Old telegraph station museum in 1861 building supplemented by Gawler's extensive heritage collection

Significant items in the Gawler Old Telegraph Station Museum collection include a triola, Aoelian Orchestralle, box piano, a Paternosters’ musical instrument, explorer John McKinlay’s travelling chests, Timer fashion dresses and Hoffman’s pottery.
Images courtesy National Trust of South Australia

Gawler’s Old Telegraph Station Museum, transferred to the care of the National Trust of South Australia in 2018, portrayed the history of the town and its district through displays of everyday objects.

This is in addition to the town's heritage collections, including that of the former Gawler Institute, also in Murray Street, from 1857.

The heritage listed two-storey Gawler telegraph station, built of  local stone and designed by the colonial architect, first used in 1861. Before becoming a museum, the building had several use including a school of mines and an electoral office. 

Significant items in the museum’s collection include a triola, Aoelian Orchestralle, box piano, a Paternosters’ musical instrument, explorer John McKinlay’s travelling chests, Timer fashion dresses and Hoffman’s pottery.

The Town of Gawler cultural heritage centre manages the Gawler heritage collection on behalf of Council. The Gawler heritage collection comprises The Gawler Institute archives collection, Gawler local history collection and the Gawler civic collection.

The Gawler Institute Collection comprises the administrative records of the former Gawler Institute together with art works, objects and the Reading Room historical book collection.  

The Gawler local history collection began with items collected or donated during the researching and writing of the history of Gawler and its region by Dr Derek Whitelock. New items were continually being added and it is stored within the cCultural heritage centre. It included books, some oral history recordings and transcripts, and some video recordings. The items were available to researchers for use within the research room of the cultural heritage centre.

The Gawler civic collection comprised items given to or bought by the Gawler Council in its civic role.

While these collections are primarily paper-based (including photos), there are also many historical objects such as portraits, paintings, maps, plans and textiles.