The Little World

I recently visited York in Western Australia ( I believe they also have one in England…and a newer version in the USA…) and wandered through the York Motor Museum. It’s a commercial building in the main street of this country town that houses a number of the cars that a local mining magnate – Peter Briggs – has collected. It’s a commercial museum but reasonably priced and diverse enough to be worth a visit each time you go up there.

The Little World portion is in the front rooms of the building. There are a lot more cabinets of model cars than I have pictured here, and in some cases they are sorted by era or type. A keen curator with more shelving, better lighting, and time to do more signwriting could make a great display here. Even more tempting – they could find a local model maker and commission dioramas of the various eras and locales and then make a whole series of little worlds.

This is not as silly as it sounds. York, like a lot of country towns, is experiencing the sort of post-rural life that sees more retired people in the district. They have time to do hobbies… and in some cases a lot of them. Give a man or woman a chance to show their art in a good venue and the whole thing could burgeon. If I lived in York I would be pressing the management to think seriously about this proposition.

Still, there they are – the model cars on the shelves. If the museum does nothing else, at least they dust them.

Note also that they have acquired bigger prizes – authentic children’s toys in larger scale and what looks like a very detailed Pocher model chassis.

In any case, York is $ 20 worth of petrol to go see and there are good pubs in the town as well as a dynamite book store. Help yourselves.