collection, which took decades of work to bring together, was now all gone. 

“I am sad it's all closing down,” he said. 

“It’s a loss to Cowra but still, it won’t be the last loss to anywhere will it? So I am upset.” 

The auction saw thousands of unique and rare items go under the hammer and sold to people from all over Australia and the globe. 

Sunday night saw arguably the most unique piece in the collection, the army tank, go for $69,000 to an online bidder.

However David Carbonari, owner of a scrap yard in Melbourne and a bidder on the ground on the night, ensured it wasn’t an easy buy for the online winner. 

“I just wanted it for a display,” Mr Carbonari said. 

“...it was going to be like a gate guard… Bit of an eye catcher.” 

Marketing Manager for Burns & Co, Michael DiFabrizio said it was hard to predict what a tank would be worth. 

“I think we didn’t really know what to expect with the tank because it’s such an unique item and you just don’t know who is going to buy it or why they are going to buy it or where they are going to put it,” he said. 

“So it’s a real unknown, $69,000 is probably a good result.” 

Michael said there were a couple of surprises over the weekend however was pleased with the overall result. 

“There was some really big prices and obviously getting people together like this for an auction, it really draws the serious bidders and got some really great results,” he said. 

“I think the XU1 Torana was probably a bit under what some people thought it might have been, so that was interesting.

“That was a bit on the low side.” 

He said buyers are now busy taking their historic pieces home. 

“Over the next week it’s going to look completely different,” he said.