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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Eleven industrial shots from our visit to the Workshops Rail Museum at Ipswich last weekend












Barbara and I visited the complex after the Queensland Museum had taken over the site (about 6 years ago), the Grand opening displayed the new Museum's collection culled from the industrial complex. Richard Stringer photographs taken around 1997 after the site was closed down were shown, we remember these most vividly. Our Colonial Tinsmiths research pointed us to the site again, looking for any remnant work of copper and tin crafted objects. Very few on show although our visit did coincide with the annual QR workers morning tea and open day for the 150 year celebrations of Ipswich. Barbara chatted with old hands who had worked there, past and present. They swapped stories and Barbara ended up with another contact at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane - where it seems a full compliment of oil canisters made on this site for specific engineering demands are housed. We await a response, to view these objects. Meanwhile the cook's tour was a long walk through the site where some tradesmen were actively demonstrating their skills, here are a selected few snaps for Ray Norman's 'collect eleven' site.

3 comments:

  1. Great images. Especially love the hand with gears and the board with the spectacles.

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  2. I really liked looking at these photos! #6 from the top is my favorite! Very weird graphics amongst the decay. Rust has its place on this earth!

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  3. Mal these shots remind me of visits to my Dad's depot in West Yorkshire when I was a kid... wondering endlessly what everything was for, how it worked, why it looked like it did. Seeing the art and personalities blended into the cracks of function and purpose. The whole atmosphere triggering a powerful sense of an ordinary but important story that I wanted to learn about and participate in -- you have a wonderful eye for this: Thanks.

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