The Old Curiosity Shop was q house was built by bricklayer James Warwick, and his wife Caroline, with construction beginning around 1863. It was opened to the public in 1895. What is significant? Construction of the house later known as the Old Curiosity Shop commenced about 1863, the year bricklayer, James Warwick obtained a miner's right for a residential block on the edge of the exhausted Eureka diggings in the newly proclaimed municipality of Ballarat East. James built a modest 4-roomed timber and brick house for his expanding family and continued in the bricklaying trade until retiring around the early 1880s. By then he was pursuing his gardening interests in the local Horticultural Society and was supervising the gardens of many East Ballarat residents. It was during these years that his gardening and building interests converged to find expression in the marvellous permutations of decoration that extend over the house and garden. Using cast-off crockery, glass, ceramic figurine and mirror shards, shells, wallpaper samples, architectural ornament and slag, a place was found for all manner of things, large and small. Children would bring broken china dolls and bits of crockery, and the patient mosaic work preoccupied James and his wife Caroline for the rest of their lives. The work has its origins in the grottoes and shellhouses that ornamented the gardens of large English estates from the 1730s. In the few years before James' death in 1898, the house had become known as the 'Old Curiosity Shop', inspiring associations with the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. By then professional photographs had also been taken and thousands of tourists were visiting it yearly. Caroline obtained copyright for 2 of the photos and began issuing her own postcards before she died in 1903. The Shop passed to their son Charles and then to a succession of owners who added their own mythology to the story of the Warwicks and their work. After attracting tourists for more than 100 years, the Shop closed to the public in 1999. (Vitorian Heritage Database)Brochures on the Old Curiosity Shopold curiosity shop, warwick, ballarat east, james warwick, caroline warwick

Collection of newspaper articles related to Ballarat School Of Mines.They cover activities and advertisements for staff. The papers concerned are The Courier, Ballarat, The Australian, The Age over the period of 03/07/1979 to 03/12/1979Book with deep red and white cover back and front, spiral bound. staffing advertisements, remedial teachers at smb, courses at smb, smb community resource centre open, smb music centre, smb farm course, report comdemns training, country kids get a raw deal, smb raft race, apprentice week, work and pleasure trip to snow for smb students, apprentice safety seminar at ballarat, val d'angri and "inkle weaving", the best of both worlds, smb weaving demonstration, many apprentices lack reading and number skills, teachers upset at mystery cut, centenary ceremony for smb gardens, gardens and art linked, indonesian visitors at smb, a.l.p.moves on new technology, problems of remedial teaching

Collection of newspaper articles related to Ballarat School Of Mines.They cover activities and advertisements for staff. The papers concerned are The Courier, Ballarat, The Australian, The Age over the period of February 1979 to 1980. Items have appeared in other books, mainly Item 31009Book with deep red and white cover back and front, spiral bound. staffing advertisements, remedial teachers at smb, courses at smb, smb community resource centre open, smb music centre, smb farm course, report comdemns training, country kids get a raw deal, smb raft race, apprentice week, work and pleasure trip to snow for smb students, apprentice safety seminar at ballarat, val d'angri and "inkle weaving", the best of both worlds, smb weaving demonstration, many apprentices lack reading and number skills, teachers upset at mystery cut, centenary ceremony for smb gardens, gardens and art linked, indonesian visitors at smb, a.l.p.moves on new technology, problems of remedial teaching