Two clocks built in the mid-1800s worth tens of thousands of dollars have returned to Beechworth in north-east Victoria following a big fundraising push and the generosity of the previous owner.
They were built by Prussian-born Charles Frederick Falck in 1855 and 1870 and were displayed prominently in his shop window in Beechworth.
Clock enthusiast Ken Hose, who passed away late last year, bought them from Mr Falck's grandson in 1970 during a trip to the town.
Just before his death, he sold one clock at a discounted rate and donated the other to the Burke Museum.
'Something really meaningful'
Manager Cameron Auty said picking up the clocks from Melbourne and driving them back home was a special moment.
"When you work in museums, you have regular days in the office like everybody else, but every now and then you get to do something really meaningful like this.
"You get to engage with an original artefact.
It's a really great thing to know you're picking something up so that you can protect and preserve it and interpret it to all the visitors to town and for the local community.
"You're kind of putting it in a really important resting place, it's the final home for them"
Long journey
The manager of the museum's collections, Ashleigh Giffney, said it was difficult getting the clocks to Beechworth.
"At the start of this year, we attempted to head down to pick them up but of course the bushfires stopped all of that happening," Ms Giffney said.
"So then we attempted again halfway through the year but of course COVID stopped that from happening.
She said now that the borders were reopened they decided to "drive down immediately and pick it up before anyone else could stop us".
She said seeing the clocks for the first time was a special moment.
"You've read about it, you've researched it and then you finally get to see it and hold it and there's that real connection because you've done all of this time really looking forward to it."
Community group 'Friends of the Burke' led a fundraising campaign to buy the clocks after they failed to sell at Mr Hose's auction of his million-dollar collection in 2018.
Mr Auty said it wouldn't have been possible without them.
"We're really grateful to the donors and the community. As a small regional museum we couldn't do these kinds of things without that support so it's really valuable to us," he said.
