The recent Family Day at Castle Hill was a celebration of all things transport. Visitors were treated to a wide range of exciting activities throughout the day with our volunteers: Cindy, Cedric, Jasmin, Kim and Ron there to assist with hands-on craft activities, story telling and sharing their knowledge on transport related objects in the collection.
One of the most popular activities of the day was the Car Craft. Visitors were given miniature wooden cars to customise using paint markers and patterned washi tape. This activity allowed visitors to be creative and express their own unique style while learning about the different types of cars in the museum’s collection. Kim loved helping with this activity and it was wonderful seeing all the crafty creations come together.
Another activity that was a hit with visitors was making transport themed thaumatropes. To make these optical illusions, visitors could choose a template with one of the museum’s transport object images, including the Catalina and Loco no. 1. They could then colour-in their object, attach the string and create their own thaumatropes to create a spinning image. Volunteer Jasmin helped lead this activity and enthusiastically helped visitors, both young and old, to create these perfect spinning illusions.
In the transport hall, Ron and Cedric, showcased the Tram Discovery Station and mBots to passing visitors.
It was great to see the Discovery Station in action and hear Ron relay the history of trams through the table display of different historical objects and then relate these to the tram and models on display.
Visitors also enjoyed interacting with the amazing mBots, with Cedric sharing his knowledge on the technology and answering questions from curious visitors throughout the day.
As always, Cindy hosted a wonderful story telling session for younger visitors with an array of transport related books on offer – the crowd favourite being Rosie Revere, Engineer.
Overall, the Transport Family Day was a wonderful way for visitors to explore the museum’s transport collection and it was great to see our volunteers in action bringing the stories of the objects to life.
Theresa Foster
Volunteer Program Officer