History: Members of the Friends of Old Moama group with the gig carriage they hope to restore and house at the Old Telegraph Station in Moama.
Photo by
Nicole Thomson
The Friends of Old Moama are applying for a grant from Murray Shire Council to house a gig carriage that could be more than 100 years old at the Old Telegraph Station in Chanter St.
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The gig, an open-air carriage designed to be pulled behind a horse, was built by the Kiely family carriage-making business in Moama and now resides in one of the sheds at the Moama Military Museum after the group purchased it in October 2014.
The goal of the Friends of Old Moama is to apply for and receive a grant from Murray Shire Council to build a shelter to house the gig at the historic Old Telegraph Station building in Chanter St, and to restore the gig to its former glory.
The exact plans for the structure are yet to be laid out, but the group wishes to build a structure that can be extended in future if need be to house other historical items and vehicles.
The group is unsure when exactly this particular gig was manufactured at Moama, but the stamp signature “D. Kiely” on the carriage places it firmly in the history of the twin towns.
According to historical records found in the Riverine Herald of the day, D. Kiely refers to Dennis Kiely, a local man who had many dealings in Echuca-Moama, including placing ads in the paper to offer “re-rubbering” of gig and buggy wheels.
The gig in question at the Moama Military Museum does feature rubber wheels, which is unusual for a carriage of this age — but not when records indicate that the maker offered this service.
In the Riverine Herald in December 1949, Dennis Kiely’s business was profiled under a headline that would not look out of place among today’s: “The Horse Makes A Comeback At Moama: The Petrol Shortage Brought The Revival”.
“When Mr Dennis Kiely of Moama learnt his trade 40 years ago the gig was the normal meass of transport in the community, with buggies and phaetons the preserve of the elite,” wrote the Riverine Herald at the time.
“Today the motor car is the standard, but a combination of circumstances including petrol rationing sees Mr Kiely busy again at his old trade of coach builder.”
The article then went on to say that Dennis Kiely entered the coach-building trade 40 years prior, which would put the start of his career in 1909, and his father had established the business in 1880.
“Rationing of petrol during the war and its increasing price caused something of a revival in the trade, while fitting pneumatic-tyres to horse-drawm vehicles gave it a new life,” wrote the Riv.
“Several of the jigs in the shop are there for re-tyring with rubber, and Mr Kiely says it is the greatest amount of coach-building work he has had for 15 years.”
History: Mr. Kiely stands with his line of six reconditioned gigs outside his premises at Moama in 1949. Could one of these gigs be the one in Moama’s Military Museum Shed?
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