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Birdwood, South Australia.

Last weekend Graham Close opened the local foundry and engineering shop museum to commemorate 125 years and 5 generations of family ownership. An impressive display of early machinery, all belt driven off a steam engine chugging away. Graham was on hand and he has to be commended.
The town of Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills has a brilliant motor museum. Birdwood is known as the finish of perhaps Australia’s most well known motor rally, the Bay (Adelaide) to Birdwood rally, a 40 mile route. It is so popular, it is congested to the extreme so I give it a miss for that reason, but I always visit Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills when I’m in South Australia. It is sort of a step back in time and Patsy and I would love to live there but it would isolate us from our kids.
Many years ago I visited the Birdwood motor museum. It was staffed by volunteers. 5 O’clock came and went and it was well dark by the time the host had finished showing me through. A great display and I enjoyed my visit immensely. Several hundred motor vehicles including buses, cars and bikes. The interior decor was a grand display of wood working craftsmanship.
My last visit, and that was some time ago, was again in the late afternoon and I was informed they closed at 5 which gave me only a short time. Dead on 5 I was told, politely so, that they were closing and it was time for me to leave. The attitude had changed. They were now government paid employees. What were once enthusiastic guides were now unmotivated people. What had started as a private museum was now owned by the S.A. government trust.
Compare this to the privately owned Close museum I described in the first paragraph or any privately owned museum you know. Government has a history of taking control of good volunteer organisations and killing them. I can name several, probably you can too?