Gordon & the Historic generic cialis for daily use Village Herberton. Gordon was born in the Far North Queensland tin mining town of Herberton. His mother was born in Herberton, and his father came to Herberton to buy ore and opened his own tin mines in Herberton. So let’s say, there were plenty of very good reasons for us to visit the town.
We flew from Sydney to Cairns and did a road trip that brought us to his hometown. Herberton is 90 minutes from Cairns, Australia on the Atherton Tablelands. The tin mines have long gone and so had the town ..nearly.
The story of Historic Village Herberton is fascinating.
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A businessman and his wife, with a passion for Australian history and particularly for the rich history of the tin mining town of Herberton, have put Herberton, Qld well and truly back on the map.
Craig Kimberley could be called the accidental entrepreneur. After an inauspicious role in schooling, he ended up working in a clothing company. Due to some very astute thinking on a trip to the USA, he saw that jeans were being sold exclusively in stores. This was not happening in Australia, where jeans were not sold exclusively in just one store.
With his wife on board and family members, he took a risk and started ..wait for it ..Just Jeans. Just Jeans sell jeans, and the company ended up with stores all over Australia and New Zealand. The company went on to own Jay Jays, Jacqui E and Peter Alexander, all big name clothing brands.
While they have sold Just Jeans, they still have an interest in the other three companies. However, Connie and Craig Kimberley have a passionate interest in Gordon’s hometown, Herberton.
On a whim, they purchased The Herberton Historic Village, which had been closed for seven years. It had been started by avid collectors, Harry Skennar and his wife Ellen and set up by the generosity of the townspeople of Herberton.
The aim of Connie and Craig Kimberley was to preserve what had been a very important town in its heyday and to give us, a real insight into what life was like in the town.
Exploring the Historic Village Herberton
What we have now is Queensland’s largest outdoor pioneer museum, a living museum, the Historic Village Herberton. Here you will find 60 original buildings dating from Herberton’s foundations years as a tin mining town, Visitors are given a real insight into life in Australia at the turn of the 20th century.
Historic Village Herberton is on of the best collections that I have seen and would rank as one of the best international museums that we have had the pleasure of visiting.
The scope of the collection is staggering, and the attention to detail and authenticity is testament to the Kimberleys’, the staff and volunteers and to the townspeople of Herberton.
This was special for Gordon having been born here and hearing about Herberton from his parents and grandparents. It was an insight into the town that he lived in as a youngster, and yes, it was special. Even the school he attended as a young boy has been moved to the Historic Village Herberton, and he even found the slates he used to use.
Historic Village Herberton is located at 6 Broadway off Herberton Road — just north of Herberton town on the Atherton Tablelands.
http://www.historicvillageherberton.com.au
To get to Cairns, Fly Tigerair Australia.
Hire a car from the airport
You will find the town
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• 15 minutes drive from Atherton
• 1hr 45mins from Port Douglas
• 4 hours from Townsville
• 90 minutes from Cairns
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At approx 750m above sea level, the Atherton Tablelands climate is cooler and fresher than the coast. This makes it ideally suited for preserving the well aged buildings in the collection at Historic Village Herberton.Opening Hours
Open Daily (except Christmas Day) from 9.00am – 5.00pm in the high season, 9.30am – 4.00pm during the low season, and after hours by prior arrangement.
Please note low season hours (9.30am-4pm) are finishing 22nd March 2015. They will commence again in mid October 2015
High Season – Mid March to mid October and the Christmas holiday period from 26th December, 2015 to 26th January, 2016
Low Season – February to mid March and mid October to Christmas Day
Entry Fee
ADULTS: $27
CHILDREN: $12
CONCESSION: $25
FAMILY
(2 Adults, 2 Children) $70CHILD 4-14 FREE
*Staff will extend your pass to make it for 3 days, because there is so much to see and many exhibitions to watch
NOTE: Historic Village Herberton is PET FRIENDLY
ENJOY GORDON’S BIRTH TOWN
So neat! I love the blacksmith forging a horse shoe photo at the beginning of your post, it really drew me in!
