The Oates Collection exhibits focus on the lives and adventures of two members of the Oates Family, again both pioneers and explorers of the natural world.

Frank Oates (1840 – 1875), was fascinated by natural history from an early age, particularly the study of wild birds.  He entered Christ Church College, Oxford, to read Natural Sciences in 1860, but because of  ill-health failed to complete his studies.   In 1871 he visited the Americas in an attempt to re-establish his health.  On display in the Frank Oates Gallery is a stunning display of Central American birds collected from his travels there.  The Gallery also details his fateful journey to Africa, begun in 1873, with displays of various artefacts and specimens he collected during his trek from Durban, through Natal, Transvaal and finally to Matebeleland and the Victoria Falls.

The life of Captain Lawrence Oates (1880 – 1912), nephew to Frank, is celebrated in the next gallery.  The Lawrence Oates Gallery explains the life and tragic death of the soldier and explorer.  Captain Scott’s 1911 Tera Nova expedition, and Oates’s part in it, is brought to life using some of Ponting’s photographs and film footage from ‘90 Degrees South’.  Of outstanding interest, are a set of the original polar clothing and one of the large wooden sledges man-hauled by the team members.  There is also a small display about the 1984 expedition ‘In the Footsteps of Scott’.  Led by Robert Swan, this was the first since 1911 to undertake the journey to the South Pole on foot.