Paul Farren claims he & his wife Charlie have around 85 percent of the pre-1900 bicycles in Australia
- all under one roof in a Melbourne warehouse-cum-museum. Thirty years of hunting them down & collecting has resulted in one of the most impressive early bike collections in the world. It
Includes:: 160 pre-1900 bicycles, including hobby horses, boneshakers & Penny Farthings, as well as early 20th-century models. The collection charts the development of the bicycle, which foreshadows the invention of the motor car in many surprising ways. It also shows wider social change & the role the bicycle has played in female emancipation, war & its progression from plaything of the wealthy to utilitarian mode of transport of the masses.