The Trailside Museum, a simple wooden building, was Cradle Valley’s first interpretative centre. As “…one of the earliest interpretative facilities at a National park anywhere in Tasmania and Australia” (PWS 1993 Pencil Pine-Cradle Valley Visitor Services Zone Plan), it obviously had local, state and national significance values.
It was conceived in the early 1930s by Mr E O G Scott, who was the Director of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery ( QVMAG) in Launceston and also Hon Secretary of the Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania. In 1932, Scott undertook an international study tour of museums in Nature Reserves sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation, and so it was that when he returned to Tasmania, he proposed a similar museum be established at Waldheim “…to display models and natural history specimens to assist bushwalkers to identify animals, plants and rocks seen during walks through the Park, and to give visitors and school classes a concise summery of its natural features” (Frank Ellis, personal communication, 12 July 1972).
In 1935 the Scenery Preservation Board appointed Lionel Connell as the first permanent Ranger at Cradle Mountain. Connell bought the Weindorfer land and continued to upgrade the facilities at Waldheim. He was responsible for the construction of the Trailside Museum and several other buildings and tracks at Waldheim and in the surrounding area.
The museum building was constructed in 1940, using 1700 split palings. “The pine boards for the floor were from logs cut and abandoned in Bob Quaille’s scrub before the Reserve was proclaimed. The logs were carted to Haines’ mill at Daisy Dell, sawn into boards and the timber carted back to the Cradle Valley” (Cradle Mountain Reserve Board Minutes 15/4/1941 – AA580). The roof featured King Billy pine shingles.
Shortly after completion, in 1942 the whole place was fitted out as World War II Emergency Evacuation Accommodation as part of the nation’s war effort and then, after the war ended, the museum building was used by Ranger Bob McCracken for his living quarters.
– Jack Thwaites
In 1960, the building was vacated for much more comfortable premises by the Rangers, and the Scenery Preservation Board, with the expert assistance of staff of the QVMAG, re-opened the museum on 12 May 1962.
– The Mercury (14 May 1962)
– Jack Thwaites
Much of the work on the museum displays and exhibits was carried out on a voluntary basis by staff of the QVMAG. Unfortunately, all of the exhibits then had to be removed in 1980 because of high humidity problems, and a persistently dysfunctional PWS gas heater.
The building continued to be used by PWS staff for occasional displays, talks and slideshows until the Visitor Centre was opened at Pencil Pine in 1987. This left the Weindorfer Memorial Service Committee as the only regular visitors every New Year’s Day. In recent years the building was also used during the annual Cradle Mountain Film Festival.
– John Pickford
– John Pickford
In 2019 the structure was extensively renovated to remove all the internal asbestos wall-cladding, repair the annexe and replace all rotten roof shingles and floor boards.
Sadly, the Trailside Museum was totally destroyed by fire on 16 November 2020. Its physical loss is associated with a loss of substantial historical and cultural significance.
Text by John Wilson, Sep 2011, with minor updates