Merrigum’s healthy heritage at museum

While the museum is open on the second Sunday of every month during the year for a meagre $5 entry fee ($2 for children), the heritage day offers an interactive and spectacular community event to further heighten the experience.

The museum is not new.

In fact, the group started in 1986 when it was gifted a Hornsby engine as a restoration project.

The general store was built by John Lilford, an ancestor of Kyabram’s respected realtor of the same name, and is overflowing with historical items relating to the Merrigum region.

It extends from Waverley Ave through a series of buildings containing farm, orchard and transport equipment.

In 1988, the then Rodney Shire bought the building for the purpose of a museum, and the building is now owned by Greater Shepparton City Council.

The historical society first met in what was the Merrigum Community House and its operation is now in the safe hands of president and treasurer Bryan and Nora Fitzsimmons and long-serving secretary Florence Halliday.

The Fitzsimmonses were dairy farmers just outside Merrigum and were inspired to maintain the history of the town through the deeds of the society’s first president, Bert Henderson.

A former builder, Mr Henderson constructed most of the buildings that house the items belonging to the society.

Almost all of the thousands of historical pieces are connected to the area, and the buildings have been gradually added as the collection expanded.

A war memorial section featuring Merrigum men and women who served is supported by a strong rural element celebrating the town’s dairy farming and orchardist history.

“We keep adding to it,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

“There are always different displays in the front windows.”

The story of Merrigum is told through not only the general store, but the attached residence, which has bedrooms depicting the 1920s and 1930s era.

“Florence (Florrie) Judd, whose family operated the store, had a passion for collecting bells from all over the world,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

“She lived in this home and worked in the shop when they owned it.

“Her mother used to ring a bell to let her know she needed something.

“That inspired her to collect bells.”

That collection features hundreds of bells from all over the world and can be seen in a room of the former residence.

A blacksmith shop with a working bellows, which was owned by Campaspe Shire Council, should be operational on heritage day.

A general store front, with displays and items for sale, will also be manned by some of the members dressed in period costume to expand on the experience for visitors.

Wagons on loan from the Shepparton museum and farm equipment are in another section, along with a horse-drawn land grader built by Pavey Brothers Blacksmiths in the 1930s.

An early pioneer cottage made from treated pine logs, a mud brick building where a butter churning demonstration will occur and a vintage engine collection will also be on display.

The 1.2-hectare property’s newest building will be officially opened at the heritage day, its construction on the back of a $15,000 donation from Merrigum Lions Club.

A prototype orchard blast sprayer and fruit growing equipment donated by Tatura Research Station is housed in the building.

The barbecue will be held at the back of the museum, alongside the shearing shed where half a dozen sheep will be shorn on the day.

There will also be hay baling on a 1940s machine.

Mr Fitzsimmons said he was expecting between 200 and 250 people on the day, most of whom he expected to be first-time visitors to the museum.

Entry to the heritage day is $10 for adults and $2 for children, with a small fee for the barbecue.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the day’s proceeds would go towards the society.

Fruit and farming are not the sole focus of the society, which recently had a wedding dress exhibition and expects to stage a tribute to the Carnation factory history in coming years.

The factory operated with a significant workforce until the late 1950s, producing Carnation sweetened milk.

“My family’s dairy farm actually supplied it,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

“I was a third generation, and a fourth generation is starting now, my brother’s two boys.

“They will milk 300 cows on the farm, which used to be known as Philburn.”

Mr Fitzsimmons said he was pretty proud of what the organisation had put together and encouraged people to visit the museum on the second Sunday of the month after the heritage day.

The museum is at 111-113 Waverley Ave, Merrigum.

Further details about the event can be obtained by phoning 5855 2330 or emailing merrigummuseum@gmail.com