Sometimes, when Roy is out and about visiting museums and historic sites, he finds unexpected treasures. Sometimes these treasures are aspects of collections which he didn’t know about while at other times they are pieces of history in unexpected places. Earlier this year when Roy made a trip to Goulburn he made several such discoveries at the War Memorial Museum, and he wanted to share these discoveries in time for Remembrance Day.
If you would like to see these amazing discoveries, they are located in Goulburn at the beautiful War Memorial at the summit of Rocky Hill. To get there you will need to follow Memorial Street to the very summit of the hill – there are plenty of signs to point you in the right direction. When you arrive, not only is there the beautiful memorial to see, but a fabulous little museum with an extraordinary collection. The lookout is open 7 days a week between 7am and 5pm, while the tower and museum are open between 10am and 4pm on weekends, public holidays and in the school holidays.
The Goulburn War Memorial was a community project, built with funding collected from public subscription. The memorial opened in 1925, within a decade of the end of World War One and became a fitting, and lasting tribute not just to those who served their country and died in World War One, but to those who fought in other campaigns. The War Memorial tower itself is just one aspect of the Rocky Hill site though, and not far away is the care takers cottage which houses an astonishing and moving collection of artefacts.
The museum holds an extensive collection of items, ranging from personal items which belonged to soldiers who served to weapons. They cover a range of periods, with many dating from the First World War, but others relating to other conflicts. There is one item though which Roy was not only astonished to discover, but which he found particularly poignant. In the doorway of one room to the cottage is a large metal door, which you might be forgiven for thinking is just part of the building. It is an extraordinary part of the museum’s collection though, being an original door from the infamous Changi Prison in Singapore where so many Australians were held as prisoners of war during World War Two. The door was salvaged from the Australian section of Changi in 2004 when the prison was demolished. In the room behind the door you can find out more about the story of Changi, and see other artefacts which represent this period in Australia's history.