The Abbey Museum plus holiday pics

I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about this quirky little place we found semi by accident while we were on holiday. My parents have moved from rural Queensland and now live on the coast near Bribie Island. A few days after Christmas we thought we would take a short drive up the road and visit the Caboolture Warplane Museum. Sadly, contrary to the information on their website, it was closed for the holiday period. This was of great disappointment to Andy who is a bit of a plane buff. However, driving back we saw a turn off for a place called the Abbey Museum and thought we might as well not waste the trip.

It turned out to be a very odd little treasure indeed. It was not a large museum but it had a range of artefacts from across human history including some rather neat ancient and mediaeval objects, such as a whole suit of 16th century jousting armour and some Tudor furniture. Apparently it began as the collection of a nineteenth century antiquarian who started his own little sect of gnostic catholicism in the UK. He had to close his museum in England during the Second World War and then he died and his sect moved to set up a small monastic style community on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, bringing the antiquities with them. Aside from various kinds of objects they also have a manuscript collection, although the manuscript gallery was closed the day we were there. The museum has associations with several reenacting groups and holds annual events for some of them in the grounds.

Since it was a quiet day and we were the only ones in the museum, the attendant gave us a tour of the community church where the stained glass windows are made up from bits of the large mediaeval windows from Winchester Cathedral. These were smashed by Oliver Cromwell, and some of the remaining pieces were acquired by said antiquarian. It turned out to be quite a surprising and rewarding little excursion. Although Andy was still sad that we missed the warplanes.

Alas, I did not think to take any pictures., but here are some of other parts of our holiday:

The kids and their cousins enjoying themselves in my mum and dad's new pool.

A view of the Glasshouse Mountains from Bribie Island


My brother's wedding - it was a trifle windy, but that was all for the best as this was the hottest, most humid day of the whole trip.


He missed the planes, but he found this tank: