Artefacts from some of the furthest corners of the world will soon be on display in Echuca’s east.
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Echuca Gardens owner-operator Kym Kelly has travelled to 132 countries so far, out of 195, and has collected more than 1000 unique artefacts that he regularly shares with the guests of Echuca Gardens.
“I am a traveller, not a tourist,” Mr Kelly said.
“I normally backpack for five months of the year, mostly independent extended road trips.”
The artefacts that almost completely line the walls of the new museum range from painstakingly hand-embroidered dolls, to planes and tanks made from Coke tins, to replica shrunken heads which easily shock.
“All (of the items) were selected as reminders of various cultures,” Mr Kelly said.
“Many, particularly from the Third World, are exquisitely handmade and were purchased from roadside stalls and markets supporting local people.
“They were then packaged and posted home, catalogued and set up in this extensive display.”
One of the immediate questions that guests have when looking at his collection — particularly items such as the replica shrunken heads, or even some porous wooden items — is how it was possible to get these items back into Australia. But Mr Kelly has a simple solution: declare them at customs.
“Items are only prohibited if they do not comply with customs,” he said.
“Many of these items would not normally be prohibited, based on construction materials — skin, hair, bone, piranha teeth, feathers, et cetera.
“They are permitted if they are declared.
“If customs is concerned, you have the option to pay for them to be fumigated or radiated.”
Mr Kelly has a fountain of travel knowledge from his time overseas and also his previous positions in travel offices in Melbourne, but has learned that the most important part of travel is to be open-minded.
“Travel often challenges some of your ideas,” he said.
“I recall being in areas where the ground is permanently frozen.
“You cannot dig a grave.
“Here, the deceased are laid upon a hill for vultures to descend and remove the flesh —both he locals believe that the departed spirits are carried up to heaven by the vultures — who is to say that they are wrong and we are correct?
“Do not travel the world with a closed Western idea that we do things better — we do things differently.
“Absolutely gorgeous nature scenes aside, my memorable experiences comes from being in a certain place at the right time.
“I was in Tiananmen Square (China) during the student unrest, but left before the final government response and had travelled into Outer Mongolia.
“News was heavily censored and the only hint I got was when the black market monetary exchange rate had soared.
“I was fortunate enough to cross Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin during the Soviet occupation and later when the wall came down.
“Finally, I was fortunate enough to be in St Petersburg when the newly discovered executed Romanov family — the last Tsars — were interned into the Royal Tombs.
“All of these were world historical events, and I was fortunate enough to be there.”
While Mr Kelly has travelled to countries that been or are now considered dangerous for travellers, one country that is missing from his travels is North Korea, featured with an empty shelf in the packed room of artefacts.
“You can go to North Korea these days — they do allow travellers — but you are on a very guided tour, and you only see what they want you to see,” he said.
“It’s very expensive, and outside of the tour, you cannot leave the hotel room.
“I won’t be giving money to a dictatorship to show me facades when there are people starving, and my empty shelf shows that.”
After years of being a fountain of knowledge exclusively for his accommodation guests, Mr Kelly’s decision to open to the public comes with personalised histories that only he can provide to the items.
“One of the (Echuca Gardens) guests owned the ‘Believe It Or Not’ attraction in Surfers Paradise,” Mr Kelly said.
“He was amazed at the collection, but also amazed as to why it was in Echuca: it’s here because I am here.
“The collection is not a static display of objects.
“Through the travel talk I bring various pieces to life with the story behind them.
“The collection has been bequeathed to the National Museum in Canberra to inspire others of the wonders of this world, but in the meantime it is open to locals and visitors to Echuca.”
After the tour, Mr Kelly performs on the piano, one of the international languages that has helped take him around the world.
“Given my travels, people often ask what languages I speak.
“I speak the first two most dominant languages in the world outside of their countries of origin, English and Spanish, however, I also have an international language: music.
“I recall being in Soviet Russia many years ago, in a hotel.
“There was a grand piano which friends encouraged me to play.
“Out of the crowd came two other players, one with a violin, and the other a flute.
“I could not speak Russian, nor they English.
“They put sheet music in front of me, which I did understand, and the hotel lobby was soon packed with people.
“My music has taken me all over the world, and so it is fitting that I finish the talk with a live piano performance.
“After this I bring the travels back to Echuca as I lead them through the gardens to view my murals depicting the history of Echuca: ‘it’s a small world’.”
Mr Kelly invites locals who are interested in viewing his collection to form groups of six to eight at the maximum, and phone 0407 053 206 to arrange a viewing time. The tour takes about 90 minutes.