TWEED EXHIBITION TO CURE ALL ILLS

A NEW EXHIBITION at the Tweed Regional Museum in Murwillumbah explores the quirky and ‘quackie’ medical measures once used to treat the sick and needy in the district.

“Cure All will simultaneously delight and horrify visitors but also inspire curiosity, intrigue, and a deep appreciation of modern health care,” the exhibition flyer states.

Fascinating medical tales are told through more than 200 remarkable exhibits, drawn from the bowels of the Museum’s resident collection of 18,000 objects.

Curator, Erika Taylor, describes the exhibition as “a cabinet of curiosities” for people to open and explore.  Intriguing surgical and dental equipment of the times, vintage first aid kits, killer pills, cure-oil concoctions and illicit pharmaceutical potions are all on show; even vibrators of old have come out of said ‘cabinet!’

“We knew we had this collection of potions, lotions and medical equipment but we’d never exhibited it.  The Cure All exhibition is a chance to get it all out and present it in our usual, fascinating way,” Curator Erika Taylor told The Northern Rivers Times.

Live leeches demonstrate in real time these ‘blood thinners’ of old.  Other interactive exhibits include x-rays, anatomical skeletons “and all the old bottles, medicines, potions and things.”

In a perfect fusion, Curator Erika Taylor’s curating background is in health and medical history, including at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.

“You could say this is right up my alley,” Erika smiled.

“It’s fantastic, we have a museum in the Tweed that is on par with the quality of our national museums around the country.  We really pack a punch here,” she added.

The exhibition also tells the stories of Murwillumbah and district’s much-loved former doctors and dentists and compellingly, how the staunch local community rallied and raised funding for its own medical and ambulance services, and ultimately the Murwillumbah Hospital.

“It’s so interesting.  Everything was hard fought-for and won and a community fight.  The people of Murwillumbah pinched every penny to get these vital services for their community which we today take for granted.  It’s such an altruistic spirit, to build a hospital if you’re not sick,” Curator Erika Taylor observed.

“But it’s the same community spirit we still see today in Murwillumbah, in our recovery from the floods.”

The free exhibition also offers the rare chance to join a suspense-filled behind-the-scenes tour, to truly experience ‘cutting-edge’ and electrifying medicine of old.

The Cure All Exhibition runs until October 15, 2022

Tweed Regional Museum, 2 Queensland Road, Murwillumbah