The historical Brennan & Geraghty’s Store in Maryborough is a store museum that operated as a general store for over 100 years. Opening for trade in 1871, it continued until 1972 with its unsold contents remaining when the doors were closed.
A demolition order had been put in place by the Maryborough City Council. It was saved by the National Trust in 1975, buying the store and the associated family houses.
Restoration of the historic store and the houses began, finally opening as a store museum in 1990. The store, two adjacent buildings, and stables, were listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.
Brennan & Geraghty’s Store is different from museums found in many of Australia’s towns. Museums typically have a collection of donated or acquired items and shown on display.
Typically, displays in museums vary quite a lot. From carefully curated and themed displays through to a mix of items sitting wherever there is space to show them. Some are a mish-mash of both, sometimes showing items that are out of context.
The collection shown at Brennan & Geraghty’s Store are displays of what were actually sold at the store. Not the same type of item, similar brand, likeness of… the items were on the shelves to be sold.
When the store closed, over 100,000 items remained in the store. Some items dated back to the 1880s. Stock wasn’t cleared out over the years so anything that hadn’t sold was still there.
After George Geraghty passed away, the last owner of the store, some of the contents of the store were sold. What remains is still an amazing collection of goods that are not likely to be found anywhere else.
Entry fees are reasonable if not low. If you are a Nation Trust member, you get in for free. They are normally open every day, however, opening days have been reduced to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday during COVID.
