Historical Museum Archives - Page 10 of 19

4 February 202028 February 2020

Newcastle Museum New South Wales

Newcastle Museum

Founded in 1988 and relocated to its current building in 2011, Newcastle Museum preserves the history of Newcastle. Situated in Honeysuckle and occupying old railway workshops, the museum opens Tuesday to Sunday. Closed on Mondays, except in school holidays, the museum is a great place to visit There is no cost to visit the museum.

How To Get There

Car parks on Wright lane and Honeysuckle Drive provide a convenient place to leave the car. These are pay-for-use parks, with ticket machines to buy tickets from. IF you are using light rail, the closest station is Civic.

Newcastle Museum Displays

Outside Displays

Several of the Museum’s displays are located outside the main building. They are easy to find, one being a camel sculpture and another a huge dragline bucket. The building itself has historical importance, previously used as a railway workshop.

Link Gallery

Located between the old Boiler Shop and Erecting Shed, the Link Gallery holds some of the larger exhibits in the museum’s collection. These include “The Buck” an 1870 J&A Brown Locomotive No4 and the 1890 pipe organ formerly installed in St Augustine’s Church, Merewether.

Fire and Earth

Illustrating Newcastle’s industrial past, this gallery has exhibits from the old BHP Steel Works and coal mines. The multi-level displays allow you to view them from different angles and appreciate these industries and the people who worked them.

Supernova

Founded by Professor Tim Roberts in the late 1970s, Supernova is a hands-on science experience for kids and interested adults. This area explores different aspects of science, allowing you to experiment and understand them with easy activities. An excellent place to learn about science while having fun.

A Newcastle Story

This area of the museum explores how Newcastle changed over time, from the original Aboriginal inhabitants, to the World War 2 shelling by a Japanese submarine to the earthquake of 1989.

Dedicated to the George and Richard Owens Collection, one room is full of colourful boxes and containers. This beautiful collection shows how brands were sold and presented in the past.

World War One Uniforms Newcastle Museum — World War One Uniforms

Fossilized Backbone Newcastle Museum — Fossilized Backbone

Model T Ford

Illustrating a problem many museums have is a rusty Model T Ford. Should it be left as found, or restored to its original condition? Would restoring it destroy its history and possibly lose important data?

What Did We Think?

We were surprised by the quality of the exhibits and had a great walking through the galleries. Anyone visiting Newcastle should visit the museum to help appreciate the city’s past. Well worth the visit!

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To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

30 January 202029 March 2022

Singleton Museum New South Wales

Singleton Museum

Information from the Singleton Historical & Museum Guide. The museum is undergoing renovations.

Located in Burdekin Park, the Singleton Museum houses an amazing collection of local artefacts, making it a great place to stop and look around. Staffed by volunteers from the local Historical Society, the museum’s displays are well curated and professionally laid out. The information displayed at each exhibit is interesting, but if you need a more in depth explanation, the staff are willing to help.

Museum Building’s History

The building was originally Singleton’s first “lock up” built on the site in 1840. By 1841 a detached Court House was built 50 ft to the west and donated by Benjamin Singleton to the government in return for Minimbah buildings. In April 1862 two stone cells were built on the western side of the slab cells being 8ft x 11ft with wooden floors, to hold five prisoners each having a centre corridor between.

Two stone cells built in 1874 replaced the slab cells had concrete floors and a hallway built along the west side of the cell block. All were of stone with walls extending 4 ft below the floor level. Built onto the west side of the hallway, is a brick gaoler’s residence & guard room consisting of a room at each end with a guard room in the centre.

With the construction of a new town lockup and residence in 1899, the Municipal Council obtained the buildings . The removal of the old gaoler’s residence and the southern partition made a Council Chamber 36ft x 14ft with a 16ft x 14ft room retained at the northern end for the Town Clerk’s Office.

In 1963 the Singleton Historical Society gained use of the building, enabling displays featuring Aboriginal, convict, pioneer and rural articles of local heritage to be available to the public. These exhibits have been mostly collected locally and donated by the residents of Singleton Shire.

Monument Fountain To Mayor Munro Burdekin Park Singleton NSW Australia — Mayor Munro Monument Fountain Outside the Museum’s Entrance

Singleton Historical Society Museum Singleton NSW Australia — Singleton Museum

Singleton Historical Museum Burdekin Park Singleton NSW Australia — Tractors at Singleton Museum

Singleton Museum’s Displays

Rural Section

Filled with carts, buggies, farm tools and more, this room contains an image of farm life when Singleton was first settled. The bell from St Clair Station makes an interesting exhibit, as it has been engulfed by a growing tree.

Located in this room is a suitcase that belonged to Henry Dangar, who was a government surveyor and important pastoralist in the early 1800s.

Old Farm Tools Singleton Museum — Old Farm Tools

Displays

Throughout the building’s other rooms containing well maintained displays covering Singleton’s past. From typewriters and surveying equipment, to aboriginal artefacts and fine china, there is a huge quantity of items to inspect..

