Tamworth Regional Gallery is displaying some snippets of the local history at their latest exhibition which features selected items from 12 local museums, archives, and galleries from around Tamworth.
“As part of the Tamworth regional Heritage Festival, we have a Tamworth regional museums combined exhibition this year,” TRC Museums Operations Coordinator Naomi Blakey said.
“It’s titled Unearthed, as we look across all of the collections within the Tamworth regional council area and see objects that are either recent acquisitions, objects that where their stories haven’t been told, or even items that are just of extreme interest that the museums want to share with the public.”
The exhibit showcases a range of diverse items, from the typewriter used to type up the Country Music Newsletter to an old Prime News video camera from the 1990s, to a well-worn leather doctor’s bag, owned by Dr. Herbert Beattie – who was first registered to practice in 1937, and worked in the district until 1973.
“This bag sits at around the 1973 mark,” Blakey said.
“It just highlights everything that Dr Beattie had in his bag at the time in 1973, which was when he essentially retired and left the bag as it was in situ in his offices, which is pretty amazing.”
The bag, held together with string, still contained phials of morphine sulphate and cocaine, and the blood pressure cuff, just as he left it.
“It represents a perfect time capsule of the era, especially in terms of medical practice at the time.”
Unearthed opens this Saturday, the 19th of April, and the exhibit forms part of the larger 2025 Tamworth Heritage Festival, running from 26th of April to 18th of May.
On Wednesday, the 7th of May, representatives from each of the 12 collections featured will be offering a guided tour of the exhibition, offering up a deeper context and more information on each piece.
Entry is free.
Full list of contributors
The Tamworth Powerstation Museum, Australian Country Music Hall of Fame, Moonbi Museum, Tamworth Historical Society, Tamworth Regional Film and Sound Archive, Tamworth Regional Astronomy and Science Centre, Manilla Heritage Museum, Gil Bennet Collection, Chris Bowman Collection, Tamworth Family History Group, Tamworth Regional Gallery, and Tamworth Nursing, Hospital and Medical Museum.
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