The military museum that Don built

A new military museum has opened in Geraldine with the aim to keep the wheels of history rolling on.

From rare last-of-their-kind vehicles, to large-scale Vietnam War and German village displays, the museum has hit the ground running since officially opening last Thursday.

Museum founder Don Pelvin said the Property Brokers building in Talbot St was never meant to become a museum and was originally going to be used to house his vehicle collection.

‘‘Most of the vehicles that belong to me have just been sitting in the shed on my farm.

‘‘I thought one day I’ll have to sell the farm, so I better find a building to put them all in.

‘‘It just grew from there.’’

He said it took a bit of convincing from fellow collectors to really commit to the idea of a museum.

‘‘I had a guy from Waimate come up who had a full Vietnam display. He said he wanted to put it in here and that was really the start of it.

‘‘I then approached another couple of guys I know who I do a bit of re-enactment work with, and they were also more than happy to put stuff in here because a lot of their stuff just sits in the garage or in the shed and nobody will see it.’’

Mr Pelvin and his team spent the last five months renovating the building, which included rebuilding much of it and putting on a new roof.

His passion for collecting military vehicles began after being one of the last people called up for national service in 1972.

‘‘I spent 14 years as a territorial force soldier, and I’ve always been interested in the military side and stuff like that.

‘‘I worked overseas for the last 40 years, coming back and forth and when I’d come back I’d restore vehicles and that’s where my collection came from.

‘‘I brought some of the stuff in from overseas, some I bought here and restored in New Zealand and a couple of vehicles are on loan from other collectors.’’

The museum is highly interactive, with visitors being able to take a seat in some of the vehicles as well as touch various items.

There is also an interactive trench display for children to portray what many soldiers went through and the conditions many would have faced.

Mr Pelvin said he was proud of how everything came together.

"When you see some of the displays here, some of the attention to detail is pretty amazing.

"The Vietnam display is the centrepiece as the man it belongs to got in touch first. He is 80 years old and comes up one or twice a week to have a potter around.

"I’ve been to a lot of museums around the world and I think this is as good as it gets."

He said one of the good things about the museum was they would be able to change out the displays regularly.

"They’re not permanent displays, so you will be able to come in again in six months’ time and see something different.

"We didn’t want to make it too cluttered; we wanted people to walk around freely and we even had [a] guy drive around in a mobility scooter to make sure there was room for everyone to be able to get around and look at all the stuff," he said.

Mr Pelvin said the most important thing was giving people the opportunity to see and learn about military history.

"This is our history and if we don’t look after this stuff it is going to be lost forever, and a lot of it has been lost forever.

"Apart from Peter Jackson [owning one], I don’t think there would be another World War 1 truck out there. Some of the other vehicles here are one-offs in the world, so there are some pretty special vehicles here."

The museum is open 9.30am-4pm every day except Tuesday and Wednesday, or by appointment.