1 day Ago By Liz Hobday
Lizzie Hilburger owns about 300 beaded purses, which is just one of several collections she's built up over decades. "I think it's something that you're kind of born with, I've always been a collector of things as a kid - and you technically only need three of something for it to be a collection," she said. Her purses feature in a Museum of Brisbane exhibition titled Precious that shows off more than 30 different collections, from Queensland Rugby League memorabilia to ornamental eggs and music posters.
Lizzie and her husband Mike are pleased to be represented (or possibly over-represented) in the show with Lizzie's collection of about 45 wartime shoehorns and Mike's collection of axes also on display. "We're just absolutely thrilled, we really feel like over-achievers in the collecting realm," she said. The Hilburgers fit their collections in their Paddington apartment (the axes are hung around the dinner table) and if that sounds challenging, it was more difficult when Mike was collecting barbecues.
The couple doesn't like to think too much about how much has been spent on these passions - the shoehorns in particular aren't worth much money. But Lizzie Hilburger loves discovering the history behind her pieces, such as shoehorns carved by soldiers from discarded artillery shells, and says each is a little work of art. Another attraction is a display of Shane Donnelly's tiny models of Queensland architectural gems.
Donnelly is a council groundskeeper by day, and spends his spare hours crafting the models entirely by hand, each one about half the size of a shoebox and taking about 30 hours to construct. "I've been doing it ever since I was child, I've always been very creative and quite introverted, I spend a lot of time in my own little world," he said. Visitors may recognise a model of Brisbane's distinctive Walter Taylor Bridge, a now-defunct doughnut shaped drive-through bank, and a mid-century classic by architect Robin Gibson.
Donnelly has a particular love for the classic Queenslander homes he frequently models for clients. With rapid development in Brisbane, the miniatures are a way for people to hold onto the city's architectural past and their childhood memories, he says. Donnelly remembers one family home he built in miniature for a client in Corinda - constructed by her late father in 1956, it was sold decades later after her mother moved into a nursing home.
Within a few months, it was demolished and replaced by apartments. "I put this little model together, handed it back over and it's overwhelming, they're just so happy to see it," he said. "It just brings back a flood of memories and emotions of the family's time growing up in that house and that suburb.
" Donnelly would love to one day build a tiny streetscape of Queensland houses, creating an architectural timeline stretching from early colonial designs to postwar homes. For any prospective collectors inspired by the show, Donnelly's extreme patience and attention to detail may not be necessary - just find something that piques your interest, says Lizzie Hilburger. "The collections don't have to be mainstream, find something really left-of-field that no one else is doing and make it your own," she advised.
Precious is a free exhibition open daily at the Museum of Brisbane..
