Penrith Print Museum open for visitors

The Penrith Print Museum is open for visitors, after a four-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Volunteers at the museum are also working on the restoration of an original 1841 Columbian printing press.

Museum committee member James Cryer told Print21, “We are open for business,” he said. “We are open every Sunday, with volunteers working on restoring the equipment every weekend.”

Museum president George Gearside told Print21 the Columbian printing press used to print the Carcoar Chronicle.

“It was transported by cart across the Blue Mountains in 1872. When the newspaper ceased printing in around 1939, they threw it out in the back yard,” he said. “John Fairfax then bought it and brought it to Sydney.

“The Columbian is almost ready to print; it’ll be finished in the next couple of weeks,” Gearside said. “We believe it will be the oldest working printing press in Australia.”

The Penrith Museum of Print was re-opened in November 2018 after a six-month, $130,000 renovation. 

Founded in 2001 by printing industry veteran Alan Connell, the expanded museum accommodated equipment that previously had to be kept in storage.