Customs House Museum

The customs house museum has never looked handsomer, despite its humble origins. Around 1863 it was built on the northern bank of the river Macintyre, a modest three bedroom cottage with detached kitchen, a fire precaution of the day. Its shingled roof covered sturdy walls of pitsaw timber, morticed top and bottom into slots, a building technique that declined towards the end of the 19^th century.In the early 1900’s its roof was replaced with galvanised iron, branded rather ambiguously “Gospel Oak." ⁽¹⁾ This brand was carried by the first galvanised iron to be manufactured and was imported from the Midlands of England.

When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 with the Macintyre River as the state border at Goondiwindi, the cottage became the headquarters for the collection of Customs Duties on interstate trading, and for the control of smuggling.It reverted to private ownership after Federation in 1901 and had several owners during the next seventy years. An early occupant was the editor of Goondiwindi’s first newspaper, Mr E.G. Drake. In more recent times it was an Antique Shop. In 1974 it was acquired by Goondiwindi Historical Society. Its restoration, carried out by local Master Builder Bruce Cairns won the 1975 John Herbert Award for the best restored building of the year.

Inside, books, pictures, documents and many treasured personal items loaned by local families speak eloquently of the early days. There’s a church organ, a Blacksmith’s bellows, a primitive washing machine and the first operating table from the district hospital.

Behind the museum are early implements and vehicles, including a railway ambulance for use in flood times.The buildings colonial charm is retained even in the garden planting of old world shrubs and creepers. (The only originals to be banished were a family of cheeky possums in the roof).The Customs House Museum was jointly opened in 1975 by the state member Carnarvon, Mr Peter McKechnie and his father, Mr Henry McKechnie, a former member for Carnarvon and local Government Minister.  

(1),  The term "Gospel Oak" was a trade name used by the "Gospel Oak iron company of Tipton, Staffordshire, ( Now West Midalnds), England.