Trove Tuesday: Cowra Experimental Farm

One of the things I have been using Trove for is to find out more about places that are mentioned to me by various family members or that come up in the course of research. One such place is Cowra Experimental Farm.

According to Nana (dad's mum) her husband, Walter Thomas Muffett (9/4/1916-13/3/1958), had spent three years at Cowra Experimental Farm before they married. The photograph below was taken there.

Cowra Experimental Farm sometime between 1934 &1937 - My grandfather, W. T. Muffett on far right.
I knew vaguely, that an experimental farm is a sort of cross between an agricultural college, a working property and a science lab, from Trove I was able to find newspaper articles (such as the one below) on it's opening in 1905, and on its continued successes over the next 50 odd years at agricultural shows, irrigation improvements and in developing new hybrids of wheat. Experimental farms have played an important role in the development of Australian agriculture.

MR. MOORE AT COWRA. (1905, April 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14667885

Trove also directed me towards the State Library of New South Wales collections, which provided a wealth of images which gave a wonderful feel for the place and the types of activity undertaken there. Overall it provided a rather nice insight into three years in the life of my grandfather.

You can find all the #TroveTuesday posts over at Branches, Leaves & Pollen or search the hashtag on twitter :) 

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Hey, thanks for commenting - a lot of the time blogger doesn't tell me I have a new comment so I often don't see them, and if I do I don't get your contact details so please feel free to email me as well smuffett@gmail.com or contact me on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/sharon.muffett/ Slightly more reliable!

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