August 20, 2013
More than 10,000 collectibles – everything from model cars and hundreds of dolls to full-size wagons, farming machinery, petrified wood and a dinosaur footprint (collected somewhere in the South Burnett) – will be going under the hammer on Saturday in Kingaroy.
Margaret Labudda has authorised the auction of much of the collection assembled by her and her late husband Harry over a lifetime.
The couple lived in Kingaroy’s iconic “Garden Of Rocks” in Haly Street which became a tourism icon in the town whether they liked it or not.
Buses and cars used to pull up at the front gate, and Harry would chat to the occupants, but it was never a museum, Margaret told southburnett.com.au
It was just their family home …
The house is packed with collectibles, with dolls, knick-knacks and models filling cabinets and shelves in every room.
Outside, there’s vintage farm machinery parked around the house and sheds full of old farming equipment and other items.
Margaret said she’s not selling everything. She’s picked out the items that she wants to keep, and at least 200 dolls will be staying. But that still means about 1000 dolls will be sold …
And then there’s the more than 600 model cars – some dating back to the 1920s – many still in their original boxes.
“They were never opened,” Margaret said.
There’s even a “petrified orange” which has been the subject of discussion on creationist websites for years.
Margaret – born Margaret Wheeler – was a collector long before she met Harry.
“I collected before I ever saw him and he was collecting long before he ever saw me,” she said.
She was born at Muckadilla, west of Roma, and came to Kingaroy at the age of 14. She brought with her some of her first collections … cigarette boxes that American troops used to throw out.
She met Harry, who had been collecting “little bits and pieces” for years, and the couple was married when she was 19.
They started to go out on collecting trips bringing home rocks, fossils, gemstones and just about everything else that caught their eye.
They built their house in 1951 and filled it and the yard with the all the bits and pieces they loved.
Along the way, the couple had six children, most of whom have also caught the collecting bug.
Harry died on August 2, 2007, leaving Margaret and their daughter Valerie to look after the collection.
She regularly takes down all the items and cleans them, but at the age of 82, things are now getting harder for her to look after.
The auction is being conducted on site by Goetsch & Sons from 8:00am on Sunday (August 25).
Company spokesman Chris Norris said all the items must be sold on the day.
Lots include ploughs, grinding stones, pack saddles, crosscut saws, blacksmithing items and wooden troughs.
There’s collections of cream cans, biscuit and ice cream tins, walking sticks, hundreds of locks and keys, more than 2000 bottles, a barbed wire collection from Australia and the United States, cereal box collector cards, more than 1000 lightbulbs and insulators, boot polish and tobacco tins, more than 1000 barber shop accessories, horse shoes.
And cow bells, an air raid siren, kerosene lanterns, enamel signs, soft drink bottles, pocket watches, fountain pens …
Plus “one of the best” geological collections outside a State museum.
The auction lots are open for inspection on Saturday (August 24) from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
For more information, contact Chris Norris on 0439-033-503.
