A treasured part of the Kandos Museum collection is the Cement Bag Dress. This wonderful piece was made by Annaleigh Moore of Ilford, when she was in her final year at Kandos High School in 1996. The dress tells a lot about Kandos and what an important part cement making played in the region’s culture.
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With Annaleigh wearing it, the dress took part in Kandos’s 80 Year parade and came into the Museum’s collection shortly afterwards. It has been on display ever since. Ms Moore said she had not thought about it since high school.
“I was truly surprised to get a call from the museum telling me that it was one of the significant items in the museum’s collection. At the time I remember Kandos as being an optimistic place. There was plenty of work in the town and even if you knew you would leave to follow other things it was unthinkable that Kandos would stop making cement,” recalls Annaleigh who went on to UNSW attaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Science from the School of Material Science and Engineering.
Almost twenty years on, the dress is in need of some minor repairs.
“Where possible it is always best to have the original creator undertake this conservation work,” Fiona MacDonald from the museum said. “We are delighted that Annaleigh has volunteered to undertake this conservation work. The dress is a very important part of our collection.”