[1] The Cook's Galley was a mobile kitchen used to prepare food to feed the chaff cutting team owned and run by the Fife family during the 1930s and 1940s.

Elsewhere in the kitchen are a number of wooden packing cases, food bins, cooking and eating utensils, fire tools and pitching forks.

The aftermath of the Great Famine, the death of their mother, their father remarrying and better prospects in an overseas colony were all contributing to factors to them leaving Ireland.

[1] The Keenan family, their neighbours in Ireland, had a daughter in Goulburn, New South Wales, who agreed to sponsor the new migrants - Faithy (1836-1903), Nixon (1840-1916), John (1838-1874), George (1848-1916) and Eliza (1846-1939).

[1] Harold's great grandfather, Nixon started work as a yardman in a hotel, then became a carrier driving a bullock team between Sydney and Cooma.

He suffered the unfortunate accident of having his left foot crushed by the Buffalo Pitts Traction engine which drove his chaff cutting plant.

Initially they camped in the Jockey's Room at the pony racecourse where Norton Street is now located and on the site which in years to come would house their Chaff Mill and Bulk Store.

[1] For almost three decades the family business travelled rural New South Wales cutting hay under contract to James Dunn Ltd., Stockman and Kleinig & Co., Kerridge & McMahon Ltd., and E.D.

[1] Crop failures, labour strikes and the depression brought difficult times and the chaff cutting plant stood in the backyard of the family's No.9 Shaw Street home for many years.

[1] Irene Wealand, Harold's aunt, remembers his mother making attractive and warm Wagga rugs from chaff bags for the household beds.

Harold and his father held onto the chaff cutting plant and the produce store, which had been established in 1945, at 45 Baylis Street, while his uncle (James) took over the two bakehouses and four retail outlets and formed J. N. Fife and Sons with his boys, Ken and Edgar (Ned).

The business was expanded with new partners and later known as the Riverina Baking Co. A large bakehouse was built in Edward Street behind the Wagga Flour Mill.

[1] Chaff, as petrol is today, was a much-needed fuel when the horse was the primary source of power and transport on Riverina farms between the late 19th century and the end of Second World War.

[1] As a result of these demands for horse feed chaff cutting became a profitable business with a number of firms, of which the Fife brothers were one, operating in the Riverina.

The Fife family plant consisted of a Roden or McLaren 8 horse power, two-cylinder traction engine, cook's galley, cliff and bunting chaff cutter, dobbin (or wagon), steam box, and water cart.

The cut hay fell onto a type of sieve, called a riddle board, which fed it onto an elevator taking it to a double chute of bagging cylinders.

Elsewhere in the kitchen are a number of wooden packing cases, food bins, cooking and eating utensils, fire tools and pitching forks.

[1] As at 14 June 2006, the Cook's Galley, as an element of the Fife family chaff cutting plant, was a significant item representing a historical phase of grain harvesting in the Riverina.

[1] Chaff cutting provided fuel for horses which were the principle form of power and transport on farms and the cities during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

They pulled the drays, wagons or a variety implements for the sowing, harvesting or transporting of wheat, machinery, for mining operations, and delivery of other produce.

[1] Mobile Cook's Galley, Museum of the Riverina was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 24 December 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.

It represents a distinct stage in the NSW economy where horses played a seminal role in rural, manufacturing, mining and transport industries.

In the days before motorised machinery such as tractors and lorries, securing chaff for horse feed was a critical task in servicing the State's animal labour force.

The Mobile Galley was an element in a travelling "train" that comprised a steam-powered traction engine that towed the kitchen, a chaff cutting machine, a dobbin (wagon), a steam box and a water cart.

Collectively, the "train" showed a marked level of local ingenuity in the adaptation of existing vehicle types for a specific rural technological need.

While subject to harsh conditions, the survival of the vehicle in a near-original form is testimony to the inventiveness and skills of its builders, Jim McGilvray (carpenter) and Harold Fife of Wagga.

The family diversified into chaff mill, bakery and produce areas, and several members played prominent roles in local and Federal politics.

The Cook's Galley and original chaff cutting "train" has been effectively researched and interpreted and it is unlikely that significant new insights will be documented regarding its impact on past farming and agricultural practices.

Now a fixture of the respected Museum of the Riverina, the Cook's Galley offers a unique opportunity to examine a past, defunct, way of rural life - the harvesting of chaff to provide feed for the working horse population of NSW.

With the widespread introduction of mechanized machinery on the farm, particularly following World War Two, the chaff industry was lost to the tide of petroleum and other fuel needs.