Invest in non-profit museum

In the haste to create a profit from everything, simple important things are often uncosted and overlooked.

Tourists usually visit a location because it has something that their point of origin is missing.

One the Central Coast we have two prime uncosted and undervalued assets.

First is our scenery of lake, beach, hill and valley.

Second is our clement weather and relatively unpolluted air.

A third prime asset should be our local community.

This asset does not reach its full potential and recognition as it is frequently fractured and insular.

I am told that the local tourist bureau only promotes attractions if they pay an annual fee.

What about non-profit attractions, such as beaches, people and municipal parks?

These are primary reasons for visits by many.

One focal point where there is a valuable community and tourist asset is the Brisbane Water Historical Society Museum and Henry Kendall Cottage at West Gosford.

Currently the not-for-profit organisation is a genuine "people's museum".

It has been kept alive by the wonderful efforts of a small group who are unfairly shouldering the onerous task for everyone else in the area.

They have maintained the society and museum complex as a people's museum free from segregation, religious, political, commercial or government control and direction.

One of the society's primary rules is "to collect, preserve and exhibit those objects which reflect the lifestyles and occupations of the residents of the Brisbane Water District".

Not only is this a valuable commendable objective that government abrogated more than 50 years ago but is appropriately worded.

Brisbane Water, not Gosford, was one of the earlier exploratory areas and it avoids the parochialism that other names engender.

Recent enquiries however show that the society still has many goals to achieve the worthy objective.

Immediately noticeable non-exclusive omissions within the museum include the surf lifesavers, the boat builders, the oyster farmers, the fishers, the netballers, the abattoir workers and their trade, the railway, bus and ferry workers and their respective employers, the drug, gambling and alcohol industries, the local councils Woy Woy, Erina and Gosford, the cricketers, the glass blowing and felt factories, the computer factory, the quarries and related trades, the food factories and primary industry co-operatives, the schoolteachers and local schools, the despoilers of our community who merely came to pillage and profit at the expense of the land and people, and the changed retail industry.

These expert members of our community need to step up and with appropriate pride share their time, knowledge and artifacts with the museum and fellow members of the community.

A society is only as good as its bequest to posterity.

Richard Newby Woy Woy