More than 4000 items on display at the Hayes Engineering Works in Oturehua have been carefully measured, described, photographed, labelled, and catalogued this week.
A team of nine cataloguers lead by Dunedin conservator and cataloguer Guy Williams was hired by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) to do the work.
The trust aims to electronically catalogue historic items at each of its properties throughout New Zealand.
Of the cataloguers at Hayes this week, three are contractors and five are University of Otago anthropology students.
Sorting, cleaning, labelling, photographing, describing, and replacing each item is a laborious task, with individual exhibits taking an average of 10 minutes to catalogue, not including time spent finding and identifying each piece.
Mr Williams said hundreds of wooden casting patterns for various contraptions had already been found and catalogued, as well as some more unusual pieces.
"At the other extreme end of the scale, we found what we think is a wooden casting pattern for a toy truck. It goes to show Hayes was not just making farm equipment, but was creatively involved in other things as well."
The Hayes Engineering Works, which is a popular Central Otago tourist destination, contains thousands of working models and examples of engineering first created by inventor Ernest Hayes, who set up the workshop in 1895.
Mr Hayes went on to develop a business with a worldwide reputation for providing farmers with handy items, including wire strainers and windmills.
The Hayes wire strainer was an international top seller, and remains standard farm equipment today.
When completed, the electronic catalogue will be available through the Internet.
NZHPT heritage destinations manager Elizabeth Cox said the information would be invaluable to trust staff, researchers, museum staff, and the public.
"It will raise the profile of Hayes and the Central Otago district," she said.
