Community & Business
17 April, 2026
Five years of Clifton’s new museum building
Last Friday, the 10th of April, marked 5 years since the Clifton Museum moved into its new building, we take a look back at what has been achieved in that time, under a new roof.
It’s been a packed five years. The move from the last building; the old butter factory, came about when the historical building was deemed unsafe in 2016.
The new building was opened on the 10th of April, 2021.
Grants have been secured for improvements in the electricity supply, to the installation of monitors in many of the exhibitions.
These have allowed for a litany of improvements and maintenance projects to be undertaken.
Funding has also been secured for computers for volunteers working at the museum.
Out the back of the building, displays have been installed in The Goods Shed, including larger railway equipment, horse equipment, blacksmithing exhibits and a boot making display.
Many of the larger exhibits were moved with the help of Satake Silos, they can all now be viewed out back of the Museum along the yard.
While this has been due to funding from grants, there has also been plenty of community input as well.
Many of the items on display are heirlooms donated by Cliftonites from family collections, to the extent that because of donations, the wedding dress display has needed to be extended twice.
Over the past five years, the museum team has also digitally catalogued and photographed over 1530 items in the museum’s collection, with over 10,000 items from pre-2021 left to go.
This is all down to the dedication and hard work of the museum’s volunteers.
Truly, any celebration of this museum, is a celebration of them.
Archivists, grounds keepers, gardeners, cleaners, interior designers, and carpenters, there’s nothing they don’t do.
You’ll often see them sitting out the front, in a circle, chattering and enjoying morning tea on the days the museum is open.
Joy King, the museum’s ‘font of all knowledge’, is one of the original volunteers, who started back in 1952!
Joy has been a big part of building the museum archive into what it is now.
So are those with land-scaping and gardening skills who have grown and maintained its beautiful gardens.
Those who catalogue and compile its growing database.
Those who clean, and sort and stack.
The museum is the sum of its parts.
Its exhibits are filled with history, life and curious little quirks of the past.
The museum, or rather its volunteers are also present in the community, running stalls at the local markets.
In 2023 and 2024 the museum hosted bush poet John Watkins.
Families have held reunions, gathering around displays which include their family’s early members and settlements.
More recently The Clifton & District Historical Society won the 2026 Community Event award at the Australia Day celebrations for its members’ hard work in putting on the spectacular Clifton 150 year celebrations, with volunteers putting on blacksmithing and corn husking displays.
School and school holiday trips, car clubs, history buffs, nursing home visits, two new exhibitions, and the construction of a new work-shop are all part of it.
For Pat Tickner, volunteering at the museum has been a rewarding experience she would recommend to anyone.
“I’ve found volunteering at the museum a rewarding experience, watching it grow and observing the positive reactions of our visitors and their enthusiasm about our exhibits,” Pat said.
“For many its brought back memories or taught them something new,” she said.
Indeed it’s a bastion of memory for Clifton.
Many with family histories in the area would have popped in.
They seek Joy King and the archive she’s developed to find out what great-uncle knew which fourth cousin.
The five years of the new museum have been jam packed.
Clifton should be very proud of its museum.
Its exhibits are the gems in its crown.
Carefully arranged, categorised and designed exhibits offer a window back in time, each exhibit with its own view of what Clifton once was.
If its been a while, get on down and see what’s new at the Clifton Museum.
If you’re so inclined, the museum is also always volunteers to help maintain and continue its maintenance of Clifton’s memory.
