The travelling chest was purchased in the early eighteen hundreds and firstly used as travelling chest to pack personal items. This particular chest was used to bring belongings from Ireland to Australia in about 1812.

The chest would have been very similar to many travelling containers of the other passengers boarding the boat therefore being the generic ‘suit case’ back in that day. Made out of treated pine it has lasted years of moving and visited sites such as the goldfields and even war travels. It has been in poor pre-gold rush homesteads to wealthy post-gold striking homesteads.

Being a ‘travelling’ case it is important to note it’s travels. From Ireland to central Western Australia from out back Western Australia to Melbourne in the late 20^th century. This case has seen many domestic times as various families have moved interstate and the chest has moved on with them.

As the luggage world changed from wood to leather and from leather to fabric, so too did the use of this chest change. For the first half of its life it was used for what it was made (travelling storage container) but from then on in it was used for things such as a bible holder at church, a baby’s toy chest, locked away in storage and then surfaced again as an antique coffee table.

Aesthetically speaking much has stayed the same except for a small face lift when the key was misplaced and where the lock once shined there is a small saw hole which now remains. It has gone from something that was once thrown around on a day to day basis and then an item not seen for many years, to an item upon which is now very fragile and because of the chest’s place in the family history greatly admired and treated with the utmost care and affection.