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Part I
Expression of Interest
Education Consultant for the Talking
Machines Project
Seeking Expressions of Interest
Education Consultant – to Assist with the Development of
Educational Resources for The Museum of the Riverina Talking
Machines Project
The Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga, is seeking EOI’s from suitably qualified
consultants to deliver the educational resource component of this project. The
educational resource will complement the new National Curriculum (Australian
Curriculum History Stage 5: The Making of the Modern World) and will reflect key
project themes, the interpretive and educational needs of community museum
partners and schools based within those communities.
THE PROJECT
Talking Machines: reviving Riverina rural technology collections with video
testimonies will capture the histories and stories of generations of Australian men
and women who farmed the Riverina, through the rusted metal frames and once
sharp blades of dormant farm machinery they used. The 11 community museums
participating in the project are: The Museum of the Riverina, Wyalong Museum, Upto-Date Store (Coolamon), Cootamundra Heritage Centre, Greens Gunyah
(Lockhart), Temora Rural Museum, Pioneer Women's Hut (Tumbarumba), Tumut
Museum, Batlow Museum, Whistlestop Museum (Weethalle), Junee Broadway
Museum.
The project is an initiative of the Museum of the Riverina and involves a partnership
with the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (formerly the Powerhouse Museum),
Museums & Galleries NSW, Oral History NSW, the Wiradjuri Language & Cultural
Heritage recovery program (Charles Sturt University), a local filmmaker and 11
community museums across Eastern and Western Riverina. The project has
received funding from Arts NSW to deliver the project over a two year period (March
2015–Feb 2017).
The project creates a series of thematic trails across the Riverina. Key objects have
been selected from partner museums to support the development of these themes
which in turn speak to Australia’s role in the industrial revolution – this is the focus of
the educational resource. Further information on key themes can be found in Part II:
Further project information.
Other project outcomes include the filming of up to 40 video testimonies across 11
communities, new audio-visual interpretation for all partner museums and a Talking
Machines digital tour available to download from the website of Museums & Galleries
of NSW.
THE EDUCATION CONSULTANT CONTRACT COMPONENTS
The successful consultant will be expected to undertake consultation with key
partners including contacts at the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Charles Sturt
University, partner museums and with schools from each community.
It is anticipated that one of the first tasks the Consultant might undertake is local
investigation across all of the communities participating across the Riverina with the
intention of discovering:
1) If the schools in the project catchment areas are studying the Industrial
Revolution (wheat growing, wool production, manufacturing).
2) The resources teachers need (online, available at museum, etc).
3) Whether the syllabus changes each year.
It is anticipated that the process undertaken to deliver a unique and engaging,
relevant resource might involve a three stage approach as follows:
1) Consultation with stakeholders.
2) Provision of recommendations regarding appropriate content and format of
the final resource and the development of this content as agreed.
3) The trialling and promotion of the resource across key communities.
Following consultation with key stakeholders, it is expected that the appointed
Consultant will present recommendations for key educational resource content and
format to the project management team.
BUDGET
The total budget for delivery of the educational resource is $7,500 + GST and must
include all labour, travel and project delivery costs. This may be payable in
instalments as the consultant achieves relevant project milestones.
The Consultant will be expected to deliver the framework and content for the
education resource – the project budget includes additional allowances for graphic
design and reproduction costs.
TIMEFRAMES
The project runs over a period of two years, however it is hoped that the Education
Consultant might commence in May 2015, with relevant consultation and the
educational resource complete by late 2015.
ACCOUNTABILITY & PROJECT SUPPORT
The project is managed by the Museum of the Riverina, who have also appointed a
Consultant Co-Project Manager (Kim Biggs) to manage the project jointly with the
Museum’s Regional Outreach Officer, Rachael Vincent. For the purposes of this
contract the Education Consultant will sub contract works to Kim Biggs Consulting
and liaise with and/or take project direction from Kim in the first instance.
It is envisaged that the Education Consultant will work as a part of a team and the
successful Consultant is encouraged to participate in team meetings and other
project networking events.
FURTHER INFORMATION & SUBMITTING AN EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
Expressions of Interest should indicate:
 The background experience and suitability of the Consultant.
 The Consultant’s understanding of the new national curriculum and how it
might apply at a local and regional level to the NSW Stage 5 History Syllabus.


