The Big Camera is a photography museum located off the Great Eastern Highway near the Wheatbelt town of Meckering. The museum is one of its kind in Australia and is open to the public on specific days of the week.
The Big Camera
The uniquely-designed museum stays open between 9.00 am and 5:00 pm daily except for Wednesdays and Thursdays. Here are 7 interesting facts about the Big Camera.
The museum is shaped like a massive 35mm camera, and the building itself is aerated for comfort. Apart from learning a thing or two about the history of cameras and photography, some visitors stop at the museum for a photo shoot in front of the Big Camera.
Over 3,000 cameras, including movie equipment, projectors, lanterns, and kaleidoscopes, are among many other antiques displayed in the museum. These cameras date back as far as eight years before the invention of photography to today’s evolved photography equipment.
Among the cameras on display at the museum, there is one box brownie camera from 1900. The cameras are also fully functional despite some being relatively old.
When you visit the Big Camera, one of the guides will give you a tour of the structure to learn more about the history of photography. The cameras are marked with information about the year they were made and their innovators.
The collection of cameras derives from Australia, England, America, and the rest of the world. The owner was committed to collecting different types of cameras from around the world and ensured that they were functioning correctly before being displayed.
At the entrance of the museum, there is a display of the Meckering earthquake that occurred in 1968, destroying the wheat-growing town. The quake is believed to be one of the worst in the history of Australia.
Photographer Chic Wadley owns the Big Camera museum; he recently extended it due to his growing collection of cameras. The photography lover also conducts detailed research on the cameras he collects to provide sufficient information to the museum’s visitors.
Meckering is located in Western Australia, a state that’s home to several iconic Big Things. Please visit our Western Australia section to learn more about Big Things in this part of the nation.
