Museum

Don’t be put off by the word ‘museum’ – instead, imagine a room that had to be purpose built to house the 5,000+ artefacts and memorabilia that Mont De Lancey and the Sebire family, as well as other local Wandin pioneering families, had to share? Let these artefacts on display in the museum help you gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the pioneer families of Wandin and District.

The ‘museum’ was built in 1992 to house the growing collection of items.

The artefacts on display were each treasured by their owners and passed down through generations. If a volunteer tour guide is available, they can talk to you about the artefacts and you’ll find that some come with a fascinating story attached! As many of the volunteer tour guides are decendants of the original inhabitants of Mont De Lancey, they have a great deal of knowledge of the people who lived here and their way of life so many years ago.

You’ll see faces in family photographs, at weddings, next to the furniture they owned, alongside their household gadgets and hand tools they used on the farm, all of which help us to conjure up these migrants’ lives, from the fashion of the day to the hardships of daily living.

You can view and read background information on some of the items that are in our museum on the Victorian Collections website (a Victorian State Government initiative).

Examine the huge number of tools with fascinating names, from a fettler’s pick head, to a bag hook, a pig scraper, to a breast drill – learn what each item did, and how it was used. And then marvel that they are still here, on display, for you to see over 100 years later!