reopen

When Graham Austin — inventor, bicycle maker and church pastor — opened a bike museum in Launceston, Tasmania, he welcomed in schoolkids and the community.

Now, a decade after the museum was closed, his daughter hopes the intact collection, which is tucked away in an old high school building in the Launceston suburb of Ravenswood, can be revived and opened for public viewing.

More than 300 bicycles are on display, but since Mr Austin died in 2011 they have mainly been collecting dust.

“It’s actually a whole lifetime of collection,” his daughter, Merrilyn Billings, said.

“He would go to auctions to try and find something he didn’t have, and he would then bid for it and put it with his collection.”

Mr Austin opened the museum in the Zions Hill Church at Ravenswood — about 10 minutes from Launceston’s city centre — in the early 2000s.

“He moved out to an area with a lot of needs and used to take people out on bike rides,” Ms Billings said.

“When he first opened it, school groups came in and had a look, and children from the community used to bring in their bikes for him to repair.”

Mr Austin also made his own bikes, called Ausso bikes.

“He used to take little bits and pieces and make crazy sort of bikes and little penny farthings and all of that.

“One time, years ago, he built a fun park down the West Tamar, down on the wetlands, and that’s where he used to bring out all his contraptions.”

‘Waiting for the right people’ to reopen it

Many bikes at the Zions Hill Bike Museum were made in Tasmania, while others were from around the world.

A bike ridden by retired Australian track cyclist Danny Clark in his early days hangs in the “hall of fame” section of the museum.

Other bikes, including an old McKinlay’s Department Store delivery bike — a store once in Launceston’s Brisbane Street mall — were donated.

“He wanted the