(C) Kandos Museum Inc. November 2023
Kandos Museum Masterplan
Concrete defines us. Whilst we have been busy using concrete to build our roads, runways and docks, our dams, aqueducts and pipes, our grain and food stores, our defences in times of war and peril and our homes and public buildings, concrete has been busy making us.
It has shaped our culture, changed our fortunes, played key roles in politics, architecture, art, literature, labour relationships, cinema, worship, and the environment and sustainability.
As we approach the bicentenary of Aspdin’s 1824 invention of Portland Cement, the key ingredient of modern-day concrete, we reflect on how this material enabled most the of the 20th century and continues to shape our lives in this century. With annual production of over twenty billion tons, more than 2 ½ tons per person globally, concrete is the most prolific of
materials far exceeding all other materials and only surpassed in volume by municipal water. Both loved and loathed, this most ubiquitous of materials has made us what we are and will play a key role in what we are yet to become.
This Masterplan provides an exciting strategic direction for new initiatives and outcomes to lift the museum from one of local significance to one of national significance through the
expansion of the museum, the stories told, the visitor experiences offered, and the number of visitors accommodated.
The Kandos story is a genesis story – a small town comes to be in the early 20th Century to make cement to build the newly formed nation of Australia. Founded on vision and ambition, the town takes its name from the initials of the board of directors, Kandos: a newly coined name for a new community, in a new town, in a new nation, in a new century.
It is concrete that we experience and feel everyday. The expansive story of concrete is one that Kandos Museum is in a unique position to tell as the Museum of Concrete. As we enter the next one hundred years the opportunities offered by telling the social, technical, environmental, and commercial stories of concrete, both past and evolving, are substantial for the museum, for Kandos and the visitor economy, and for the concrete industry.
The Kandos Museum Masterplan was made possible by the generous support of Create NSW through the Creative Capital grant program, industry partners, the volunteers at Kandos Museum and the people of Kandos.