History Hill

History Hill Bringing Australian gold rush history to life with our museum and underground mine.

17/05/2026

Every Object Has a Story — Including the Decanter That Could Survive a Storm

Why does a ship's decanter have such a wide, flat bottom?

Because ships rock. And if your decanter tips, you lose your drink. And on a six-month voyage from England, that is simply not acceptable.

Design follows function. It always has.

History Hill Museum has thousands of objects like this — each one with a reason, a story, a person behind it. There's no other YouTube channel filming here. You want to see it, you come to Hill End.

Open weekends. Adults $10. Children $7. And well worth the trip.

📍 History Hill Museum, Hill End NSW

12/05/2026

A Real Piece of the First Fleet — Sitting in a Museum in Hill End

This is a lead weight. Not just any lead weight.

It was overboard from the HMS Sirius — the ship from Australia's First Fleet — and verified as such in 1960. It was used to ration flour and sugar on the voyage from England.

Think about that. Six months at sea. You couldn't afford to have all your provisions gone in the first few weeks. Every gram counted. This weight made sure of it.

Everything else on that ship was brass or iron — it would have rusted in the ocean. Only lead survives. That's why it's still here.

Working behind the mast meant you worked on a boat, by the way. Edward Hargraves — the man credited with starting the Australian gold rush — spent three years doing exactly that before he ever set foot on a goldfield.

📍 History Hill Museum, Hill End NSW

11/05/2026

The Rarest Items in the Museum Are Behind a Cover — For Good Reason

Malcolm has a K**a Sutra. Chinese. Goldfields era. And yes, there's a lid on it.

The o***m dens of the Australian gold rush era were apparently not just about o***m. The artefacts tell a very complete story.

All we'll say is: they have fig leaves. The fig leaves are not doing much work.

These are the rarest of the rare — and they are absolutely not for young eyes.

📍 History Hill Museum, Hill End NSW — some things you have to see in person.

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10/05/2026

Every Country Town Had One. Hill End Has the Last.

Every little country town in Australia used to have one. Hargraves. Sofala. Ilford. Running Stream. Kandos. Ralston. Yarrabin — flooded now, range and all.
Hill End has the last one.
This clip goes deep into what that means — WWI veterans who made up the rifle club membership during WWII, furious that the government was confiscating their 303s while simultaneously printing on official letterhead: a good rifleman is a British citizen. The contradiction wasn't lost on them then. It isn't lost on the men keeping this range alive now.
When you joined a rifle club, you swore an oath in front of the club captain. Rifle shooting was as much a part of community life as cricket or tennis. Blokes in the 60s took their 303s on the school bus — the driver's only concern was one swinging around and clocking someone.
That world is gone. But the range isn't — not yet.
These men are passionate about keeping it going. Not just for themselves. For the next generation, and the one after that.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

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09/05/2026

Since 1901: The Rifle Range That Still Works the Way It Always Did

The target frames have been up there since 1901. Still the original machines. Still going strong.
Malcolm Drinkwater takes you through exactly how this historic rifle range operates — the same way it has for over 120 years. A shot is fired. The bloke in the gallery sees it go through. He pulls the target down, spots the hole, patches the old one, sends it back up. Up on the range, a spotting scope reads the result — bullseye, magpie, dinner, centre ball — and the value of the shot goes up.
No electronics required. Just eyes, a spotter disc, and a system that has never needed improving.
Safety works the same way. Red flag goes up, shooting stops. Radio communication between the mount and the butts backs it all up. And before radio? Telegraph poles, wires, and a magneto phone you'd ring up the hill.
Before that? Well — as Malcolm puts it — they had carrier pigeons in the trenches. Hill End never quite went that far.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

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08/05/2026

Rim Lock: The Simple Mistake That Jams a Rifle in Battle
In a war, life and death can come down to a simple algorithm. And getting it wrong means your rifle doesn't fire.
Rim lock. That's what happens when the cartridge rim sits behind the shell casing instead of in front of it. The round can't go forward. The rifle jams. In battle, that's the difference between everything and nothing.
Malcolm Drinkwater demonstrates exactly how to load correctly — one down, one up — the method drilled into every soldier so that under pressure, under fire, with shaking hands and no time to think, the muscle memory takes over. Clips pre-loaded in the bandolier. Fed into the charger correctly. Press down. That's how it's done.
It looks simple when you're standing still on a quiet range. It was anything but on a battlefield.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

****msHistory ****msSafety

07/05/2026

Reading the Wind at 1000 Yards – The Skill That Made a Marksman

1000 yards. Iron sights. No scope. And a gully that hides the wind from the shooter entirely.
This is one of the most technically demanding rifle ranges in Australia — and Malcolm Drinkwater lets the shooters explain exactly why.
The range runs from 300 yards out to 1000, shot with as-issued military rifles the way they were always meant to be used. The target is a large rectangle with a black dot — a surprisingly good sight picture once you're steady. The challenge isn't the distance. It's the wind.
In a gully, the wind crosses the middle of the range and the bullets travel above the tree line before they reach the target. You can't see where the wind is blowing up there. You have to read it. Feel it. And hold off accordingly.
That's not just shooting. That's a skill that took years to develop — and the men who did this in the field, under fire, at these distances, did it under conditions far worse than a calm day on a hill in NSW.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

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06/05/2026

Imperial vs Metric – And a 700 Yard Shot to Put It All in Perspective

A metre is just three inches more than a yard. Not that much difference — until you're shooting across 700 of them.
Malcolm Drinkwater breaks down the imperial to metric conversion the way it was always meant to be explained — simply, practically, and with a reason to care at the end of it.
From the shooting platform to the not-so-grassy knoll on the hill: 700 yards. A bit over 640 metres. That was the distance. That was the shot.
And to keep this historic range alive, they need shooters. The ground rules are set. The range is real. The history is still happening here.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

****msHistory

05/05/2026

Australia Post vs Cobb & Co: Who Won? You Won't Like the Answer
In the 1800s, Cobb & Co guaranteed to deliver a letter from Sydney to Hill End within ten days.
Horse-drawn coach. Dirt roads. Bushranger country.
Ten days.
21st century Australia Post has taken up to fourteen days to do the same run.
Now that's progress.

Malcolm Drinkwater. History Hill Museum. Keeping it honest.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

04/05/2026

Notes. Cash. Valuables. Empty the Lot. Take Off.
An honesty lock. On a leather strap. That a knife would open in seconds.
Malcolm Drinkwater holds up original Cobb & Co mailbags — the big ones for letters and light parcels, the small ones for heavier packages — and explains exactly why they were a bushranger's favourite target.
No real security. No real deterrent. Just leather between the contents and whoever wanted them.
They'd go in looking for notes, cash, anything valuable. Empty the lot. Take off.
A bushranger's lucky dip — and the odds were always in their favour.
From The Long and Short of Fi****ms – Part 2.

Address

3458 Hill End Rd
Hill End, NSW
2850

Opening Hours

Saturday 10am - 3pm
Sunday 10am - 3pm

Telephone

+61428378222

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