At the Museum, we've been busy preparing for Orange F.O.O.D Week. There are lots of different activities happening across the region and we're looking forward to welcoming visitors and sharing a little about our food history.
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We'll have a small display of food related objects from our collection in the foyer and you can learn about our local pollinating creatures and plants in our new temporary exhibition 'Pollinators', a collaboration between Orange Regional Museum, Orange Regional Gallery and the SPARKE Network of local public primary schools.
This incredible 'swarm' display was created by hundreds of local students as part of an environmental education and art-making program. Special holiday workshops include creative pollinator-themed art, craft and science activities, which you can book via Orange Regional Gallery's Eventbrite page.
We're also offering special after-hours food tours of our local history exhibition, 'Inherit: old and new histories', on Thursday 15 and Friday April 16.
These tours will take visitors through our long-term exhibition, picking out some of the highlights of our food history on display. Did you know, for example, that a young Walter E. Barrett won two medals for his non-alcoholic ginger beer and aerated water at the 1909 Sydney Royal Agricultural Show? His cordial and ice works on Summer Street, established by his father Thomas in the 1880s, was lorded by the local press for its recent modernisation. 'The machinery installed', wrote The Leader in 1908, 'is considered as up-to-date and as complete as any in the city.'
Some of the many other cordial factories in the region are also represented, including Orange's F.H. Brown and W.S. Stabback and Blayney's Heavener's brand. These tell us a little about the prevalence of such factories in the region as well as showing the evolution of bottles from the egg-shaped 'torpedo' style, designed to lie flat, to cork stoppers and crown seals.
You'll also hear about high tea at the Canobolas Hotel, Chinese market gardens, food on the goldfields, rabbitohs working the region during the Great Depression, infant nutrition and the role of the CWA in establishing baby health centres, a prize 1875 sample of "white mountain drop" wheat, local café culture and lots more. Each object has a unique story to tell and these original items, sourced from across the central west, bring the rich and diverse food history of our region to life.
To book in for one of our free after-hours food tours, visit Orange Regional Museum's Facebook or Eventbrite pages.
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