Entry
Adult | $12
Concession | $8
Family* | $30
Members | Free of charge
Children under 5 years | Free of charge
*2 adults & 2 children or 1 adult & 3 children
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Some houses are immediately friendly and inviting. Meroogal is such a house. Handed down through four generations of women from one local family, it tells a multitude of stories about the ‘Roogal’ women and the south-coast community in which they lived.
Thorburn family at Meroogal, 13 January 1891.
A few blocks from the town centre of Nowra on NSW’s south coast, Meroogal is a rare and precious gem. Barely changed since it was built in the 1880s, the distinctive ‘Carpenter Gothic’ house has been loved and maintained by four generations of Thorburn and Macgregor women through the pleasures and labours of daily life. The house still overflows with their belongings – favourite books and ornaments, furniture, photographs, diaries and journals, newspaper clippings, receipts and recipes, appliances and clothes – and the garden, although reduced from its original size, still provides fruits and fresh produce that hint at their self-sufficiency and hospitality. Meroogal invites us into their lives, and through their private histories draws us into a shared and living past.
The latest at Meroogal
International Women's Day
Women's stories, women's livesThursday 7 March 2019
School holidays
Summer 2019: school holiday opening hoursTuesday 27 November 2018
Meroogal
Armistice Day: ‘the bells are ringing’Friday 9 November 2018
In early November 1918, Australians knew that the end of World War I was imminent and that an armistice was about to be signed between Germany and the Allies. After some false reports and premature peace rejoicings, the armistice was finally signed in France at 5am on Monday 11 November and came into effect at 11am Paris time. Reverend Tom Thorburn, Presbyterian minister, described how events unfolded in a letter written a few days later to his sister Tot Thorburn at Meroogal in Nowra.
Meroogal
Announcing this year's Meroogal Women's Art Prize winnersTuesday 25 September 2018
Meet our three Meroogal Women's Art Prize 2018 winners: Tamara Dean (First Prize), Kim Davies (Second Prize) and Beth Norling (Highly Commended).
Meroogal
Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2018 – finalists announcedWednesday 22 August 2018
We are delighted to announce the finalists for the 17th Meroogal Women’s Art Prize.
Exterior view
Exterior view of Meroogal and garden
Meroogal 1903 by John Samuel Browning
Meroogal 1903, John Samuel Browning, watercolour on paper. John Samuel Browning (1831-1909) was a friend of the Thorburn family. He was a retired civil servant who had been Commissioner of Crown Lands and Chief Surveyor in Nelson, New Zealand.
In the kitchen
Stove and oven in the kitchen, Meroogal.
View into big balcony bedroom
A view into the big balcony bedroom from the upstairs (first floor) hall, Meroogal.
Exterior, around 1887
Photograph of Meroogal exterior, circa 1887. The man in the bowler hat is Robert Taylor Thorburn and the women are his sisters Belle Thorburn (left) and Tot Thorburn (right).
Front verandah, facing West Street
Front verandah at Meroogal, facing West Street.