The Pioneer Museum in Jindera

Jindera
Small township near Albury
Jindera is located 578 km south-west of Sydney via the Hume Highway and 16 km north of Albury and is the home of the award-winning Jindera Pioneer Museum.

The first European settler in the area was John Dight, a friend of Hamilton Hume. A small village developed on his property known as Dight's Forest, which managed to sustain four hotels, as well as a butcher, a baker and a flour mill.

In the 1860s German immigrants in search of land journeyed from South Australia up the Murray Valley by wagon-train. Many settled in the town which was gazetted as Jindera in 1869. One apocryphal story has it that the name derives from an Aboriginal couple called Jim and Dora.

Things to see:  

Pioneer Museum
The Pioneer Museum, one of the best known in NSW, recreates the material culture of the early German settlers, using only local relics. The complex consists of several historic buildings centred around Wagner's store, first opened in 1874 and closed when the son of the original owner (a German immigrant) died in 1950. It was Wagner Sr who planted most of the town's elms and pines. The one-storey building was the original store and became the shopkeeper's residence when the two-storey addition was made.There is a wattle and daub slab hut, a post office, a gallery of antiques and some outbuildings, including a bake oven and the original machinery sheds which house a display of period equipment, including the wagon in which one of the original German settler families journeyed from Adelaide in 1867. The headstones in the complex are from the tombs of some of those same immigrants. There are plans to restore and reopen the old blacksmith's shop over the road.

Wagner's Store has been restored and painstakingly furnished so as to recreate its 19th-century appearance. The hitching rail where customers would have tied their horses is still outside and inside, behind a cedar counter, are the old containers and canisters which were used to provide goods to the customers. German books and pictures of the Kaiser subtly connote ethnicity. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10-3 or by appointment (02) 6026 3622.

Next door to the museum is a cottage craft centre which operates on weekends and when buses arrive during the week. Jindera also has a country festival in March.

	Hotels
	Jindera Hotel/Motel Urana Rd Jindera NSW 2642 Telephone: (02) 6026 3258
	Restaurants
	Jindera Hotel/Motel Urana Rd Jindera NSW 2642 Telephone: (02) 6026 3258