Description

The Coolgardie Goldfields Exhibition and Visitors Centre are both housed in the former Wardens Court building on Bayley St. The Goldfields Exhibition is an extensive display of objects and images relating to the history of Coolgardie, particularly the gold mining boom of the 1890s. The exhibits extend over two floors and more than a dozen rooms, and feature hand-made tools and furniture from the early gold mining days, such as the Coolgardie Safe, tin water bottles and seats made from kerosene tins. Other significant material on display is clothing and memorabilia from Afghan camel herders, indigenous artifacts, a large diorama of the town in its heyday, rocks, mining equipment such as the local dryblowers and much more. Among the displays are rooms which are dedicated to the important role of nurses during the typhoid epidemic of the 1890s. Also highlighted are the living conditions of the miners and their make-do equipment, which are in stark contrast to the displays of the more affluent kitchens and bedrooms of established residences in the area. The courtroom features one of Australias largest bottle collections, the Waghorn collection, displayed in upright showcases, dramatically backlit and artistically arranged according to colour and shape. The exhibition is situated in the Wardens Court, the stately old courthouse building used by the goldfields mining warden, a building designed by George Poole Temple and constructed in 1898 form local pink stone. The collection was amassed by the community in the late 1960s and has changed the little since the displays were put together by the late Scott Properjohn. Today, it is owned by the community and managed by the Shire of Coolgardie.