Housing and displaying a few hundred years of War, Rail and Rural collections in just two-acres is no easy thing.
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After years of doing so the Cowra War Museum has run out of space.
War Museum curator, Trevor Davidson, said the museum was in need of more room.
"We'll be expanding war and rail but we've just run out of room.'
"We have a lot of weird and wonderful stuff in this place," he said.
The museum will be holding an auction of their rural, petrol, garage, motor vehicle, fire, tractors, steam engines and general collections to concentrate and expand on their war and rail collections.
Mr Davidson said they are expecting to have at least 1,800 lots in the auction if not more and that because of the collections good condition many of the pieces could be sold for tens of thousands of dollars, possibly more.
"A fair lot of the stuff still works and if they don't work we try our hardest to get them to, all our steam gear works."
"The steam traction machines will sell for tens of thousands so will some of the enamel signs, old fuel pumps, oil cans and cigarette tins," he said.
Some of the museums collection have come from donations or have been loaned but the majority of the pieces have been brought by the museum's owner Ron Horsfall.
Mr Davidson said some unique pieces up for auction are a chariot used to carry drums and the museum's hand forge, the hand forge being the only one of it's kind in Australia.
"The hand forge is the only one of its kind in Australia, most of the hand forges that where brought here were gear driven, this one is belt driven, someone from the US may have brought it over with them during the gold rush," he said.
The museum has already fielded a number of inquiries about pieces from private collectors and public institutions from across the world.
To facilitate the museums rearrangement and the removal of some of the larger auctioned pieces once the museum closes for the action it wont reopen until June 1.
Inspection and registration for the auction will be Friday, May 20 from 10.00am - 4.00pmor from 8.00am days of the auction.
Auction days will be May 21 and May 22 and will start from 9.30am.
Andrew Fisher
