With Minerama just around the corner, the Emmaville Mining Museum will be boasting a generation of fossicking history housed in a number of local and state-wide collections that date back to prominent Emmaville fossickers and bakers Jack and Jean Curnow.
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“We owe it all to the Curnows,”
- Emmaville Mining Museum spokesman Ron Jillett
According to local mining historian and fossicker Ron Jillett, the museum’s extensive collection of precious minerals showcasing the finds of local and regional fossickers would not be possible without the original Curnow collection bequeathed to the village of Emmaville and the trust of the former Severn Shire Council.
“We owe it all to the Curnows,” Mr Jillett said.
With a colourful mining history, Mr Jillett said Mr and Mrs Curnow began as bakers, owning and operating the Emmaville bakery and housing their original collection on the premises.
“They used to get a lot of visitors fossicking in the area,” Mr Jillett said.
“The visitors would ask advice on where to fossick and sometimes leave a particular specimen at the bakery.”
After a number of years, Mr Jillett said the collection had grown to a considerable size, boasting the mineral diversity of the Emmaville area. Mr and Mrs Curnow eventually retired and converted the bakery into an early mining museum to house their collection.
When Mr Curnow passed away, the collection continued under the direction of Mrs Curnow for close to 10 years, Mr Jillett said, before it was bequeathed to the trust of council under the condition that it never leaves Emmaville.
After some time in storage, Mr Jillett said the local butcher shop was originally proposed by Robert Langford as a suitable location to house the collection, but after the shop’s sale attention instead turned to converting Foley’s General Store into a museum. It was one of the best decisions made, according to Mr Jillett, and the museum opened on June 26, 1999.
Now the Curnow exhibit is housed among collection from local and regional fossickers, with an incredible collection of precious and unique minerals on show, including Mr Jillett’s own collection.
