A collection to stir the imagination…

“Well, I've done a hell of a lot of travelling,” begins Millthorpe local Kevin O’Leary by way of explanation when asked about the multitude of collectable spoons filling cabinets and mounted on the walls of his living room.

“I've stopped in caravan parks in more than 120 towns in Queensland. I've been to Darwin six or seven times, around Australia once… When we travelled, you’d go somewhere and we started getting a few. But then I bought a lot of them!”

About 880 spoons, Kevin informs me, handing over one of several display folders in which he has catalogued the collection.

“I bought that one,” he says, pointing to one of five ‘Map of Australia’ displays boards containing spoons, “and then I made these four. Sometimes you might pick up 50 spoons for ten dollars or sixty for twenty dollars, and I just started collecting.”

Kevin bought his first spoon on a trip with his late wife in 1990, but the collection grew after he retired and began travelling even more.

“I haven't spent a winter in Millthorpe since 1995 when I retired. The best thing I ever did,” says Kevin, who spent 26 years at Email as well as working the family farm.

“Yeah, when my wife was alive, we used to go away 24 weeks a year,” he continues, pulling out another case to show a ‘Charles and Diana’ wedding spoon.

“There's some quite interesting spoons in there. There's one of Bob Hawke, one of Ben Chiffley, Torvill and Dean, America’s Cup…

“Then there’s all the train spoons – down there,” he says, pointing to another board low on the wall, before moving on to show off more of his collection…