Migration Museum - Homemade Treasures Exhibition

Childhood is a special time, a time of games and make believe. And often it's the most basic toys which capture a child's imagination and become his or her favourite things. The Migration Museum in Kintore Avenue in the city is currently jam-packed with childhood, and for that matter adult, memorabilia about days spent in the backyard simply having fun.

"The exhibition is about toys and other things that were made for children by parents and grandparents particularly in time of hardship and deprivation during war and depression years of the 1930's and 1940's".

All of this has come from the Edith Cowan University Museum of Childhood in Perth and while much of it was made and played in the west, its themes are universal. The toys here are testimony to the power of the human spirit like curator Kate Walsh's favourites.

"I like mouse and rabbit made by a Dutch woman at the end of World War II, and she found pieces of fabric and stuffing from bombed out houses in Amsterdam. She made a house and rabbit from scounged materials for her little boy, they then came to Australia in the 1950's and they brought those toys with them and kept them for the rest of his life and then donated them to the museum".

And while many of these toys have hours of pleasure to many children, the making of them often served a therapeutic purpose.

"It was made by a soldier during the Second World War. He had been wounded and came back to Perth in Western Australia to recover from his wounds. He was in hospital - he made this yacht for his children and for many years after that they were seen around the Swan River sailing that particular yacht".

The exhibition also reminds us of how war touches all, even carefree kids living in a city thousands of kilometres from frontline fighting. Here school children prepare silt trenches at the local beach, in readiness for possible attack from Japanese air raids. And throughout it all, kids will be kids.

"Oh bad luck".

"It's kind of like ancient pinball"

"Yes it is. It's one of the games children play in the exhibition, it's called bagatelle, they just use a stick and some lead shot and you push the lead shot and hopefully get into one of these little areas and get a number and the person with the highest score wins the game".

"And what about the train - what was that used for?"

"That was made in 1919, back to the beginning of the 20th century by a person called Archibald McIntyre and he worked for the South Australian Railways and he made the train, cast the wheels and built the actual model itself after hours in the workshop at Islington. He made it for his grandson".

Not much else is known about this classic piece, and the museum is seeking more information about the loving grandfather who made it and the lucky boy who got to jump on board. For a look back in time to when it seemed kids were never stumped for things to do, head to the Migration Museum in Kintore Avenue.

It's latest exhibition Homemade Treasures is free. The museum is open daily.

For more information you can email info@postcards-sa.com.au