Hello comrades, from a one-time Museum-L-er who needs to step back into the
fray of email messages to seek your opinions and advice.

I'm working on an interpretation plan for the railway workshop complex in
Launceston, Tasmania. It contains a large number of specialist workshops:
carpentry, blacksmithy, erecting shop, diesel shop etc, from 1870s-1970s.

Needless to say, the site won't have a large staff of well-paid
interpreters, so I'm looking for ideas for exciting, gripping, whizzbang
interpretive media or devices which are safe, reliable, cheap and operable
by limited supervisory staff.  Yes, I know...

How to communicate the noise and smell of a 20-hearth blacksmithy?  What
about the weird specific machines such as the leaf-spring forge?  Does
anyone have a heavy lifiting tackle system set up so the public can use it
(or is this just too dangerous)?

Another way to answer my question might be suggestions about excellent
interpretation in industrial sites you know.

Many thanks!

Dr Linda Young
Cultural Heritage Management
University of Canberra
[log in to unmask]