“A true hero of the museum” and “one of the most dedicated individuals to a historical museum that I have ever had the privilege of coming into contact with” were some of the tributes paid to long-time chairperson of the Bathurst Agricultural Museum Alan Pike at a function to mark his retirement from that position. The event at Pike’s Post at The Ploughman on Saturday March 1 was attended by friends, museum volunteers and supporters.
Pike has been part of the museum’s foundations and fabric for 43 years and, he said, “I’ve enjoyed every day of it – I can’t remember how long I’ve been chairman.”
He gave guests the full-colour history of the museum – conceived of in 1970, with the first building erected in 1978.
Its founder members included Geoff Palmer, Cecil Dewey (a former mayor of Bathurst), Maud Blain, Harvey Baker, Bunny Staples, JP de Wet Steyn, and Shirley and Geoff Hounsell. Pike and friends and farmers travelled everywhere from Ficksburg to Adelaide to fetch machines including a McCormick Deering and the Tangye Suction Gas Engine (“about 10 tons of metal”). The accounts were coloured with a who’s who of the farming district – Durie Duncan, Norman Elliott, Cecil Jones-Philipson, Barry Purdon, Bruce Yendall, Mike Legg, Fred Tyson and Peter Elliott.
Among the stories Pike told was of The Great 400 – a vintage tractor poughing competition between South Africa and Australia.They’s received GUiness Book of Records certificates after beating the Australians with 743 old tractors ploughing in a field at once. Twelve of those were from the BAM, transported to the site by Wilf Mole, of Sandstone Estates in Ficksburg.
Pike paid tribute to the pineapple farmers of the district, each of whom had donated a container of fruit – paid to the museum by the factory – That raised R12 000. That was used to build the new shed for the tractors.
Pike highlighted the generous contributions of other donors,. Particularly poignant was that of Vivienne Leverington whose donations replaced the carriage lamps at the museum’s entrance, and funded the Trappes Valley & Richardson Millers Room. Olga Kaplan funded the old filling station display, as well as making regular monthly donations to the museum. Mark Wilson, from Australia, donted funds to build a sairy to house the museum’s milking and dairy equipment. The vision is to eventually complete a 19th century settler farm yard and settler cottage.
Pike wished incoming chairmand and museum curator, Ryno Hattingh, well.
Of his predecessor, Hattingh had earlier described Pike as a people’s person, and a problem solver.
“My wish for you is to be always proud on what the museum has achieved over the past 43 years with your involvement. Thank you Al, in my eyes, you are truly a hero of this museum,” Hattingh said.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, March 6, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
