The evolution of speaking easy

THE Tweed Regional Museum’s new exhibition Speak Easy opened last week, exploring the intriguing evolution of modern communication technology.

Speak Easy dives into the history of how humans have engaged with mass connectivity, from the first telegraphs to the ubiquitous smartphones, which have shaped how society connects and shares information.

The exhibition features vintage telegraphs and telephone exchanges, pedal-powered radios, and spy-style code breaking stations, offering a hands-on, multi-generational experience.

The free exhibition brings together objects from the museum’s collection and beyond, showcasing the ingenuity and imagination of the earliest days of the information highway.

Curator Kalindi Hopping said some of their most curious finds inspired the exhibit.

“I kept coming across these massive, weird-looking gadgets, like something out of a sci-fi movie from the past,” Hopping said.

“They seemed totally clunky and outdated, but back in the day, they were considered high-tech heroes – saving lives, connecting people, and delivering the news in real time.”

Museum goers can explore how wartime radar technology laid the foundations for modern weather forecasting and how pulses of light now travel across the ocean floor to keep society connected.

Museum director Molly Green said the exhibition uncovers the stories behind the devices many of us once used – and may have forgotten.

“Speak Easy is an interactive journey into the ways we communicate with each other and how these have changed significantly over the centuries,” Green said. “The exhibition illustrates just how vast this change has been in quite a short space of time.”

Speak Easy is on exhibition from July 29 to November 22.

For more information, visit museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au