Nhill: Home to Australia’s only pinball museum

NHILL, in the Wimmera, has earned repute for many reasons, but now it has another claim to fame, writes SARAH HUDSON.

NHILL, in the Wimmera, has earned repute for many reasons.

The town is the halfway point between Melbourne and Adelaide, it’s the birthplace of a few Aussie Rules players and the odd politician (think David Leyonhjelm) and is the headquarters of a substantial duck factory.

But this year Nhill has another claim to fame — it is home to Australia’s largest and only public pinball museum.

The connection between the Wimmera and a mid-1900s arcade game may not be immediately obvious but, according to Lyndon Carter, who runs the Australian Pinball Museum with his father, Simon, after just a few months’ operation it is boosting the town’s fortunes.

“Nhill is usually a place a lot of people drive though on their way to somewhere, but now they’re stopping to see the museum, then spending time in town,” says Lyndon, who lives in Adelaide and works every second week in Nhill, interchanging with his father.

“A lot of people drop by to see what we’re about and then book a dedicated trip to visit the museum.”

Lyndon and Simon had a quiet opening of the museum on the Western Highway last year, “to test the waters”, but have opened shop officially this year in a room adjoining their main business, the 18-room Nhill Oasis Motel, which they have been running since 2008.

“This was one of the first motels in Victoria when it was constructed in 1958 so I suppose in some ways that Route 66 style of architecture is tied in with the retro feel of pinballs,” says Lyndon.

There are more than 20 pinball machines on display and about 100 in storage, which are swapped over every few months, as well as an array of old video arcade games, such as Pacman and Street Fighter.

One of the oldest in the collection is a low-tech pinball from 1962 called Fashion Show, with the most modern an AC/DC from 2012 and a Star Trek pinball from 2013.

One of the rarest is called College Queens, from 1969.

“I’ve been researching this for months and there are nine known to exist in the world and ours is the only one on public display,” says the 26-year-old.

The museum is free, with games operated by coin, while the walls of the museum feature autographed posters, signed by the designers themselves, as well as mechanical parts showing how the machines work.

Such is the Carters’ dedication to their collection they regularly travel overseas to pinball factories and tournaments.

In March they took a research trip to the US, visiting the Museum of Pinball in California to “help out as technicians”, then visited Stern Pinball in Chicago to get memorabilia signed by game designers.

“In the US I saw a few tournaments — it’s starting to be a big sport over there — and there’s a trend emerging for ... (venues) serving alcohol with craft beer on tap, alongside pinballs or arcade games,” Lyndon says.

“It’s not for kids but hipsters, geeks, and millennials are getting into it, too. It’s much more social than playing computer games.”

It’s thanks to Simon’s foresight that Nhill’s museum exists today.

In the 1980s and ’90s Simon — originally a science teacher — was an arcade operator in Adelaide, supplying pinballs to local pubs and shops.

“I’ve been told that before I could walk mum and dad would put me on top of a pinball and I’d sit watching the lights flash and the ball ping around,” Lyndon says. “When I was older I’d stand on a box or crate to play.”

When poker machines became legal in South Australia in the ’90s it sounded the death knell for pinballs. But Simon couldn’t bear to part with his collection and so instead packed about 100 in storage, where they gathered dust for two decades.

Last year Lyndon had an idea to display them in the motel. “When pinballs died out they were worthless. A lot of people sent them to tips or sold them for $20,” he says.

“Now the average price is about $5000 and some fetch $10,000. Dad didn’t expect their value to go up. He’s been shocked to see the resurgence. He just loves the machines.”