Thornton residents watched as two giant ugg boots rose from the ground outside Mortels Sheepskin Factory, but the team has also been busy behind the scenes.
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The site’s new museum has opened to the public as one of the final stages of the $3.2 million Sheep’s Back Visitors Centre project.
The museum takes visitors on a walk through sheepskin history starting with the early settlers up to today.
“There are plenty of museums that cover the history of the wool industry, but nothing about the sheepskin industry,” museum project manager Stephanie Mortel said.
The museum’s impressive collection includes a table top wool wagon from the early 1900s and one of the first powered sheep shearers.
Visitors can also see a wool bale press and sheepskin digger’s vests which gave birth to the sheepskin industry in Australia.
Entry to the museum is a gold coin donation and the money will go to disaster relief organisation Aussie Care Services at Thornton.
Mortels has also partnered with Port Stephens tourism company Moonshadow Cruises to bring groups of tourists for day trips to the site.
Visitors will tour the factory, visit the museum, take a photograph with the giant ugg boots and hopefully spend money in both the store and cafe.
The first group went through the finished visitor centre on Friday.
Mortels Sheepskin Factory is an Australian-owned family business which started when Frank Mortel and his wife Rita emigrated from the Netherlands in 1956.