The Farm Shed Museum

Armed with a list of Copper Coast attractions, we headed off to Kadina where we quickly eliminated the Veterans' Museum (not open and with no opening times advertised) and the Art Gallery (ditto).  In the absence of other Kadina attractions, off we went to the Farm Shed Museum. The Farm Shed Museum sat behind the Tourist Information Centre which hid behind a miniature railway (The Copper Coast Railway) and a Putt Putt cours,e and shared its facilities with a play cafe. Oh, and there was a brewery as well.

The gardens outside the Tourist Information Centre were planted with Billy Buttons.  I like Billy Buttons.

"Straight through the door," said the nice girl at the information counter when we asked how to get to the Museum. "Over the bridge and follow the map.  There's lots of sheds." Which we did (although 'bridge' was rather a generous term) and there were.  We started at the Matta House.

The Matta House was where the manager of the Matta Matta Mine lived.  The Matta Matta Mine was one of the first copper mines in the area, but only lasted for 10 years.  Look at that wood-shingled roof!

 

The Farm Shed turned out to be a surprisingly good not-so-little museum, absolutely bursting at the seams with stuff pertaining to all aspects of life in days gone past. We shared the journey through the Matta House and the 'Kadina's Story' shed with a very elderly gentleman and his carer, who had an animated discussion about all the historic items which the old fella had routinely used in his childhood. We developed a nodding acquaintance as we tag-teamed through the displays, and became firm friends when the automatic lights went off suddenly, leaving us all in the dark until Roger chivalrously opened the exit door to allow us all to escape.

I like a good teapot collection.

Wool was a minor industry on the Copper Coast.  As the copper mines waned, wheat and grains replaced mining as the primary activity in the area.

 

Here is the way out.

We cycled quickly through copper, sheep, wheat and the lack of water which plagued the Copper Coast until the construction of the Beetaloo Reservoir, and dallied through the displays about the 'invisible farmers' aka women. The sheds went on and on and on, ranks of beautifully restored tractors standing to attention.

This tractor is the same age as me.

Not to mention all the ingenious contraptions which South Australians invented and manufactured to clear the land of its most prolific crop: rocks.

We were both starting to be just a little tractored out when along came a man with a big bunch of keys, busily locking doors.   We left quickly on threat of being locked in and spending the night with too many tractors, taxidermied goats, and (the stuff if nightmares) the salt-mummified head of a merino sheep. 

Bleached and left in a salt lake to gather salt crystals, as you do with the skull of a horned merino ram.  Some sheep farmer had too much time on his hands.

 

"You can come back in the morning," said the man with the keys. "Just let the girls know when you leave and they'll let you in without having to buy another ticket tomorrow."

Back in the main street of Kadina we discovered that although none of the cafes was open (so what's new?) the Newsagency boasted an impressive ice cream/lolly corner.

What a shame.  I'll just have to have ice cream instead of coffee.

Roger got extra excited and succumbed to the lure of (allegedly) sugar free lollies.

"So what are they sweetened with?" I asked, "If not sugar?"

He read the ingredients list. "Maltitole." His face fell. "I better see if that's low FODMAP."  His face fell further.  "It's not. You'll have to eat them all."   

Oh dear. They were nice, too.

By the time we had eaten our ice creams it was time to go home, so we did.  We popped back to the museum the next day to polish off the remaining exhibits: Grain Handling; Transport; and School. My goodness, there were so many beautifully restored old trucks tucked away in the Transport shed!

 The quest for an open cafe in Kadina continues.

Oh, and Grandma is still alive.  Just in case you were wondering.