Located in the old McGlew & Adams Produce Store next to the jetty, the museum has detailed displays illustrating the early settlement, industrial, social and maritime history of the area when this once busy port was a continuous hub of activity from the 1870s-1930s.
The original store building is divided into different themed displays including shipping and shipwrecks in the area particularly regarding the SS Clan Ranald which sank off Troubridge Hill in 1909 claiming the lives of 40 crew members (all of which are buried in the local cemetery). It is considered one of the worst shipwrecks in South Australia. In 2015 the museum organised for the anchor of the Clan Ranald to be put on permanent display in an area opposite the museum. Other displays feature early settlement including the agricultural, commercial, industrial, military, sporting and social history of the area with major emphasis on the salt industry from harvesting off the lakes to transporting along the steel track through to refining and export. Many products were shipped from Edithburgh, making it South Australia’s third busiest port by the 1920s.
Visitors can also browse through the cemetery records, school album and museum publications at the old Edithburgh Corporation meeting table within the museum.
There is another outside area where one can view the mural by artist Ann Harris on the side of the building which captures the different aspects of Edithburgh’s history and was commissioned by the museum in 2014. One can also see agricultural machinery on display, a restored Riddle windmill and blacksmith’s tools.
