INDUSTRY RALLIES BEHIND PRINT MUSEUM

Australia’s major print museum, the Penrith Museum of Printing (PMOP) is under threat, as Infrastructure NSW seeks to demolish the Penrith Paceway, the current location of the museum.

Only just reopened in December due to the Sydney lockdowns, the museum now faces another challenge with a sudden announcement of plans to use the land for a football stadium.

“We’re in a real predicament as to what to do,” said PMOP’s Bob Lockley. “We have no idea of timing, whether there are plans to rebuild the Paceway or whether there will be a reprieve.”

Members of the museum are appealing to the wider community for support and according to Lockley, the response so far has been positive with almost everybody wanting to help.

He says the PMOP has been gaining a great deal of publicity, and some support from the industry around the potential relocation, but that they need more.

“Our story was featured in The Western Weekender in July, and this past weekend the local Penrith Show was on, which led to around 700 people coming through our doors – we’ve never seen anything like it. It was terrific."

Lockley and other PMOP members have been looking at several alternatives for the museum, and with the help of local MP Stuart Ayres, have sent out proposals to several organisations to see if they're interested in taking them in.

Of the move, Lockley says “We're currently sitting at 250 square metres of floor space, but we need 600 square metres for the new site, as we have more historical equipment coming that must be preserved as well.

“We're not worried about the physical aspect of moving as we’ve had discussions with a print company that is involved in moving presses. What we need is to have something to move into.

“Our biggest concern is to retain our 45 volunteers and then to attract new younger members to learn the equipment to pass it on for future generations. Our motto is preserving the past with the future, we want to keep the museum open – it’s a place of history and education, where we can journey from Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type in 1450 to the late 1980s.

“The best thing about where we are at Paceway, and where we have been for the last 20 years, is that we have not had to pay rent, and we survive on sponsor support,” says Lockley, who is inviting the industry for further support.

“We're contacting as many people as we can, garnering support, be it financial, or of equal value would be some words of support for our submission to the NSW Government for a new location,” he says.

“Print is an integral part of society, and as such its role should be recognised and celebrated.”

The museum grew out of the closure, after more than 80 years, from 1882, of The Nepean Times, and in recent years, has embarked on a more active programme of reaching out to the wider community, and is a frequent destination for coach tours of Probus and many other organisations.

Started in 2001, the museum has a range of historical equipment such as type cases, wooden type, handset material, six linotypes, two hand operated presses dating back to 1841, foot and hand operated presses from the 1880s, an original Heidelberg (1950) and a Wharfedale from the 1880s, all operational and demonstrated at the museum.

Two standout machines on display at the museum are the Albion 1864, and the Columbian 1841, which was imported from the UK and transported over the Blue Mountains by bullock train to Carcoar.

Lockley explains that the Columbian was originally used to print The Carcoar Chronicle near Bathurst. He says, “It was found rotting in a backyard by Fairfax, and restored in 1973, then displayed at the company’s foyer until it was acquired by the museum when I left Fairfax four years ago."

He points out that another British-made Columbian press was used to print the Sydney Herald from 1830, and the Sydney Morning Herald from 1842.

To help save the PMOP, contact Bob Lockley at pmop@printingmuseum.org.au or go to www.printingmuseum.org.au