Pinnaroo Mallee Tourism & Heritage Centre

The town of Pinnaroo just this side of the Victorian Border does it hard. It's in the heart of the Mallee and lives or dies by the sort of season the farmers get. However the people of Pinnaroo are looking forward and doing it by reaching back. Don Gum ran 14,000 acres of sheep, cattle and crops during his working life and like all farmers was by necessity a jack-of-all trades. He learnt to fix anything and so his pieces of farm machinery still go, including the 1917 single-piston three horse power Lister engine. The saying used to go "you can't kill a Lister" but the same could easily be said of a Mallee farmer. The Lister is one of 84 engines that Don has collected and restored including a 1923 model built by J.S. Bagshaw at Mile End and another by the Kaesler brothers at Hahndorf who used to service Hans Heysen's vehicles. Don also has a shed full of tractors including the first John Deere tractor that came to this country in 1923. The collection is open to tourists and has attracted plenty of attention. Earlier this year a visitor from Melbourne offered to write Don a cheque for $300-thousand dollars on the spot for the lot. Don refused - he says he couldn't face the people of Pinnaroo if he had taken the money. That's because he believes the collection belongs to the community and the community has responded. There are plans to bring Don's collection into town to a purpose built museum along the railway line and make a reason for tourists to stop in Pinnaroo.It won't only be Don's collection. There is already a Heritage museum which will be incorporated plus the D.A. Wurfel Grain Collection. This is the largest private grain collection in the world put together during research in the 1920's.

There is also the Farm Machinery museum plus the Printing Museum. This contains equipment from printing in the 19th century including the old hand presses of the time. It was saved from the Pinnaroo Border Times newspaper. The paper still exists and it's current headlines trumpet the decision to keep the collection in the district. 12-thousand dollars has been given by the State History Trust and the council offered 50-thousand dollars if the community matched it. They have - and then some - more than 120-thousand dollars is being spent building the Mallee Tourism & Heritage Centre. The museum will officially open next year but in the meantime the five museums remain open. Pinnaroo is three hours drive from Adelaide... its worth stopping in for. For more information email info@postcards-sa.com.au