Full steam ahead for Pearn’s
Pearn’s Steam World Museum and ‘Steam Up!’ are ready for this year’s influx of Tasmanian visitors, using the Covic-19 lockdown to spruce up the Museum and exhibits. Photo supplied
MEMBERS AND volunteers of the Westbury Preservation Association were slowed down by COVID-19 restrictions, but not stopped. The enforced public closure of the museum gave them time to rearrange exhibits and improve the displays.
Robert Hill, secretary of the community group which owns and operates the Pearn’s Steam World Museum, said, ‘We had planned to do the rearrangement during the middle of winter, but when we had to close to the public we decided to use that time to our advantage.’
COVID restrictions meant that the work could only be done by volunteers in small groups of 2 or 3, so it was a long drawn-out process. There are still some parts of the plan that will have to wait until next winter now the museum is open to the public again.
The Pearn brothers of Hagley gifted their collection of steam and agricultural equipment to the community, in the form of the Westbury Preservation Association, in 2002. The notfor-profit group has maintained the collection ever since.
New items have been added to the collection over the years, one of the latest being a massive TD24 bulldozer that was the first piece of machinery of the now well-known Shaws Contracting company, often seen at major road works in the north of the state
The new ‘horse-drawn’ section of the museum brings together carts, ploughs and other horse-drawn agricultural equipment including a rare World War 1 tipper cart, a hay cart built in Hagley and an original saddle from the Australian Light Horse.
The museum’s workshop has also been busy with projects such as a steam traction engine from the 1920s, a rare Clyno car engine, tractors and various smaller engines used on farms, orchards and homesteads.
The annual Pearns ‘Steam Up!’ is still going ahead this November, unless there is further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions.
This year will see the return of a popular steam engine that has been away for major maintenance work. Train and traction engine rides will be limited but there will still be plenty to see at the event which takes place from Saturday 31 October to Monday 2 November. Go to Pearn’s Steam World Facebook page for further details.
The museum is open to the public every day, and new volunteers are always welcome.