The proposed project methodology and the Consultant’s preferred approach
to the project.
An indication of critical project milestones and associated timeframes.
Expressions of interest will be accepted by email until 4pm Thursday 30th April
2015 and should be emailed to [email protected].
Further information may be obtained by contacting Kim Biggs on 0427 933 278 or
[email protected].
Part II
Further Information
Talking Machines: aims, outcomes, rationale
Picturing the project: summary of key themes
About the Museum of the Riverina
Talking Machines: reviving Riverina rural technology collections
with video testimonies
PROJECT SUMMARY
This project awakens memories from a disappearing generation to vivify a national
collection of significant, yet silent, farm machinery. With Talking Machines, the
Museum of the Riverina will reach across generations to give voice to dormant farm
machinery and capture hidden histories. In rusted metal frames and once sharp
blades are the memories of generations of Australian men and women who farmed
an unforgiving landscape. The project is built on strong foundations: a database of
25,000 historic farm machinery items, completed by Australia’s foremost rural
technology expert, Margaret Simpson, Curator of Science & Industry at the Museum
of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) formerly the Powerhouse Museum.
AIMS AND OUTCOMES
The Museum of the Riverina will collaborate with the Museum of Applied Arts &
Sciences (formerly the Powerhouse Museum), Museums & Galleries of NSW, the
Wiradjuri Language & Cultural Heritage Recovery Program (Charles Sturt
University), Oral History NSW, an award-winning local filmmaker, regional cultural
consultants and 11 community museums across Eastern & Western Riverina to:
 Deliver up to 40 filmed testimonies (4–10 minutes long) about rural life. This
will be done by working with retired farmers and agricultural workers.
 Install new audio-visual interpretation in each partner museum to connect the
filmed testimonies to their respective machines, thus bringing collections to
life with voice, sound and personal experience.
 Develop a unique educational resource for the National Year 9/10 History
syllabus that for the first time tells the story of Australia’s role in the Industrial
Revolution and international export market. This will be delivered across the
11 museums, and will be made accessible to teachers online through the
website of M&G of NSW.
 Launch a Talking Machines online tour available to download from the
website of Museums & Galleries of NSW. M&G of NSW will upload the filmed
testimonies to the 'Trails' page of their website, branding them as a Talking
Machines Tour of the Riverina.
 Develop an interpretive strategy across 11 museums that embeds the
significant machinery chosen for Talking Machines into future exhibition
development. This will lay the groundwork for further resourcing around
conservation, research and display to increase access to nationally significant
collections. The strategy will also explore the potential to develop Talking
Machines as a non-medical aid to defeating depression, managing dementia
and the isolation felt in depleted rural communities.
PROJECT RATIONALE
This is our last chance to record knowledge from a disappearing generation –
knowledge of working the land with labouring beasts and pioneering machines.
Talking Machines responds to a worldwide trend: using digital technology to
articulate life experience through storytelling. Historians use this term to describe
narratives that give order and structure to human practise. This project enables a
network of regional museums to fulfil their social role and respond to an ageing
population.
The project is underpinned by opportunities for agricultural tourism in the Riverina
across education and leisure visitor markets, and grounded in the museum sector’s
drive towards community engagement and collaborative working. The project is
driven by an ageing population whose knowledge of rural machinery will be lost if not
recorded in the next 5 years, significant regional rural technology collections that
exemplify major historical themes that are absent in state and national museums,
and a lack of educational resources explaining the importance of rural technology
collections to Australia’s industrial past. Talking Machines will create an important
cultural resource while reinforcing strategic alliances between state institutions,
regional museums and volunteer run community museums. The project’s
overarching goal: to safeguard and promote the Riverina’s valuable, but
disappearing, farming history.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Innovations &
Imports
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme



Museums
Innovations
Australian made: local manufacturers
Agricultural technology imports





