What makes a museum proprietor tick?
Since the motorcycle restoration craze spread its tentacles about 40 years or thereabouts ago there have been a number of museums established worldwide. In the United Kingdom there is the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham and down south the Sammy Miller Museum just to name a couple in that country. At the Isle of Man Tony East at Kirk Michael has a semi-private museum consisting of a range of classic motocross machines. In the USA there is the Wheels Through Time in North Carolina and Barber Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. Here in Australia Darryl White recently established the Indian Museum in Brisbane, Allan and Loraine Smith have the Australian Motorcycle Museum at Haigslea and the subject of this article Brian and Margaret Kelleher, The National Motorcycle Museum at Nabiac. Most people you encounter in the motorcycle scene are very passionate about both the machines and the sport in general. However it is a select few who decide to take on the mammoth task of collecting a large number of machines, usually at great expense for the rarer types and establish a museum. You do not have to be a ‘rocket scientist’ to figure out that the return income does not come anywhere near paying for the machines, the building and incidental costs as well as providing a comfortable living for the owner. Additionally it is very time consuming as to be constantly open requires the input of a great deal of man hours. With this in mind I decided it was time to grab hold of Brian Kelleher and try to get some insight into why he choose to go down this path. After all you can still have fun with just the odd machine or two without having a museum. Brian tells me that he was raised at Cootamundra where after leaving school he did his apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. At 16 years of age he purchased his first machine; a 1954 twin AJS which his father promptly impounded as he considered motorcycling was too dangerous. Brian laughs and tells me that it was silly to consider that as his father in his younger days rode bulls in country rodeos. After two years he eventually got to have the machine. He laughs again when asked about how he started racing which was on a Honda 90 before he progressed to a 500 single AJS. This he competed on country circuits such as Young and Cowra. He also raced an Austin A 30 on dirt track. He is currently riding a B33 BSA in classic dirt track. He always wanted to one day have his own motorcycle shop and dreamed of having a museum. He commenced courting his wife Margaret, and on their first date he took her to a race meeting. Margaret’s family was well to do with a large grazing property. Brian called on one occasion and an aunt queried him as to what direction he intended his life to take. His reply was that in the first instance he wanted a motorcycle shop and from there establish his own museum. That went over like a lead balloon. In 1973 he opened his first shop, a Yamaha dealership in the Canberra suburb of Mitchell. He opened a second shop in Wagga Wagga in 1988 which as well as Yamaha also sold Honda, Suzuki and Laverda. In about 1988 he placed a one-page ad in Just Bikes asking for those who wanted to place machines in a proposed museum to make contact with him. The only response he got was from those who wanted to know what type of scam he was running. In 1990 his long-held dream came true when he established a museum which he set up opposite his motorcycle shop. This came to display some 380 motorcycles, some he owned while others were on loan. He wanted to go bigger and decided to move north. In 1988 he purchased land at Nabiac, commenced construction of the present museum in 1998 and moved in 2000. There is still no indication from Brian as to why he had to have a museum. He grins and he tells that perhaps he has a “mental disorder and an obsession”. Then he gets a bit more serious and tells me that no, he just wants to preserve motorcycle history as so much has already been lost. He wants to keep motorcycles in one piece. He says that sadly however some people just can’t help themselves with the theft of rare items such as magneto caps and petrol tank caps from early Japanese machines. He and Margaret have purchased a number of machines at great expense. He had a bad deal however with a number of scooters purchased from Melbourne. When they arrived it was mostly rubbish, the vendor had promised some machines which were not delivered and never have been despite assurances that they would be. However getting back to a positive note readers can call into the National Motorcycle Museum, Nabiac which is open from 9.30am to 3.30pm daily. Nabiac is on the Pacific Highway about 1½ hours north of Newcastle. Brian’s wife Margaret is equally passionate about the museum and is only too happy to have a chat about the display. There are over 800 machines there of which approximately 300 are on loan.