Turning back time at EC Museum of Technology

East Coast Museum of Technology president Harrison Hill is surrounded by all sorts of old machinery. Harrison welcomes the public and any interested new volunteers to attend ECMoT’s Live Day on January 28. He describes the museum as “a true nostalgic diamond in disguise”. Picture by Paul Rickard

East Coast Museum of Technology can take you back to the machinery, computers and household appliances of yesterday and long before.

The many exhibits are all dated and obsolete and show how quickly time and tech moves on.

Enthusiasts behind the museum are fascinated by the vast array of technology and know many in the public enjoy such sights, too.

After the tough years of Covid-19 and cyclone flooding the museum’s popular Live Day is returning on January 28.

The range of artefacts includes washing machines and sewing machines from two generations ago, obsolete computers and computer games from the 1980s, horse-drawn vehicles and paraphernalia, stationary engines, fire engines, radios, sewing machines, televisions, bikes, tractors, farm implements and World War 2 vintage vehicles,

One of the working guns is a 1916 Minenwerfer light-rifled German trench mortar.

The rail display includes the Matawhero Railway Station, the second locomotive to ply the Tokomaru Bay Wharf track and a yard shunt that operated between Gisborne and Napier — the sister of which is at Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).

“The museum is a true nostalgic diamond in disguise, a perfectly imperfect museum that brings stories from past to present life for people to share and enjoy,” East Coast MoT president Harrison Hill says.

“We have a vast collection of history on display, not just from Tairāwhiti, but wider New Zealand, including some unique exhibits that not even MOTAT has.”

The fun activities operating on Live Day will include a display by Gisborne Amateur Radio Club, computer classroom fun, stationary engines, a workshop walk-through, a military display, model rail and railway displays, and free fire engine rides.

Refreshments will be available while Gisborne East Coast Cancer Society will be on hand to ensure everyone practises “Slip, Slop and Slap”.

The museum is a non-profit organisation run by a dedicated group of volunteers. Without their efforts, the museum would not exist.

It welcomes new volunteers.

Live Day is a fundraising campaign to support earthquake strengthening work required on the main building — the former Kia Ora dairy factory — and will be open from 10am to 4pm.

Entry is $10 for adults, $5 for students or Gold Card holders; $2 for primary to secondary school students children; free for under-5s.