Untouched history

Home to six generations of one family through good times and the bad, Rouse Hill Estate and its stories still draw people to its doors. Each generation has added another layer of belongings, improvements and memories, and today, every object and addition, every tear, stain and repair, has a story to tell. The estate also features the restored 1888 Rouse Hill schoolhouse, a section of the original Windsor Road turnpike proclaimed by Governor Macquarie in 1813, and the site of the doomed 1804 ‘Vinegar Hill’ convict rebellion.

Stories

The Schoolroom, Rouse Hill House & Farm, June 2004
Museum stories

Talk of the town

Six generations of Rouse and Terry families occupied Rouse Hill House from its construction in the early 1800s until the late 1990s, when it opened as a museum

A Gothic Angel

In the drawing room at Rouse Hill your eye is instantly drawn to a small painting on the far wall; a figure of an angel in a shining gilt frame, acquired in the 1870s.

Keeping cool

Shading the face, fanning a fire into a blaze or cooling food, shooing away insects, conveying social status, even passing discreet romantic messages - the use of the fan goes far beyond the creation of a breeze.

Rolled piece of music on wooden scroll.
WW1

The Allies in camp music roll

Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola, a player piano, which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I

DES_HR93_0201_1_2c.jpg

Baubles, brooches & beads

We wear jewellery as articles of dress and fashion and for sentimental reasons – as tokens of love, as symbols of mourning, as souvenirs of travel

Learning programs

Browse all
Students sitting on the hillside, creating a watercolour painting of the view towards the Blue Mountains.
Onsite

A Colonial Eye

Students investigate the role of artists during the early colonial period and consider how they contributed to the development of the colony

A student feeds the chickens as part of the Early to Rise program at Rouse Hill Estate
Onsite

Early to Rise

This Stage 1 History program gives students the opportunity to explore the working areas of the former farm, and investigate what life would have been like for children living there 120 years ago

Looking towards small cottage across paddocks.
Onsite

Expanding the Colony

Students explore the former farm and examine a range of sources to learn about the expansion of NSW in the 19th century and investigate its impacts on the environment, the people of the Boorooberongal clan and the colonisers

Annual Giving 2023–24: engaging with history

Supporting children to discover history

Find out more