Heading north on the M1?
Bulahdelah is the exit you have been driving past
Since the bypass opened, most people fly past Bulahdelah at 110. Take the exit instead. Two minutes off the highway there is a river to stretch your legs beside, a bakery and a pub, and on the main street, one of the more unusual things you will see on the drive north.
Wades Place is a private collection of old Australian tools and working gear, 23 years in the making, on public display for the first time. It has only ever been seen by family and friends in the shed it was built in. Now it fills a shop on Stroud Street, and it is arguably one of the best private collections of its kind in the country.
Walk through, ask about anything, and if a piece takes your fancy, it is for sale. Think of it as a museum you can buy from.
The collection
What makes it worth the stop
Collected in sets, not singles
Where most shops have one blowtorch, Wade has shelves of them. The same goes for oil cans, kerosene lanterns, chain blocks, bench vices, wood planes and spanners. Fifty of one thing side by side show how a tool changed over sixty years of Australian work.
Working gear, not ornaments
These are the tools people made a living with in country Australia: shearing plant, cream separators, a saw bench, floorboard cramps and hand augers. Many carry Australian maker's marks.
Left as found
Nothing has been repainted or polished up to look new. Wade cleans, he does not restore. If a piece has its original brand colours and eighty years of wear, that is how it is shown and how it is sold.
The man who collected it
Wade is in the shop every day. He knows what nearly every piece is, where it came from and how it was used, and he is happy to show you. That is the difference between a shop and a collection.
“A tool could be anything. Like a monkey gets a blade of grass and shoves it down a termite hole. That then becomes a tool. So post boxes are tools. Tractor seats are tools.”
Wade, on what counts
On display
What you will find
The shop shows part of the collection. The rest is in storage and comes out as space frees up, so if you are after something in particular, ask. Stock changes as things sell and new pieces come in.
Hand tools
- Wooden and metal hand planes, dozens in a row
- Spanners and wrenches, including tractor and implement spanners
- Hand augers and bit braces
- Hand drills and breast drills
- Bench vices and pipe vices
- Floorboard cramps
- Hay knives and blades
- Block and tackle, chain blocks and pulleys, including Morris and Yale
Workshop and shed
- Kerosene blowtorches, four shelves of them
- Oil cans and oilers of every size
- Kerosene lanterns
- Hand-crank grinders and a wood lathe
- Anvils
- Pressure gauges, made in Australia
- Shop and kitchen scales
- A saw bench
Farm and dairy
- Cream separators, including Alfa-Laval
- A shearing plant, motor, overhead gear and hand shear
- A corn sheller
- Milk cans and dairy pails
- Cast iron tractor seats
- Chainsaws from the 1950s, including a pneumatic one
- A windmill
Service station and roadside
- Golden Fleece kerosene tin
- Esso and Texaco cast iron doorstops
- Old road signs, including a Speed Limit 35
- Drive-in theatre speakers
- Car headlamps
In the cabinets
- Old keys and padlocks
- Antique fishing reels and lines
- Small tools, gauges and measures
- Badges, tins and packaging
- Ask to see the drawers. The small things are not all out on display.
Curios
- Post boxes, with the keys
- Cast iron register grates
- A copper bath hung from the rafters
- A gramophone horn
Photos
A look inside
Make a stop of it
An hour in Bulahdelah
Bulahdelah is a Worimi word thought to mean the meeting place of two rivers. It is a quiet timber town on the Myall River, the gateway to the Myall Lakes, and an easy place to break the drive. The highway exits are signposted at both ends of town and Stroud Street is the main street.
The river
Lions Park and the free rest area on the Myall River are a short walk from the shop. Picnic tables, room for the dog, and a footbridge across to the shops. The Plough Inn overlooks the water if lunch is due.
Bulahdelah Mountain
A walk from the edge of town through carved trees made by the Worimi community to a 292 metre summit over the town and river. About 5 kilometres for the full loop, less if you stop at the lookout. Old alum mine workings along the way.
The Grandis
The tallest known tree in New South Wales, a flooded gum over 76 metres high and more than 400 years old, in state forest a short drive north of town.
Court House Museum
The 1886 courthouse, cells included, run by the historical society. Open Saturdays. The town's timber and alum mining story is in there.
Myall Lakes
The largest natural freshwater lake system in the state starts here: 130 kilometres of waterways, houseboats for hire, and 40 beaches on the far side.
Food and fuel
Bakery, cafés, pub, supermarket and fuel, all on or near Stroud Street. Caravans and trailers can park along the main street and by the river.
The shop is on your way through. Have a look, then get back on the M1 to Forster, Taree or Port Macquarie, or on the way home.
Get directionsBuy · Sell · Trade
Got something old in the shed?
Wade buys, sells and trades. If you have old tools, farm equipment, signs, bottles or something you cannot identify, bring it in or ring him. He will tell you what it is and what it is worth to him.
Call 0413 727 197Find us
Wades Place, Bulahdelah
- Address
- Shop 1, 73-75A Stroud Street
Bulahdelah NSW 2423 - Phone
- 0413 727 197
- Open
- 7 days, 10am to 5pm
Open every long weekend - Directions
- Take the Bulahdelah exit from the M1 Pacific Motorway from either direction. Stroud Street is the main street through town.
Open in Google Maps
No entry fee. Cash welcome.