The Museum always gets great feedback about our volunteers. They are passionate about Tamworth’s electrical history and many were even involved in setting up the museum in 1988. Visitors to the museum enjoy being taken around by our volunteer guides and for those of you who can’t make it to the museum the following videos…
A K-6 Education Kit that links pre-visit, visit and post-visit activities to syllabus outcomes in Science and History is now available to download here. There is also a downloadable Risk Assessment for School Groups here. Museum volunteers are available to give guided tours. The museum is a significant educational resource illustrating the history, social impact, and evolving technology and…
The Veness Letter Book from the Tamworth PowerStation Museum is now inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. The UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Program is one of the sixty Memory of the World Programs globally. The aims of this program are to: Preserve documentary heritage. Improve accessibility to documentary heritage…
The Night the Lights Went OnAn oral history and other stories from the Tamworth Powerstation Museum.
Written and compiled by Sally Inchbold- Busby.
This publication is an outcome of the research project undertaken by Sally Inchbold-Busby as the 2011 Powerhouse Museum Moveable Heritage Fellowship recipient.
Cover image: Sid Cross changing the light globes, Tamworth, 1933.
A History of the Tamworth Electricity Undertaking and Peel-Cunningham County Council.
Ian R. Lobsey, 1988.
Ronald William Greer ASTC., FIEAust. CPEng, was the Chief Electrical Engineer to the Peel-Cunningham County Council at Tamworth, NSW. In retirement, he is a volunteer on the staff of the Tamworth Powerstation Museum. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2015.
NDL: Caitlin Reid – 30 Nov 2021
IT’S full steam ahead for volunteers at Tamworth’s Powerstation Museum as they get ready to switch the power back on this Wednesday after months of having their doors shut.
Tamworth council’s cultural collections officer Naomi Blakey said after a four month closure they felt the time was right to reopen.
“We closed because of COVID concerns in the region and in NSW as well, and then the risk that posed to our volunteer team who man the site,” she said.
“We’re opening up now after consulting with the volunteer team and between us and them, we both feel comfortable to reopen while following the NSW government roadmap.”
With school holidays and Country Music Festival approaching, Ms Blakey hopes the attraction will bring some life back to the city with several steam engines set to run during the second half of the festival.
“We’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes work,” she said.
“On Mondays and Tuesdays we go through and do a lot of cataloguing and taking photographs of our collection so we can share more through our online database eHive.”
She said the museum is of national significance, because it celebrates Tamworth being the first city of light.
“One of the great thing about the museum is it talks through the history of electricity, so whether you’re young or old it brings back memories of things that parents or grandparents had,” she said.
The museum reopens on December 1 and is open from Wednesday to Saturday, 9am till 1pm.
NDL: Madeline Link – 5 Nov 2020
THE FLICK of the switch that made Tamworth the First City of Light at least 130 years ago will be celebrated with an electric event.
Tamworth’s Powerstation Museum will hold a free, family-friendly event to commemorate the anniversary of the historic milestone, Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) cultural collections officer Namoi Blakey said.
“The fact that Tamworth is the first city in the southern hemisphere to have municipal street lights and the story the museum tells makes it important to the council to hold this event,” she said.
Click on the link to read the whole article.
Tamworth Dramatic Society takes centre stage on story telling
NDL: Jacob McArthur – 11 Nov 2018
TAMWORTH is more than a stage and launching pad for country music and it’s a message being beamed through an amalgam of new technology and old-fashioned story-telling.
This weekend marked 130 years since electric street lights were switched on in Tamworth and the city became the southern hemisphere’s electrically lit in the process.
While it’s a shining claim to fame, the achievement is often outshone.
This year, the Tamworth Dramatic Society took centre stage with a devised piece about story of electric lighting and Tamworth.
Click on the link to read the whole article.
How Tamworth beat the big smoke and became the first city of light
Eleri Mai Harris, based on Professor Genevieve Bell’s Boyer Lectures – October 21, 2017
The first city in Australia to use electric street lights wasn’t Sydney or Melbourne — it was Tamworth. And it all unfolded in a very Aussie kind of way.
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Madeline Lewis – June 15, 2016
A strategic plan has been adopted by council for the Tamworth Power Station Museum.
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Powerstation volunteers receive host of bouquets
NDL: Jamieson Murphy – 15 Jun 2016, 9 p.m.
TAMWORTH Regional councillors have paid tribute to the “superb” volunteers at the Powerstation Museum in approving a strategic plan to secure its future.
Click on the link to read the whole article.
NDL – 25 April 2016
TAMWORTH was once again the City of Light on Friday, as the Powerstation Museum lit up the night with an artwork inspired by the city’s original street lighting plan.
Click on the link to read the whole article.
Vintage love resurrects the past
Kelly Fuller, ABC Radio, 7 December 2015
A love of all things vintage has inspired a push to bring a new audience and new life to an important Australian museum.
Tamworth Powerstation Museum to fire up historic steam engines
NDL – 21 Jan 2016
THINGS are heating up at the Tamworth Powerstation Museum where locals and visitors can see two stationary, historic steam engines all revved-up, with nowhere to go.