The Pioneer Settlement, in Swan Hill, Victoria, is Australia's first open-air museum, portraying life on the Murray in the era 1830-1930.[1] It opened in 1966 as the Swan Hill Folk Museum,[2] before being renamed, following a visit by the Queen in 1970.[3] It contains approximately 50 replica buildings, including Masonic hall, coach-house, post office, photographic studio, original 1895 kaiserpanorama,[4] and newspaper office.[5] The collection also contains numerous tractors – including the first tractor ever brought to Australia[6] – and historic vehicles, and two 19th-century riverboats, including the 1876 paddlesteamerPS Gem.[5] This vessel was towed to the site in 1963,[7] and now functions as the main entrance and contains a restaurant.
The PS Gem was towed by the PS Oscar W to the Pioneer Settlement in 1962 following her sale for £4000 to the Swan Hill Folk Museum. She now exists as a static display within the compound.[8]) The PV Pyap operates daily cruises from the Horseshoe Bend Wharf within the Settlement. Original built in Mannum as a barge in 1896, the Pyap was converted to a paddle steamer by October 1897. Prior to relocation to the Pioneer Settlement in 1970, the Pyap was refitted with a 225 hp GM671 Gray Marine diesel engine.[9]
In 1994 an act of Parliament brought the Settlement under the control of the Swan Hill City Council.[10]
^Darian-Smith, Kate; Nichols, David (5 June 2017). ""How our forebears lived": the modern nation, its folklore and "living" heritage in twentieth-century Australia". Australian Geographer. 49: 199–217. doi:10.1080/00049182.2017.1327784.