Museum of the Riverina
Temora Rural Museum
Junee Broadway Museum
Tumut Historical Society & Museum
Green’s Gunyah Museum
Examples of key objects
Sheepskin roller at Wagga Wagga. This machine
harvested the burr which contained the seed for
subterranean clover. In Australia in the 1920s, it
was found that addition of clover to soil, plus the
fertiliser, superphosphate, led to marked
increases in pasture production. Sheepskincovered rollers or drums picked up the
subterranean clover burrs from scarified ground. A
geared and revolving brush then swept the burrs
into a hopper. This one was made by Hepburn &
Lovett of Wagga Wagga, in 1952.
Nicholson back delivery
combined reaping & mowing
machine at Wagga Wagga, c.
1878. The reaper revolutionised
grain production. Previously,
reaping was done by hand with a
scythe or sickle. With a reaper and
mower, a saw-toothed cutter could
slash a 1.2 metre swath, while
horses walked on the stubble.
Machine for
laying poison
baits, Cohoe &
Walster, at
Junee. Rabbits
were in plague
proportions.
Poison was a
phosphorus
compound
mixed with bran.
Jelbart Tractor at Temora. After the
1920s, few tractors were
manufactured in Australia as they
could not compete with cheaper
imports, mainly from America.
Significant Australian makes like this
1920s Jelbart indicate the
sophistication and creativity of
Australian tractor production and
design at the time.
Talking
Machines
Theme
People
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme




Museums
Managing the farm
Staying connected to Country
Women on the farm
Growing up on the farm





Pioneer Women’s Hut, Tumbarumba
Cootamundra Heritage Centre
Batlow Museum
Weethalle Whistlestop Arts & Crafts and Museum
Museum of the Riverina
Examples of key objects
Apple Picking in Batlow. The gold
rush of the 19th century triggered the
demand for fresh produce, and
Batlow’s orchards and farms began to
grow. Fruit growing soon became a
major industry, with the first cool
stores in NSW built in Batlow in 1923.
Afternoon tea with owners of
Shaftesbury Station and girls
from the Cootamundra
Aboriginal Girls’ Training
Home. Many of the women, who
still refer to themselves as
‘Cootamundra Girls’, arrived at
the home as babies, others were
taken from their mothers as small
children.
Bill Browne, retired farmer and
donor of ‘The Bill Browne Vintage
Machinery Collection’, Weethalle.
Long after other farmers had given
up their horses for tractors, Bill
continued using huge teams of up
to 14 horses to pull his farm
machinery until 1944.
Collecting Milk, Pioneer
Women’s Hut, Tumbarumba.
Kerosene tins were extremely
useful – they could be turned
into all sorts of household and
farm items: milking and water
buckets, storage, bins, even
cake tins.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Power
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme




Museums



Horse
Hot air
Internal combustion
Steam
Green’s Gunyah, Lockhart
Tumut & District Historical Society Museum
Temora Rural Museum
Examples of key objects
Brown & May Steam Portable
Engine at Tumut, 1889. This rare
16 hp steam engine provided
power on the farm before the
small stationary oil engine took
over in the early 20th century.
Portable engines were mounted
on wheels and had to be moved
from place to place by 3-4 horses.
They were used for a variety of
jobs on farms into the late 1950s.
Columbus Oil Engine at Tumut:
a rare horizontal portable engine.
From the beginning of the 20th
century, internal combustion
engines began to replace work
formerly done by horseworks and
portable steams engine on the
farm. The Columbus Machine Co.
was based in Columbus, Ohio,
USA. Their engines were
advertised as ‘the best designed
and built engines in America.’
Horse Treadmill at Lockhart.
Horses were the chief source of
power on the Australian farm from
the 1850s until after the First
World War. Draught horses pulled
wagons loaded with produce from
the farm to the rail head, hauled
ploughs, seed-drills and
harvesters, and powered
winnowers and animal feed
preparation machines by walking
on an endlessly revolving
treadmill.
Hot Air engine at Lockhart. Hot
air engines were developed as an
alternative power source to steam
engines. They had a low power
output, were simple to operate,
required a minimum of attention,
and were reliable with far fewer
moving parts than steam engines.
Some small engines were used for
lifting water out of stock wells and
pumping water to homesteads.
Few were made after the turn of
the twentieth century but made a
revival in the mid-1930s.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Animals
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme





