Emmaville Mining Museum

Emmaville Mining Museum opened on the 26th June 1999.

The Museum started as the dream of Mr. & Mrs. Jack Curnow who had the bakery in Emmaville, which closed in 1969. After the closure they used the shop as a small museum for their collection of minerals and photographs. The collection of Mr. & Mrs Curnow was bequeathed to the community of Emmaville with the hope that the town could start a museum.

With the help of the Severn Shire Council a band of volunteers got together and started things rolling. The Severn Shire purchased the old Foley’s Store in Emmaville and the volunteers began remodelling the building to house the Curnow collection. The Museum now houses many other collections of minerals, in addition to over 200 photographs, some of which date as far back as 1893. The photographs are of mines and the people who worked them.

Tin was first discovered at Vegetable Creek in 1872, which started an influx of people to the town. It was estimated that in the early 1900s the population was around 7,000, including 2000 Chinese people, who formed a large part of the mining community. In 1872 the name of the town was changed to Emmaville in honour of the, then, Governor General’s wife, Lady Augustus Loftus, whose Christian name was Emma.

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