It's a collector's paradise of all things vintage housed in a working museum on the outskirts of Cobden and it's about to get even bigger with plans to double its size.
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The 20 sheds on the site are filled with everything from engines, tractors and WWI lighthorse memorabilia to the more obscure collection of vintage coffins and toilet cisterns.
The sheds belong to members of the South West District Restoration Group which president Brian Cockayne said had been built on the 15-acre site which it leases from Corangamite Shire Council.
"It is a collector's paradise," Mr Cockayne said.
"A working, living museum.
"It has everything from tractors to sewing machines, drill presses and engines, you name it. Everything that dates back to the 1800s."
Expansion plans have been on the drawing board for some time but the need for a fire plan had stalled the project for a number of years.
"We've had a bit of a hold-up because the last three years we've had to put a fire plan in," Mr Cockayne said.
He said the club has had to spend more than $25,000 installing tanks and putting in roads for the fire brigade.
"We've got plans in with the shire for another 30 shed spaces," Mr Cockayne said.
"All up when we finish, there could be between 40 and 50 sheds there over the next 10 to 20 years.
"Each year we've got members wanting to put sheds up."
Last month, the group received a $20,000 grant from the Federal Government, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the club, to erect two or three new sheds to house its growing collection.
Committee member Russell Smith said one of the new sheds may be used to house a collection of horse memorabilia that had been donated to the group.
"We've got a whole shed full of donated horse-drawn buggies and wagons and implements in Terang," he said.
Mr Cockayne said that over the years, people had donated plenty of vintage items to the group which had been operating for 43 years.
"We've become carers of it. They don't want it at their house but they don't want to throw it away either, " he said.
"A majority of the stuff is men's overflow from the house that they've taken down there.
"It's all sorts of things. One shed down there is full of toilets - the Cistern Chapel.
"Two plumbers from Warrnambool filled it up with dunnies.
"Where else could you go and look at a shed load of crappers?"
Alongside the static displays of vintage items, there are a number of working displays as well.
"We've got gold crushing plants, we've got vintage hay presses, we've got a blacksmith shop, we've got something for everybody," Mr Cockayne said.
We've got gold crushing plants, we've got vintage hay presses, we've got a blacksmith shop, we've got something for everybody.
- Brian Cockayne
He said the eclectic collections were unique and unlike anything you could find anywhere else
The group is proud of having saved most of the items from being sent to the scrap heap, although Mr Smith admitted it did have a scrap heap of its own for those things that just can't be salvaged.
The site is not just home for a collection of men's and women's sheds, it also has a row of pioneer-style buildings that is the beginning of what could soon become a village street.
Many of those old buildings have been moved to the site from across the south-west, including one with a sad history that has been turned into an undertaker's house filled with coffins.
With the funeral home, blacksmith and sheds decked out in wool, dairy and plumber's themes already forming one side of a pioneer streetscape, Mr Smith said they hoped to build a roadway and relocate a row of more old buildings which would be converted into a fruit shop, a grocer's shop, a milkbar, a bank and a post office.
"It's a bit of everything, a little village street if you like," he said.
"We specifically want old Cobden buildings if we can get them."
Mr Cockayne said while some of the sheds were owned by the group, the other sheds onsite were usually built at the member's own expense on the land it leases from the shire.
"A lot of people haven't got the room to put a shed up at their own house, but they've got the money to put it up somewhere else. So that's what they do," he said.
Mr Cockayne said as well as the two or three sheds the group was planning to soon build, four other members were waiting for plans to be approved so they could begin construction of their own sheds.
"So there could be another six sheds go up on the site in the next eight months," he said.
The group also hopes to one day expand their boat pond which is used by members to operate hand built remote controlled boats and paddlesteamers.
Mr Smith, who has a collection of engines from England, America and Australia, said his interest in vintage engines had grown over the past 20 years.
"Once you get hooked on it, it gets in your blood," he said.
He described the group as like the well-known men's shed idea that looks after both the mental and physical health of people.
It's all sorts of things. One shed down there is full of toilets - the Cistern Chapel.....Where else could you go and look at shed load of crappers?
- Brian Cockayne
"We've found that we're the same," Mr Smith said.
"It keeps people busy in their retirement. We restore anything except humans. Anything else is fair game.
"Older people come with their grandchildren and teach the kids about the machinery their grandparents used to use and what it was for."
Group member John Mitchell said the first three sheds were erected on the Cobden site in 2010.
"It's just expanded and grown and grown and grown since then," he said.
While the group has about 110 members, they are always looking for more.
"We do try and recruit younger people but I guess, like myself, you don't get interested in it until you're in your older age," Mr Smith said.
The club formed about 43 years ago with about 20 or 30 members and for decades met in a couple of sheds on private property at Bookaar until it moved to its new home in Cobden.
The museum is open the third Sunday of every month on its Grayland Street site.
The group also hosts the Cobden Vintage Rally in March, and then opens its gates again in October to coincide with the town's annual spring festival.
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