Exhibition Archive

Stories from the Fictional Town of Lilydale

Stories, Fiction and Poetry at the Museum, 27th May 2006 - 6th August 2006

(Entry to the exhibition is via a staircase.)

Have you ever suspected that you are a character in a story; that you are living in a novel? This is the question posed by this exhibition.

A fictional town is a place that has been imagined, often it appears in a story and may be based on an actual town. It is possible for any town to be fictional with a little imagining. This exhibition looks at stories from the township of Lilydale, and other towns in the Shire of Yarra Ranges, through museum objects, history and tales.

The exhibition includes stories from a heritage walking trail. The trail is expected to be realised in the town later in the year, according to Community Museum Liaison Officer Maggi Solly, who is working on the project with the Lilydale & District Historical Society.

The most frequently asked question from visitors to the museum is why Lilydale is spelled two different ways. The exhibition explores the naming of Lilydale, which according to one story, was named after the American sentimental ballad Lilly Dale which John Hardy, the town’s surveyor, heard his workers singing when he named the town in 1860. The curiosity about variations in spelling the name of Lilydale requires the telling of Lilydale’s story.

Dame Nellie Melba is the most recognizable of Lilydale’s characters; the exhibition explores ways in which the diva has been imagined through museum objects.

The exhibition also includes a taxidermied feral cat which was captured in Sherbrooke forest, a creature which captures the imagination a bit like a Bunyip from Indigenous mythology, or earlier sightings of ‘The Upper Yarra Tiger’.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there is an exciting programme of activities:

9th of June at 1:00pm - A floortalk about Melba’s Gift Book is on at the Museum