Museums



Feeding horses
Milking cattle
Droving
Shearing
Breaking in horses



Cootamundra Heritage Centre
Tumut & District Historical Society Museum
Weethalle Whistle Stop Arts & Crafts Centre and
Museum
Green’s Gunyah, Lockhart
Wyalong Museum
Pioneer Women’s Hut, Tumbarumba
Examples of key objects
Englished made Bentall handoperated chaffcutter at
Lockhart. The vast number of
horses on farms needed feeding.
Chaffcutters were used on
virtually every farm to cut hay
into small manageable pieces to
feed tired horses. This job was
often undertaken by women and
children with hand-operated
machines like this one.
Two-cow milking machine at Tumut.
Milking machines revolutionised dairy
farming. The replacement of hand
milking by mechanical means was a
very slow process which began in the
mid-19th century and was not fully
completed in Australia until about the
1970s. With hand milking the labour
was provided by the farmer's family and
heard sizes remained small.
Sheep shearing machine at Lockhart.
These machines replaced hand shears for
shearing sheep in the late 19th century. It
used to take 2 years of training and
experience on the job to become a good
hand shearer but with a shearing machine
almost anyone could become a skilled
shearer in a few days. The most popular
type of shearing machine in Australia was
the shaft-driven set up in shearing sheds
and involved the shaft belt-driven from a
steam or internal combustion engine.
Bill Browne, horse
whisperer. Bill has
farmed around the
Weethalle district for
most of his life. A
skilled horseman
with an incredible
ability to handle
animals, Bill has
always bred and
worked draught
horses.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Crops
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme




Museums



Land clearing
Ploughing
Seeding
Harvesting
Museum of the Riverina
Weethalle Whistle Stop Arts & Crafts Centre & Museum
Junee Broadway Museum
Examples of key objects
Clyde Whitlock plough at
Wagga Wagga. Designed by
Wagga engineer and blacksmith,
John Whitlock, this plough
symbolised a growing local and
national agricultural economy.
Ploughs like this were used
around the 1890s, when Wagga,
Narrandera, Junee, Coolamon
and surrounds were producing
10% of the colony’s wheat.
Cohoe and Walster Stripper at
Wagga & Junee. Significant in
the history of the Riverina wheat
industry, this horse-drawn
machine stripped the heads of
wheat from the crop. Made at
‘The Pioneer Foundry’ in Junee
(est. 1892), Cohoe and Walster
were the only local
manufacturers of agricultural
machinery in the eastern
Riverina until about 1920.
Mallee Roller at Weethalle.
Mallee country was difficult and
expensive to clear by hand for
wheat cultivation. The land
around Weethalle was cleared
with home-made Mallee rollers
like this one. It is made from an
old boiler and has a framework
of tree trunks. At the end of the
summer, flattened scrub and
regrowth was burnt. A stump
jump plough was then used to
ride over the last of the roots.
Bill Browne’s Seed Drill at Weethalle.
The seed drill deposited seed evenly in
the right amount and covered at a
uniform depth. The first American
combines arrived here in the 1880s.
Combine seed drills applied both seed
and fertiliser (superphosphate) to the
soil. Bill used this combine drill, made
by H.V. McKay and pulled by 6 horses
to sow his crop. Harrows were dragged
behind to cover the seed.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Water
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme



