Discover SLM
Find a weekly summary of what’s new across our channels, look up activities to do at home with the family, including in the kitchen and the garden, explore our properties and our collections, and settle in for some good long reads.
This week’s focus:
Find out more about beautiful Vaucluse House. Explore the life that explorer, barrister and politician William Charles Wentworth, his wife Sarah and their ten children enjoyed in this picturesque, stately 19th century mansion with its magnificent formal rooms, ornate interiors and stunning surrounding estate grounds.
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Story
Vaucluse House: a brief history
‘There is not a lovelier site in the known world’, wrote the Sydney-born barrister and novelist John Lang about the Wentworth family’s estate of Vaucluse.
Collection
Chinese tiles
In the collection at Vaucluse House a handful of decorative green glazed perforated tiles, or blocks, survive as orphaned relics of 19th century garden ornament on the estate.
Activity
Recipe
Pineapple and melon jam
What happens when you partner the ‘King of Fruits’ with a ‘rogue melon’? A delicious marriage of flavour and texture.
Watch
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Gardenesque Effects
Duration: 7:01
Duration: 7:01
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Old-fashioned Lemonade
Duration: 3:20
Duration: 3:20
Online puzzles
Get puzzling
Take a moment to relax and recharge with one of our online puzzles featuring our beautiful collections and museums.
Gardens
Prickly Pear
One of the most interesting plants growing at Vaucluse House today is the Prickly Pear. This curious succulent had a variety of uses for the early colonists in Sydney.
Conservation
Vaucluse House turrets
Standing approximately 30 metres above ground level, the beautiful corner turrets atop Vaucluse House have recently undergone stabilisation and conservation work.
Artist in Resident
Dr Lisa Cooper
Find out more about our first artist in residence, Dr Lisa Cooper, a Sydney-based artist and florist.
Online shop
More stories
Collections care in a time of coronavirus
Museum closures earlier this year due to COVID-19 gave Sydney Living Museums staff a valuable opportunity to spend even more time caring for our historic houses and their precious and diverse collections.
Music Making in Historic Houses
A new short film, 'Sweet Noise: Making Music at Vaucluse House', documents preparations for a musical performance in one of Sydney Living Museums' historic houses.
Red Cross tearoom at Vaucluse House
On 2 October 1918 the Sydney Mail published a photograph of a Red Cross worker amid the wisteria of Vaucluse House, and explained that the women of the Vaucluse branch of the Red Cross had set ‘little snowy tables’ on the old flagged verandah of Vaucluse House and were serving tea to visitors every day while the wisteria was in bloom.
Reviving Vaucluse House
Curator Jo Nicholas writes about two significant projects that have come to fruition at Vaucluse House: The drawing room refurbishment that has drawn upon authentic sources and traditional trades, and the redesigned orientation room, enhancing visitors’ understanding of the site’s complex history.
The dream tree: Jacaranda, Sydney icon
Every November, jacarandas rain a shower of purple on Sydney’s streets. This gorgeous flowering tree has such a firm hold on the city and its imagination that few of us could imagine it any other way. But the Brazilian native was once considered as rare as it was beautiful.
The leprechaun in the garden
Published for St Patrick’s Day in 1911, ‘The Goblin of Vaucluse’ is an intriguing evocation of the garden at Vaucluse House at the turn of the 20th century.
Vaucluse House: a brief history
To visit Vaucluse House is to be immersed in the stories and experiences of the remarkable Wentworth family, whose 'romantically hidden' estate and home shaped much of their lives.
Whatever happened to the coaches at Vaucluse House?
Many visitors returning to Vaucluse House ask us about displays at the house remembered from years past; most often, the three coaches that were once in the stables, a story going back about 100 years.
Who's that girl?
Gazing across the drawing room at Vaucluse House, and in countless 19th century interiors around the world, is this bust of a young woman emerging from a flower or a circle of leaves. But who is she?
Latest news
Sydney Open
Meet our patron and ambassadorsFriday 16 October 2020
Meet our Sydney Open patron and ambassadors showcasing expertise across our key themes of city, garden and home.
Employment
20/DIR002 Executive AssistantFriday 16 October 2020
Media release
Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2020 Winners’ AnnouncementWednesday 23 September 2020
The Meroogal Women’s Art Prize celebrates the creativity of female artists in NSW. The 2020 Winners were announced at a modest event at the Meroogal house museum.
Our favourite images from A Thousand WordsMonday 31 August 2020
Rouse Hill Estate
Play along with us: House Music at Your HouseMonday 17 August 2020
We invite you to join us in a new musical experiment, bringing the music of the 19th century into the 21st century. We’ve delved into the hundreds of popular songs that survive in the collection at Rouse Hill Estate and we’ve also asked some brilliant musicians to help you explore these pieces of music from their homes and in our historic houses.