Expressions of Interest

Our annual general meeting is coming up, and we are looking for folks to join. All ages and skill levels welcome.

Volunteers manage the museum entirely. You can help by being an attendant for our displays - talking to people and showing them around the museum. This only takes two hours a week and is done on a roster basis. Or you can help create displays, help with family history inquiries, keep track of the roster, keep track of our collection, or help publicise what we do.


Or....you can join the Trust and be a Trustee, guiding the direction of the museum.

Join us at any level and be part of a great team.

Email us with your expression of interest or to find out more.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Maori Display

Our next display will be about the Māori history of the Otautau region. As we have no Māori artefacts in our collection, we are seeking to borrow whatever people have in their collections.

We know that early European settlers found adzes and other tools while they were ploughing the rich soils of the districts and many of these have stayed within families for generations. This is an opportunity to bring these taonga together for the first time and appreciate the Māori who came before us.

The districts we are interested in are: Otautau, Aparima, Bayswater, Gladfield, Drummond, Scotts Gap, Merrivale, Fairfax, and Isla Bank. But if you have something that is from outside of these areas, please let us know as we might like to include it.

The display will run from approximately 6 May to 29 July 2012, and we are preparing for it now. Please contact Peter Campbell if you have something to display or want more information.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Audrey's Wedding Dress

We've had lots of interest in our wedding dress display. A few have asked us to put more on the web. So here is one of the fancier dresses that we have. The first picture is a front view; and the next is the back view.

This dress is owned by Audrey Campbell and was worn when she married Peter. It was made in Auckland, where Audrey is from, and was sent down here for the wedding. It's made of white satin, tulle and chantilly lace.

As happens with some weddings, it was rainy weather and there were roadworks right in front of the church where they were to be married. But time and good care have kept the dress in perfect condition despite its muddy encounters on the day.

Thank you to Audrey Campbell for letting us borrow her dress for this display.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!