CWM visit

[Little Jo]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Hi 'Little Jo'

Yes, the $21M for the WW1 displays will go a long way. The project has been underway for two years, with considerable planning already achieved. I think the $$ are to cover not only the displays, but some of the commemorations as well: the period 2014 to 2018 is going to be a busy one for the Australain War Memorial (so what's new? The soon to retire Director always had something happening) as the various centennials roll around.

The AWM has a reasonable WW1 vehicle collection, both horse drawn and mechanized, that has already seen many $$ spent on it.

As for the CWM, I seem to remember Jim W telling me that the lower floor of the new building was really a 'display-storage' area, with little work or presentation of the exhibits. So I gather they are presented 'warts and all', so to speak.

One of the most memorable exhibits I remember was a StugIII, blown to hell and unrestored (but conserved, no doubt). Excellent exhibit!

Mike C

Hi Mike

You are right. It has been years since I last visited the CWA, the last time was for the Internment of the Unknown Soldier. I must make an effort to re visit again. The CWA has always been a fabulous place to visit and well worth the long drive from Adelaide. I must confess I made a mistake when I quoted the figure of $21 Million it was actually $27 Million, good injection of funds.

Cheers

Tony

[Dennis Gelean (RIP)]

The old Vimy House where big stuff was stored/displayed had Veterans as docents, one fine gentleman Was Capt. James Bond ret. (the real one).Gas warfare expert
the other old building had a a German air raid siren as named by the donor. My identical one is marked inside made by British boat works. who knows maybe they bought some from Britain? Think we have problems, the Canterbury NZ Museum closed due to Earthquake risk www.stuff.nz
How many beautiful collections are dismantled because we get old,sick or die
that is why we need young people introduced into our hobby

[Ed Storey]

Bob, I agree that 90% of the people who visit a museum do not recognize any errors and for the most part enjoy their visit. But what you have forgotten is that there is a difference between museums and private collections. A private collector can do whatever they want with their stuff, if the lights are not correct or the colour shade is off the only person they have to satisfy is themselves.

Museums are different, there is perception that what is presented in a museum and what is on display in a museum is 100% correct, much like a text book. We all know that this is unachievable as we are all human and make errors, but this 100% is what a museum should strive for. To sit back and say that well 90% of the people who visit will not know the difference so therefore why worry is wrong. That attitude can apply to an amusement park but not an institution that is preserving national history.

To say that "Who amongst us can swear to the accuray of what is displayed about the Great War... over the years details get lost in the shuffle of time....." is a cop out. Yes, the details may well be lost, but that premise should not be used as an excuse not to research and search out the answers.

Stiving for improvement is the key, not sitting back and finding excuses to stick with the statis quo.

[Bruce MacMillan]

One factor that often gets ignored is the history of an item. Perhaps a vehicle had a "field modification" by a few men in a unit in 1945. Decades later someone says that wasn't the way they came from the factory and removes the mod effectively removing some of its provenance.

There are many instances of "never say never" so care should be taken when restoring an item.

I feel museums should conserve and educate. Keep an item in the original state and discover as much about it's history as possible. If a vehicle came right from the factory then, great, keep it that way. If it has bullet holes and Normandy sand then it's story should be told.

[Ed Storey]

Unfortunately, it seems that many museums treat vehicles like a doormat. Park it outside, let the kids climb on it, the birds nest in it, the weather deteriorate it and then slap on a new coat of paint to hold it all together. Fortunately this trend is starting to change in Canada, but at an agonizingly slow pace.

There also seems to be a hierarchy of artefacts with military vehicles being at the low end of the scale. Since military vehicles are big, dirty and heavy, the tendency is to park them outside and not really pay much attention to their preservation and provenance. The consequences of this are the loss of our automotive history and the vehicles that represented it.

If this trend is to be slowed down or stopped, now is the time to do it. There has been a thread on this forum discussing how the M113 series of vehicles is being disposed of and sold for scrap. The CF used over 1000 of these vehicles, and only a fraction of them are being upgraded for future use. With only a small percentage being saved by museums this means that in the very near future any Canadian used example of this vehicle type will be a rare commodity. It is a given that collectors will no longer be allowed to privately own many types of military vehicles but were the enthusiast/collector can still make a big difference is to assist/support/pressure those museums that do display vehicles to take a scholarly and planned approach to acquiring and preserving this equipment.

The chance to save the Cold War era Canadian M Series equipment may have passed, but that does not mean that all is lost. Some of the latest Afghanistan equipment may be released and this would be the time to not only save this material, but to make sure what is preserved is not parked outside to become the latest doormat.

[chris vickery]

Bruce, It was never my intent to suggest that items be made "factory fresh"... I appreciate as found or as used items as well.
What I have a problem with is when there are blatant errors in exibitions that have been pointed out and no attempt is or has been made to remedy them.
To "restore" as vehicle and display it as an "example" during a certain proposed time frame and then throw whatever colour paint or markings on it "just because it whats we had" is not an excuse, nor correct.
The movie industry does enough of this to us already. How many M37s do you see in the average WW2 movie???

[jason meade]

So Ed do you suggest that we the museums that dont have indoor storage should be over looked in favor of the two or three museums in all of canada that do....A statment like that is crasy...This is the reason there is very little of these old vechs around, Most museums and true historians would rather have a weathered looking APC, than a picture of one in a long lost book.
As I have mentioned in the past If you dont like seeing stuff rot away then support your museums by helping out and not making snide remarks about there collections on public forums,I have been working for 15 years keeping our vech collection going with lit5tle to no support and even less pay (Minum Wage) but we do it to keep people like you and the others in pictures so books can be wrote 50 years later and have something beside black and white photos scamed out of public archives.