Bundaberg & District Historical Museum

13/10/2026

A public meeting was held on 14th October 1969 to form the Bundaberg Historical Museum Committee.
The meeting was chaired by Alderman Geoffrey G. Boreham and attended by 23 people with all present supporting the formation of the Bundaberg Historical Museum.
The prominent instigator of the committee's formation, Mrs Agnes Baker, was elected president.

The museum was once situated in the School of Arts Building but was relocated at the end of 1988 to its present site at the Botanic Gardens, North Bundaberg.

10/10/2026

Our Website: https://bundaberghistoricalmuseum.weebly.com/

Qld Seniors Month Website: https://qldseniorsmonth.org.au/

09/10/2026

Can you recognise this artefact?

07/10/2026

A new ANZAC Memorial Mosaic has been installed at the Burnett Heads Memorial Park, by Burnett Heads Memorial Park Committee. The mural has been put together by Paul David Perry and many volunteers. See full details here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Wvd8dBcb/
and here: https://www.brcnow.bundaberg.qld.gov.au/2026/06/01/new-public-art-approved-for-coast-and-cbd/

To support the project, we've made a map of the "Streets of Remembrance" in Burnett Heads, in case you go for a visit. The "Streets of Remembrance program" is by Bundaberg Council, with full details on the listings here: https://www.bundaberg.qld.gov.au/Planning-and-building/Streets-of-Remembrance-Program

Lest we forget

Burnett Heads Memorial Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PMBWfb7TzneNTXHg8

29/09/2026

26/09/2026

It's biodiversity month, and we are celebrating the work of Charles Skyring.

In the late 1800's Charles Skyring caught a large collection of birds in scrub located behind the Mater Hospital in Bundaberg (his home was originally there). They were then stuffed by Charles and placed in a specially designed cabinet by the man himself.

Thanks to the work of Charles Skyring we can see clearly, backward in time, to the diverse bird life in the area.

The principle of diversity, in life systems, shows us resilience and a multitude of different success strategies. These inform our own strategies, designs and ways of thinking.

23/09/2026

Come and 'appreciate' our shell collection, this Biodiversity Month.

- Did you know shells were an original form of currency!?
Brought in on the ocean *currents*, they were *appreciated* and gathered *interest* !

Shells were used as a token in exchange because of their diversity of form, light weight and longevity.

The development of abstract currency, above and beyond simple barter economies helped facilitate global trade.

Read more about it in this article by Mickael Fauvelle for Cambridge University Press, 15 February 2024, 'Shell Money', https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/shell-money/59F5D361C6CA7C596A8C168C84A960D0 (accessed 23/09/2026)
"In the Indian ocean, cowrie shells from the Maldives were traded across Asia and Africa to the extent that the classical Chinese character for money (貝 bèi) represents a stylized cowrie shell (Reference YangYang, 2018). Even colonial-era European explorers saw shells as money, carrying millions of them around the world to facilitate exchanges with local peoples."

See also:
Smithsonian, 2026, Smithsonian; National museum of African American History and Culture, 'Cowrie Shells and Trade Power', https://nmaahc.si.edu/cowrie-shells-and-trade-power
(accessed 23/09/2026)

21/09/2026

We are housing the Bundaberg Arts Centre Touring Exhibition called 'Boom Baby Boom' - all about the youth culture, demographics and dynamic social force of the Baby Boomer Generation.

(sic) "Pop Art of the 1960's included a fascination for household objects and the celebration of the mundane. What may have started off as depictions and celebrations of 'low culture' have over
time been transformed into 'high culture'."

This may be a good analogy for the boomers - they took the 'every man' to the heights of success, shedding limitations of a post-war economy. Learn about the explosive social forces of the Australian Baby Boomers here today.