This is a monthly email from Loudoun House Museum. Also Published in 'Loud'n Clear' - A monthly newsletter for the community of Irvinebank. There were 150 visitors to Loudoun House in September, showing that the tourist season is winding down as we move into the hotter part of the year. Visitors included a Journalist from the Australian Newspaper, which resulted in an article and National coverage for The Living Museum of Irvinebank. Another group of visitors in September consisted of representatives of key stakeholders in the Queensland Governments Heritage Trail Network: http://heritagetrails.qld.gov.au/fs_fnqld.html. The Heritage Trail Network is the Queensland Government's response to the growing 'Cultural Tourism' market. A meeting at the museum was held to discuss our goals and visions for the Loudoun House Museum Strategic Plan and the Regional Museum Development Officer, Maria Wronska-Friend will be visiting in October to help us to further develop the plan. We also partook in a teleconference with the Museum and Historical Association of North Qld to discuss regional museum issues. I had a week long break and travelled to Cooktown to see the replica 16th Century Dutch Ship, Duyfken: "the original Brave Ship which made the first recorded visit to Australian shores in 1606": www.duyfken.com Museum Director Tony Derksen began a two week trip around Tasmania. The last weekend in September saw us hosting a display at Chillagoe: www.infocus.to/chillagoe where the Inaugural North Queensland Gold Panning Championships were held successfully. It was a great time for catching up with people in another part of John Moffat's Empire. I had the pleasure of visiting the Girofla and Lady Jane Mines, and of course the Chillagoe Smelter which were all originally developed by the enterprise of John Moffat. At Chillagoe I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Ruth Kerr who is planning to launch a new book on John Moffat sometime very soon. All of us here at Loudoun House are looking forward to learning more about one of Australia's greatest entrepeneurs. I will let you all know of the launch date when it is confirmed. Dr Kerrs' books about Irvinebank and John Moffat are available at the Loudoun House Museum Bookstore www.infocus.to/irvinebank/bookstore.html Restoration and maintenance work on Loudoun House included a bath for the outside of the building and repair of the front stairs. Thanks to Peter Brown for braving heights to clean the house and to Karl for providing his time and skills as a restoration carpenter on the stairs. If you have any questions or comments please reply to this message or visit our web. Phillip Charlier, Networker, Loudoun House Museum, Irvinebank. http://www.infocus.to/irvinebank If you don't want any more Museum Musings just reply to this message with something like "don't send me stuff" in the subject line.