HAS the last chapter of one of the Hunter Valley's most beloved institutions finally been closed?
I'm talking here about the fate of prized artefacts from the late artist Monty Wedd's popular Monarch Historical Museum, at Williamtown.
Have all the items now been sold off to new owners?
The museum, beside Nelson Bay Road at the edge of the Williamtown RAAF base, only existed, nurtured by its ageing creator, for perhaps 14 years.
And while the building still survives there, its contents, however, have long since gone.
From afar, the crenelated walls of the former private museum make it look like a fortress from an old Beau Geste desert movie, except it's set close to Newcastle and Port Stephens.
The museum, a large tin-clad warehouse really, was all cleverly hidden behind the eye-catching battlements of a mock fort (pictured), and jokingly compared by some locals to Dr Who's 'Tardis'.
Definitely looking bigger on the inside than the outside, illustrator Monty Wedd's home could truly said to be his castle.
Inside the museum, many of the treasures he amassed over more than 50 years, were often remarkable.
They ranged from a large artillery piece, to hundreds of cameras, helmets, swords, rifles and bayonets, toys and comics and probably one of Australia's finest collections of military uniforms.
"Often I didn't seek out the items. They were offered to me. It was an offer too good to say no to," the award-winning illustrator told me after opening his new dream museum at Williamtown in November 1998.
This was after relocating years before from a museum at his home at Dee Why on Sydney's northern beaches.
Down there, many World War II relics (and others from earlier wars) filled his backyard and garage.
A news report from 1960 even claimed Wedd, a returned soldier, then had one of the largest private museums in the world.
At that stage, the collection (which included a small military tank) consisted of 5000 items and was growing.
By the time of Wedd's death in 2012 at 91, his collection of often rare objects had grown to more than 10,000 items.
One was said to be the propeller of 'Southern Cross', the aircraft of legendary Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
Among the great diversity of items there was also an Egyptian carved sphinx-headed scarab seal, ancient armour, convict relics including a cat o' nine tails whip and a 260-year-old Spanish swivel cannon, usually mounted on a ship's bulwark to repel boarders. It had been dug up in Sydney's Macquarie Street and originally thought to be an old pipe.
My own special interest was in one of his particularly unusual items. It sprang from the time I first met the acclaimed comic book artist and pioneer animator, Monty Wedd, OAM, in the early 1990s.
The object was an extremely rare nine-ton Japanese tankette captured in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea in 1945 which he bought, possibly in 1959, for 72 pounds (say $144). I understood Wedd saved the object from going into a scrapyard furnace.
By 2001 though, with the rare tankette in storage, he was "still after the time to have it restored".
My interest had arisen because of a persistent rumour circulating that several collectors were seeking the Japanese war relic.
One potential buyer was said to be actor Donald Sutherland who played 'Oddball' in the WWII Clint Eastwood's 1970 war comedy Kelly's Heroes.
Sad to report, however, I still don't know what's happened to this tankette, although another similar rare war relic, this time from the Central Coast, apparently went ages ago to an overseas buyer.
Wedd once said his quest to save historic objects only began by accident when he became saddened seeing so many items of historical importance being discarded.
Besides pursuing his museum dream, Wedd always seemed to be incredibly busy.
Back in 1993, he was given the Order of Australia for services to the community as a historian, writer and illustrator.
This followed winning two awards, in 1987 and 1989, of the Australian Black and White Artists' Club.
He followed this up by winning a prestigious award for his significant contribution to Australian cartooning in 2004.
But to older folk, Wedd is forever remembered as the artist who created the once-famous 'Dollar Bill' character for a nationwide advertising blitz to introduce Aussies to decimal currency on February 14, 1966.
He's also remembered for being a prolific comic book illustrator with Captain Justice, The Scorpion and other popular weekly comic trips in numerous Australian papers.
One of his proudest tasks was in the 1970s illustrating a monumental comic strip on the life of Ned Kelly.
Initially expected to have a short life, it ran instead for three years and was finally all collected together and launched in book form in 2014.
So, I wondered recently, what had happened to Wedd's huge historical collection?
Then I stumbled across part of an undated auction catalogue. This celebrated, in more than 20 auctions, Wedd's lifelong love of history and his passion for saving items that might otherwise be consigned to the tip.
One of Wedd's oddest advertised auction items was a suit of 12th century Japanese samurai armour which he once said he'd had for years, collected at a time "when no-one was interested in the stuff".
Later, providing more answers on the eventual fate of the vast Wedd collection, Ron Barber, Fort Scratchley Historical Society curator, told Weekender the auctions began about mid-2023.
There was a lot of interest, including from overseas museums and the Australian Army. An early NSW artillery helmet thought to be worth about $1200 eventually sold for $7500.
The fort had been interested in buying some items, but "some prices fetched were getting ridiculous," Barber says.
Newcastle military enthusiast Lionel Keevers says he believed some potential buyers were discouraged on learning they were bidding against the Army who wished to set up a museum.
"But it wasn't just military stuff up for sale. Monty Wedd would collect anything that was Australian memorabilia to save it," Keevers said.
"It was amazing what he had in his collection and what he knew. For example, my grandfather had kept this military badge for years, but didn't know what it was.
"On day I brought it to Wedd and he recognised it straight away, saying and said, "Oh, that's Lovett's Scouts". If I'd had the money many years ago, I would have tried to buy his [military] collection, saying, 'Keep me in mind if you're selling'.
"But that was never going to happen. He was a lovely guy, but people today don't even know about his 'Dollar Bill' creation."
Wedd and his wife Dorothy moved to Williamtown in 1987 from Dee Why to display all their historic items properly. They even dug the museum foundations and laid the first bricks themselves.
Wedd was one of nature's true gentlemen. After his death, he was even labelled as an unassuming genius.
A lasting legacy is a illustrated book on Australian military uniforms from 1800 to 1982.
Wedd seems to have originally bought many of his items, including an old flintlock pistol and all the uniforms, so he could simply draw them with more accuracy.
