While cold weather kept many people away from the sessions, Orange City Council museum and heritage coordinator Alison Russell said historical items had surfaced from Orange’s business history and World War I era.

Held at the Orange Regional Gallery, the final casting call was part of planning for the first round of temporary exhibitions in the Orange Regional Museum, which is under construction.

One of the items collected at the session was a glass torpedo bottle from the former Barrett’s cordial factory in Summer Street, which Orange and  District Historical Society treasurer Phil Stevenson said dated back to the early 20th century.

“[Having a big factory] was a big thing in the early days,”he said.

“They supplied cordial and carbonated drinks to local residents, there was no Coca Cola in those days.”

Ms Russell said contact with the Barrett family, who ran the factory, had also been made, from which she hoped would bring photographs and a detailed history of the factory.

Ms Russell herself brought along woollen fabric from the old Macquarie Worsted, a wool factory in William Street that closed in the 1980s.

“My mother was a sewer, and I remember you could buy remnants of fabric from a little shop attached to the factory,” she said.

“She bought it to probably make suits or something, and I just thought it was too good to throw away.”

Ms Russell said anyone who had historical items from Orange’s industries and from World War I and wanted to add them to the museum’s display could call 6369 8170.

alexandra.king@fairfaxmedia.com.au