Partner museums


Windmills
Building dams
Water carts
Up-to-Date Store, Coolamon
Temora
Examples of key objects
Horse drawn Link Noack Dam Sinking
Scoop, for digging a stock dam at
Coolamon. A man would walk beside
the scoop using the handles to lower the
mouth to fill it. Many areas of Australia
taken up for grazing or cultivation had
no natural permanent water supply. The
building of ample water storage was a
first consideration of the settler.
Horse drawn Meadowbank Tank Plough
at Coolamon. This plough was pulled by 8
horses or a team of bullocks. Bullocks
were preferred to horses for tank sinking
as their hooves were less inclined to break
up the soil. Before the post-World War II
use of large bulldozers, the construction of
stock dams was undertaken with horse
drawn dam sinking ploughs and scoops.
Furphy Water Cart at
Coolamon, 1920. Water carts
were important on the farm for
carting water for household
and stock use. They also
supplied water to run steam
portable and traction engines
when threshing in the field.
The most famous Australian
water cart was the Furphy.
Comet Windmill at
Temora. Windmills
offered a cheap method
of raising water for
stock. Comet was a
popular brand made in
Rockhampton,
Queensland and at
Dulwich Hill in Sydney
from 1918.
Talking
Machines
Theme
Pests
Coming together in partnership:
picturing the project
Subtheme


Partner museums




Rabbits
Wheat diseases
Wyalong Museum
Junee Broadway Museum
Cootamundra heritage Centre
Pioneer Women’s Hut, Tumbarumba
Examples of key objects
Alfa Hannaford Wheat Pickler
at Wyalong. During the early
20th century, Australia’s wheat
crops were ravaged by
diseases caused by parasitic
fungi which they threatened the
continuation of many wheat
varieties. This Australian-made
wheat pickling machine helped
to prevent disease by agitating
the wheat in a solution of
formalin.
Rabbit Fumigator at Wyalong.
Beginning in Victoria in 1859,
Australia’s rabbit problem was
enormous. With vast open spaces,
little human population to hunt
them and no natural predators,
swarms of rabbits in plague
proportions crossed Victoria and
reached South Australia and NSW
by 1880. The extensive
degradation of land from burrows
and consumption of grass greatly
affected Australian agriculture.
Lane Rabbit Traps at
Wyalong. Rabbit control
methods included bounty
hunting, trapping,
shooting, erecting rabbit
proof fencing and
poisoning. After the First
World War there was
enthusiasm for rabbit
gassing or fumigating. The
rabbit traps and fumigator
tell this story.
Rabbit Skins and Rabbit Skin Quilt at
Pioneer Women’s Hut, Tumbarumba. Seven
to ten rabbits ate as much pasture as one
sheep and their burrows being around trees
and vegetation encouraged soil and land
degradation. During the Depression, rabbit
skins could make a warm quilt, and as well
as being used for food, skinned rabbits could
also be swapped for staples such as bread.
About the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga
The Museum of the Riverina interprets the history and identity of Wagga Wagga and
the Riverina through stories of people, place and environment. It enriches community
life and encourages learning, innovation and creativity. More than just a social
history museum, the Museum of the Riverina leads the way in developing new
methods to approach and present cultural heritage in regional Australia. This means
harnessing the potential of the region's artistic community to interact with social
history in the museum space. With this emerging creative body of work, the Museum
enacts a placemaking role, articulating the unique sense and scale of the Riverina
through the imagination of the region's creative talent. Operating as a regional
museum, a dedicated Regional Museum Officer provides a Sector Outreach Service
for the Riverina. This involves engaging with state and national cultural institutions to
assist in the sustainable management, interpretation and promotion of collections in
over 35 community museums.
Working within Wagga Wagga City Council’s Integrated Planning and Reporting
framework, the Museum of the Riverina has the following objectives:
 Through strong leadership, collaborative partnerships and innovative policy
and planning, to develop as an exemplary regional museum and contribute to
making Wagga Wagga a thriving, innovative city in which to live, work and
visit.
 Through education programs, lifelong learning and audience development, to
offer an accessible recreational and education resource for the whole
community.
 Through best practice in collections management, to oversee the strategic
development, research and interpretation of the permanent collections.
 Forging sustainable partnerships to develop lively educational programs,
travelling exhibitions and public programs targeting diverse communities.
 To build a network of sustainable museums and collections in the Riverina by
fostering collaborations across the cultural sector, and working with local
councils to support strategic planning and sustainable museum development.