Charles 'Chic' Wadley, an 82-year-old former electronic engineer, owns what is believed to be the largest private collection of working film and plate cameras in the southern hemisphere. His collection, housed in the Meckering Camera Museum in Western Australia, dates back to the late 1800s and features original concept designs for cameras predating the invention of photography.
Charles "Chic" Wadley's passion for cameras and photography is so strong that growing up he was told he was born with a camera in his hand.
Mr Wadley's camera collection dates back to the late 1800s, with items that were the original concept designs for what we now know as cameras, estimated to have been manufactured eight years before photography was invented. "Most people are completely flabbergasted when they discover the museum because they don't realise just how many cameras are in here," Mr Wadley said."I couldn’t afford to buy anywhere else at the time and now the collection is too big to move."ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Eliza BidstrupMeckering is more widely known for the earthquake that reduced parts of the town to rubble in 1968.
Moving to Meckering in the mid-90s, Mr Wadley purchased the town's retired petrol station, built just after the earthquake, and converted it into a home and a place for his camera collection.
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