Recent Donations

These 3 photo-ceramic portraits have been donated to the museum by members of the Willocks family. This method of portraiture was popular in the 1890s.

Portrait of a young man, believed to be Charles Ernest Willocks

Willocks was born in Victoria 1874 and moved to Western Australia to join in the Gold Rush. In November 1901 he married Mabel Wiley at Greenough. The couple lived at Mount Magnet. He died in 1936 and is buried in Cue.

Portrait of a man believed to be Thomas Wiley
Wiley was born in Ireland in 1846 and arrived in Western Australia in 1863. Much against her parent's wishes, he married Elizabeth Pearson in 1870. The couple had 10 children. Wiley was landlord of the Irwin Hotel, then the Hampton Hotel and later farmed on the Back Flats at Greenough. He died in Geraldton in 1924.

Portrait of a woman believed to be Elizabeth Wiley (nee Pearson)
Elizabeth was born in England on Christmas Day 1848, as an infant she came to Western Australia as her father Francis Watson Pearson had been employed to work at the Geraldine Mine.

Pearson later moved his family to Greenough and built and managed the Hampton Hotel.
Following her mother's death, Elizabeth purchased the Hampton Hotel (by then de-licensed) in 1898 and lived there for 16 years. Elizabeth died in 1925.

Can You Guess What This Was Used For?

This Cowry Shell is a recent donation, and at first glance not the sort of object you would associate with the pioneers of Greenough.
It is a however a lovely example of making-do, and originally came from the workbasket of Edith K. Clinch (nee Waldeck).
Arthur Clinch married Edith (or Topsy as she was more lovingly known) on 8 November 1892, and the couple went on to live at Mill Farm (the former Greenough Hotel). In those days, frugality prevailed, and as a farmer's wife, one of the skills Topsy would have learnt was how to mend clothes. This beautiful shell was used by Topsy as a darning mushroom for mending socks.
Unfortunately we do not know who gave Topsy the shell. There could be a lovely story there.
The shell has been donated to this museum by Topsy's grand-daughter, Joy.

Update to Benefactors Board

Two more names have been entered on the Benefactors Board at the Pioneer Museum.
The first is Lotterywest who recently provided funding of $10,000. This grant is being used to have a display cabinet made to show some of the costumes we have in storage.
The second is the Estate of Bob Sullivan. Bob's car trailer was donated to the museum for the use of the caretakers and a donation of money is being used to pay for the construction of a pair of large doors that are currently being built at the Greenough Regional Prison and will go on the Old Garage.
The museum in its appreciation of the above generous donations, is happy to be able to add their names to our Benefactors Board.

Latest Donation - A Sharpening Wheel

The most recent donation to the museum has come from Kath Browning of Geraldton and is this sharpening wheel c1918. This wheel was used for sharpening sheep shears, axes and other cutting implements used in the clearing of vegetation, bush and trees on 'virgin' blocks of land in readiness for farming.
The wheel originally belonged to Henry Browning, Kath's father-in-law. Henry Browning was born at South Greenough on 6 August 1894, the seventh child of Alfred and Mary Ann Browning. Whilst a youth, the family moved to Yuna where Mary Ann ran a boarding house. Henry found work on the railways at Mullewa, but left to enlist when war broke out. He fought in France, and the injuries he received effected him for the rest of his life.
Returning to Western Australia in 1918, Henry and his brother Walter, took up a soldier settlement farm at Yandanooka, where this tool would have come in very helpful.
On 25 April 1924, Henry married Olive Stokes. The couple had 3 sons, Keith, Athol and Kevin. Henry and Olive evenually retired to Geraldton, where he died on 2 January 1966.
The sharpening wheel was inherited by his oldest son Keith, who in later years built a new stand for it.
The sharpening wheel is to be an important exhibit in a new display we are preparing for the Old Garage.
Thanks Kath.