Old Railway Clock Singleton Museum — Old Railway Clock

Old Kitchen

Furnished as an old kitchen, one of the old gaol cells, contains everything a pre electric kitchen needs. Beautifully laid out, this room is fun to look around and admire the old furniture and artefacts.

The Kitchen Singleton Museum — The Kitchen

Gaol Cells

Originally holding-cells for the court house, the barred doors, manacles, leg irons and bedding on display show how spartan conditions were for prisoners.

Gaol Cell 1861 Singleton Museum — Gaol Cell 1861

Records Room

The library is the custodian of an immense amount of records from numerous local companies, clubs and residents. Many records are on microfilm, however some are still only in paper form and are becoming fragile. Available for use at a modest fee, this is a treasure trove of local history.

Old Books in the Records Room Singleton Museum — Old Books in the Records Room

What Did We Think of the Singleton Museum?

We had a great time looking through the rooms and displays. Although small, the museum makes the best use of the available space with well curated displays which are all well maintained.

A great place to visit if you are passing through town, and a place all locals should visit to understand the town’s history.

Our photos are available for purchase on

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

20 January 202029 March 2022

Kangaroo Valley New South Wales Australia

Kangaroo Valley

Two hours from Sydney, or 30 minutes from Nowra (to Hampton Bridge in the middle of Kangaroo Valley), this is a great place to escape the big city. We stayed in Nowra and explored from there, but there are many closer places to stay, especially if you go camping. During our time we went bush walking, explored local history and admired the amazing scenery.

Hampden Bridge Kangaroo Valley

Built in 1898 to replace an older wooden structure, Hampden Bridge features four large crenellated turrets made of locally quarried sandstone. Named after Lord Hampden, Governor of New South Wales from 1895 to 1899, it is a tourist attraction in Kangaroo Valley, because of its distinctive appearance.

Parking is easy due to the on street and off street car parks at either end of the bridge. From the Nowra side of the bridge, a stairway descends to the Kangaroo River, to view the underside of the bridge.

Pioneer Village Museum Kangaroo Valley

Set in 8 hectares of bushland, the one hectares pioneer village contains building built like like those of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Displayed are a dairy, forge, school house, settler’s cottage, a Museum, war remembrance room and suspension bridge on one of the bush trails.

Farmhouse Kitchen — Pioneer Village Farm

Cambewarra Mountain Lookout

Located at the top of Cambewarra Mountain, the lookout provides panoramic views out the the coast and at 678m above sea level gives you views from Coolangatta Mountain in the north all the way to Sussex Inlet in the south.

Around 20 minutes drive from Nowra, it is easy to get to, but the drive up the mountain is slow, with narrow, twisting roads in places.

Apart from the views, a cafe offers snacks and a lunch menu, with inside and outside seating, depending on the weather. On our visit, it was a great place to warm up after a cold morning start and relaxing by a warm fire was wonderful.

Cambewarra Mountain Lookout CAfe — View From Cambewarra Mountain Lookout

Tallowa Dam

Constructed across the Shoalhaven River, Tallowa Dam is popular with tourists and locals, because of water sports and picnic opportunities. For a relaxing day, the picnic area has a nice grassed area, while nearby, the water is easily accessible. Organised trips by local tour operators, provide the opportunity to kayak downstream.

The dam wall is not accessible, but a track leads to the downstream side, where you can view the wall and some infrastructure.

We were luck on our stop there to see some kangaroos that were relaxing in the picnic area.

Fitzroy Falls

One of the highlights to Kangaroo VAlley is a visit to Fitzroy Falls, not only for the waterfall’s 80m drop, but also the surrounding eucalypt forest and views over the gorges and valleys. Parking in the large car park and paying the park’s entry fee, we first stopped at the Visitor Centre. It contains loads of information about the local history, wildlife and birdwatching and walks. With wheelchair-accessible facilities and a short boardwalk to the scenic views of the waterfalls, you do not need to go bushwalking to enjoy yourself.

West Rim Walking Track

After a stop at the Visitor Centre, we started on the 3.5km return West Rim Track, which is graded at level three, being slightly undulating but very well maintained. Along the way we found more views of the falls, and amazing views over the valley.

After finishing the walk, we found that a mobile coffee van had setup shop in the car park. A great surprise after the walk.

Belmore Falls

Managed by NSW Parks and Wildlife, Belmore Falls Walking Track is well maintained and although graded 3, has a lot of steps. After parking the car and paying the entry fee we took around 45 minutes to walk the track. We stopped many time to look at the scenery, so if you don’t stop you may be quicker.

Arriving in the afternoon, the sun was in a bad position for photos. We would advise doing the walk in the morning for a better sun angle.

What Did We Think of Kangaroo Valley?

A great place to get away to for a few days or a week. During our visit, we only scratched the surface on what’s available here, as the number of walking tracks is huge. Highly recommended for anyone who like nature and the outdoors.

Our photos are available for purchase on

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

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Category: Historical Museum

Newcastle Museum New South Wales

Newcastle Museum

How To Get There