Thanks Jenny, Gordon got a good catch on the blacksmith photo and I thought it was such a great start to talking about this amazing village.
Hi Paula, it’s wonderful to learn about Historic Herberton and its history. It truly is a fascinating story. Kudos to the Kimberley’s for having this vision and passion to preserve the village. It must have been a rewarding and heartwarming trip for Gordon.
I agree that the Kimberley’s do deserve a lot of kudos, though they are the 1st to acknowledge the contributions of the people, past and present to realising this vision. It was good for Gordon to see this village where their were many familiar memories.
How wonderful that the preservationists have succeeded in keeping Herberton alive. In some ways we were on parallel paths…in mining towns now revitalized.
These towns were so important to our past, as I know the ones in the US are. We do need to preserve them, and we got lucky with the Historic Village Herberton
Very cool! Reminds me a lot of old west towns in the USA.
So much heritage in all of these old towns.
Love discovering new places through a good story. Thanks for sharing 😀
Me too, and for me this was a place I had only heard about, so it was great to see it in person,
Our childhood habitats are so often smaller than we remember them. How splendid that the Kimberleys created the time capsule of Herberton, built to scale. This is a living museum I would love to visit!
I think it was difficult for Gordon seeing the town, but the Historic Village Herberton did recreate this for him
Sounds like a fascinating walk back into time. Wonderful photos!
It was special and the town has done so much to regenerate themselves.
I got a kick out of the sign advertising Nestle’s and saying “Untouched by hand”, Now everyone wants handmade, “artisanal” products and untouched by hands would probably be scored as being processed food!
I didn’t think of that but you are totally correct.Good pick up
Wow this sounds fascinating!! How amazing Paula! We’re hoping to spend some time in Cairns in the coming months so will make sure I put some time aside for a trip up to Herberton to check out the museum. Love outdoor museums and especially one with such an interesting history. Kudos to the family for preserving such a beautiful piece of Australian heritage.
Thanks for the feature!
Meg, we have a whole series coming out about the Atherton Tablelands and Cairns etc, so hopefully we can give you some more ideas. The family and the towns people have done an amazing job.
What a great story Paula and a fascinating place. It must have been a great experience for you both, Gordon to revisit his childhood and you to see exactly where he came from. Visiting places like this, that have significant meaning to the visitor make travelling even deeper. I’ll add this to my QLD list when for when I make it up there in the next few years.
So true Jen; it was special for Gordon and for me but in different ways. It is very impressive and well worth visiting.
I find places like these fascinating. It’s so important to preserve heritage, and a ‘living museum’ is perfect to do this.
It was fascinating and not just because my husband was born there, though I guess we each saw it through different eyes.
Wow, I loved that they were able to turn the entire village into a living museum, what a wonderful thing to explore especially when everything is authentic to a T!
It is so authentic. We have so many amazing photos of what they have done and how it has been so authentically done. Kudos to Herberton and the owners.
I love places like this; real living museums. It looks like a fantastic place. I never got the chance to go up north that far in Queensland when I lived there. I’d love to explore more and will definitely keep this in mind
Kate you will love it. It was a little unexpected though we had read that they had a heritage village. I didn’t even do justice to how good it is.
What a nice story! It must have been heart warming and quite interesting for your husband to visit his childhood town, especially since he hasn’t seen it for quite a while. Wonderful pictures, Paula!
Thanks Anda. I think Gordon had many mixed emotions as it has been quite a while.
I can only imagine the riot of emotions Gordon must have felt.
I love these pioneer towns open air museums. Thanks for sharing this story.
They were admittedly mixed emotions. Nothing is the same, and it was a bit of work making him stay and explore. But then we went to the diner in town and he started talking to people who knew his family and that was good.
What an interesting place! I really like visiting old villages like this, seeing how the life used to look like! I wouldn’t mind visiting Herberton too!
