As Peter Rea holds a battered wooden ship model in his hands, he marvels at the secrets it holds.
The model was used to build a 60-foot-long ship, called Mystery, in Erina Creek on the New South Wales Central Coast in 1877.
According to Mr Rea, who is a model shipbuilder and coordinator of the local Shipbuilders Heritage Walk, many boats were built using this type of small wooden model on the Central Coast in the 1800s.
He said few of these models still exist today.
"To find this is incredible," he said.
"People used to throw them on the fire because they didn't need them anymore."
How did it work?
Before blueprints and paper plans became the preferred option, shipbuilders would use small wooden models to build life-size ships.
Mr Rea said they did this by using a tool called a pantograph, which helps duplicate shapes or dimensions at a larger or smaller scale.
"These things had a number of arms on them and depending on where the pivot point on those arms was you could move that to vary the scale," he said.
"I could imagine a pantograph to build these things could be six, seven, eight feet long."
Pantographs are still used today but are much smaller.
They are usually used to enlarge engineering drawings or maps, or by artists to create miniature models.
Finding a piece of history
Mr Rea was gifted the Mystery ship model by local historian Gwen Dundon, who wrote a book about the history of shipbuilding in the Central Coast region between 1829 and 1953.
Ms Dundon said she happened across the story of the Mystery when she was working for the Gosford Star newspaper in the 1980s.
"One day I received a phone call from Cliff Howard, then an old man, and a grandson of the shipbuilder George Howard of Erina Creek," she said.
"I visited Cliff and he showed me the half model he had of Mystery, which he later decided to gift to me."
According to historic records, the Mystery was built by George Howard in 1877 and was owned by several people before it sank off Norah Head in 1892.
Ms Dundon said half models were commonly used to build boats during that time.
"If the prospective owner was not satisfied with what he saw as he looked along the lines of the half model, it could be changed," she said.
Some years after interviewing Cliff Howard, a friend of Ms Dundon mounted the model on a board, which she hung in her home until Mr Rea showed interest in it and its history.
Mr Rea said he was honoured to now be the custodian of this "incredible piece of history".
