Category: Museum Events

January is our month for exploring collections and collectors.

To complement the Museum’s focus on local collectors and their fascinating collections, the Society is hosting a range of talks that explore the history behind some local collections, the highlights of our own collections and advice on understanding and caring for your own collections.

COVID restrictions apply, so places are limited and booking is essential.  

Come and explore the world of heritage bottles with collector Brad Brown.

Never turn a blind eye on a coloured old bottle because it may be particularly special.

There are some real rarities out there like the pictured Hodgkiss soda water bottle. It was made in Cairns for a while in the 1880s.

Brad has been collecting bottles for more than 40 years and helped Cairns Museum curate its own collection for public display.

He will show treasures from the Cairns Museum and his own collection, as well as identify and appraise bottles held by a lucky 10 people.

The presentation will run at the Cairns Museum in the School of Arts building on the corner of Lake and Shields streets, from 2pm to 4.30pm.

The first 10 to book a ticket are invited to bring along one bottle for appraisal and guide to its possible value, and to learn about what to look for in old bottles.

As a heritage organisation, we ask people not to remove bottles from heritage sites but most locals dig the bottles up in their gardens or find them under the house and want to know about the manufacturer, what they were used for and the age and value of the bottle,” Ms Gibson said.

Entry is free to Cairns Museum members and to non-members who have paid for Museum entry. 

Places are limited and can be booked here:

http://bit.ly/BottleShowcase

Cairns Museum may be contacted on 4051 5582 or email info@cairnsmuseum.org.au.

JOIN US!

Come and celebrate the 2019 festive season with the Cairns Historical Society and Cairns Museum.

Members, Friends and Supporters are invited to our Christmas Party, to be held in the gorgeous Plantation Room at the renovated Bungalow Hotel. There’s prizes, awards and a Christmas buffet to share.

• Friday 6 December, 5:30 – 8:30 pm, @ Bungalow Hotel, Plantation Room, 200 Aumuller St Bungalow
• Members and friends $30. 

Numbers are limited so if you are planning to attend please RSVP and pay by Monday 2nd December. You can pay directly via Paypal, using the link below or pay over the counter at the Museum.

We would love to see you – so please make a note in your diary, RSVP and come along.

WANT TO BOOK NOW?

It’s a small world that will be on display at Cairns Museum from now until January 2020. Eleven tiny but perfectly formed room suites are the work of one man – master wood craftsman and gifted miniaturist Les Paul.

A Cairns cabinetmaker and glazier, Paul created Lilliputian-sized rooms, which were exact miniature replicas of typical rooms in houses complete with furniture, wallpaper and art works.

“Les Paul worked his entire working life on the tools, creating furniture from North Queensland rainforest timbers. Then, in his retirement, he dared to downsize,” Ms Gibson said.

His passion was timber craftsmanship and he painstakingly made 11 small but perfectly formed room suites or dioramas, as well as four miniature collections, all at the exact scale of 1:6 (two inches to one foot).

The exhibition will display all of Paul’s tiny suites and some of his four collections.