Bellingen Museum Collections

Aboriginal Artifacts –

We have a collection of stone and wooden tools, most of which have come from the Bellinger Valley.  Some items come from elsewhere in Australia, and are kept for reference purposes.

The Joyce Hill Collection –

Joyce Hill was an artist who began painting  in her sixties, making enlarged colour versions of some of our old black and white photographs. She donated over 30 paintings to our museums, giving an accurate view of the Valley in the days before colour photography.

The Judith Watson Collection –

An extensive collection of local family histories, obituaries and cemetery records. Judith spent many years researching this collection, which we believe to be the most complete assembly of burial records in the Bellinger Valley.

The Lovell-Day Library –

A large collection of local history books from many towns around Australia. Vince Lovell and Stan Day travelled extensively, and collected local history books wherever they visited.

The R. J. Hobson Collection –

Bob Hobson – “Hob” – was a prolific artist, producing watercolours, acrylic paintings, sketches and cartoons. His “Bellingeroddities” cartoons enlivened the pages of the local Courier-Sun newspaper for many years, and we have many examples of his work.

Photographs –

We have over 12,000 catalogued photos in our research collection and a large number of uncatalogued images, including many inherited from local photographer Vince Lovell. The expansion and further cataloguing of this major resource is a continuing process.

Urunga Museum Collections

Urunga Museum has the same collection of photos as Bellingen, and also specialises in Shipping and Railway information.

Birds’ Eggs –

The Museum has brought together several historic collections of birds’ eggs, forming a fascinating ornithological resource.

Both Urunga and Bellingen also have:-

Collections of farm tools, toys, cameras, household items (including kitchen, dining, laundry and bedroom items), clothing, harness and saddlery, medical equipment, printing equipment, items from the timber industry and bedpans…