Kami, you would find it a photographers dream as well as getting such an understanding of Australian history in this part. It was a beautifully done open air museum and very sophisticated in how it has been done.
I like seeing this type of historic town. It must have been very special for you and Gordon to visit his childhood hometown. Love your photos, especially the schoolhouse one.
It was a great experience to see where Gordon was born and also because they have done such excellent work at this historic village. Thanks Karen.
This is an interesting story and what a fascinating place. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks and yes, it was a great place to explore.
What an interesting piece. And great pics!
Thanks Pauline.It was very difficult picking from so many, as the museum is so large.
Paula, this place reminds me of a mining town I visited in Arizona last year. Kind of the same story: privately owned and an open air museum with many buildings from the good mining days. And they have an area full of antique cars too. I am surprised by the similarities.
How interesting. From the US to Australia I guess there are more similarities than we realise.
I love Gordon’s expression and can only imagine what he must be remembering! These reconstructive collections are so valuable to gain a perspective of the past, as well as for those of us who are a certain age, bring back classic memories. Historic Village Herberton seems like a wonderful, living time capsule. I am always fascinated by old advertising signs and the products they depict. The one for “Chinol” caught my eye. When we visited Australia we were disoriented by U.S.-looking brands that had visual and name similarities, In the U.S., there is an old product called “Shinola” (both puns for “shine all” originally, I’d imagine). There is also a derisive description for clueless individuals: “s/he doesn’t know $h-t from shinola.” It’s just weird sometimes what this stuff makes you think of.
The old advertising signs and the old children’s toys bought back a lot of memories. It was just a total blast from the past. We saw things that we both remembered our grandmothers using.Loved it and Gordon does look so ‘good’.
After travelling through Europe recently it makes you feel like Australia doesn’t have any history about it, but this is a great example of our roots! Glad Gordon got to reminisce, so special.
I often feel like that when we see all of the history in Europe. We are a young country, but one with such and interesting past. This is an amazing living museum for sure.
Wow! I don’t think I’ve been to any museum like this although I’ve been to some living museums! Based on the photos above, I would probably spend more time checking out the cars in the garage. Just love the authenticity of the place 🙂
The Historic Village Herberton is set over a vast area and has so many things, that they actually will extend your pass to 3 days; there is that much t see. There were garages and open air collections of every vehicle that has ever been used in Herberton throughout its history.
Interesting…
Thank you.
What a fascinating place. Your photos are wonderful and really bring the story to life. I visited Australia in 2014 and cannot wait to return to explore more of this amazing country. I stayed in Cairns for a few day but really just enjoyed a few peaceful days at the beach, shame I didn’t know about this place beforehand 🙂
Thanks Sue, Historic Village Herberton was amazing, and special because Gordon was born there.
That was an interesting story, and how cool for Gordon to see this museum town he from his past. I had no idea Just Jeans and Jay Jays were started by the same people, and surprised they also have such and expensive pajama line – or should I say did have. Love the photos. What a neat experience for both of you.
I was amazed also, but the owners really are into Australian history and the preservation and restoration work that they have done is staggeringly good. It was really good though strange for Gordon who had not seen Herberton for quite a while
i feel like this is what rural Australia looks like in the movies — almost too perfect to be true. What a cool trip! imagine finding your old school slates!
It is very Australian and we loved our entire road trip of which I will be writing a lot more about. The slates were a funny thing that Gordon was looking for.
Without really planning to we seem to find ourselves drawn back to Far North Queensland every few years. This year we had only a few days in Cairns, after living it up in luxury on a tropical island for a week, so we didn’t make it to the Atherton Tablelands other than a quick visit to Kuranda. Herberton however, looks like just the sort of place my history-loving husband would adore. Now all I have to do is remember to put it on the list for our next visit up north.
We had a great road trip through the Atherton Tablelands and got to explore it a lot more. The Historic Village Herberton really is world class and I know you will enjoy it immensely.