Rouse Hill
Estate

1960s psychedelia at Rouse Hill House

In a short experimental period of music making, the talented young John Terry combined radical musical ideas with abstract imagery and the soundscape of Rouse Hill House.

50th anniversary of the death of Nina Terry

Nina Beatrice Terry (1875-1968) was the eldest of the two daughters of Edwin Stephen Rouse and his wife Bessie (nee Buchanan) of Rouse Hill House.

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, originally acquired by Hannah Rouse in the 1870s.

Alexander Coles Child

Alexander (Alec or Alex) Coles Child, grandson of an old friend of Bessie Rouse, was a university student and master at Mosman Church of England Preparatory School when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in May 1916.

Ancient traditions, new insights

Since 2015, a series of new events privileges Aboriginal voices and experiences at SLM sites.

Bessie Rouse and the Kellyville-Rouse Hill Red Cross

Eliza Ann Rouse, affectionately known as Bessie, mistress of Rouse Hill House, was in her early seventies when war was declared in August 1914. She had five grandsons, the eldest of whom turned 18 in October 1914. The war would bring much anxiety and sadness to the later years of Bessie’s peaceful rural life on the outskirts of Sydney.

Bessie Rouse’s scrap album & the first Australian Christmas cards

A nineteenth-century scrap album, carefully stored in a bookcase at Rouse Hill House, holds hidden treasure – if you know what you’re looking at.

Bessie’s Studio at Rouse Hill House & Farm

Recently at Rouse Hill House & Farm, we reopened the Studio to visitors, further enhancing the experience of exploring this unique property.

Brushing up on our housekeeping

No chemicals, nothing abrasive, just some elbow grease, an eye for detail, and steady hands.

Charles Beresford Cairnes

Charles Beresford Cairnes was one of a number of members of the extended Rouse family who served with British rather than Australian forces during World War I.

Clive Collingwood Dangar MC

Clive Collingwood Dangar was born on 12 January 1882 at Baroona, near Singleton, NSW, the youngest son of Albert Augustus Dangar (1840–1913) and Mary Phoebe, nee Rouse (1847–1931), and a great-grandson of Richard and Elizabeth Rouse of Rouse Hill House.

Conserving the Arcade

The conservation of the Rouse Hill House arcade is an ongoing process of evaluation and cautious intervention.

Great War stories

Amongst the dog-eared and aging clutter crammed into drawers, cupboards and photo albums of Rouse Hill house are treasured family relics tracing connections between the bloody theatres of World War 1 and life on the farm at home.

John Alexander Claude Kennedy (Jack) Tyson

At the end of October 1915 Kathleen Rouse farewelled family friend Jack Tyson, who was off to Melbourne to enlist. The grazier had agisted stock from his property near Hay on George Terry’s Box Hill during the drought, and was a frequent visitor to both Rouse Hill and Box Hill.

Kathleen Buchanan Rouse

Deeply affected by the news of the death of her fiancé, Norman Pearce, in August 1916 Kathleen Rouse embarked for England on the Tainui with her friend Jill Louche to join the war effort.

Keeping cool

Let's go shopping

Do you keep your receipts from your purchases? For a new outfit? The weekly grocery shopping? Repairs to a pair of shoes? Perhaps tucked into your wallet or purse, in a shoebox, under the bed? Easily thrown away or lost, have you ever considered what a record they are of your everyday life?

Lewis Tod Solomons

This photograph of Lewis Tod Solomons, known as Tod, was found in an album owned by Alice Rouse, nee Hayle (1846–1919), wife of William Charles Rouse, which also contains a photograph of his father. The Rouses had a home in North Sydney near the Solomons family.

Magic Lantern at Rouse Hill House

The Rouse Hill House magic lantern is a mid-19th century example of a form of image projector which dates back to the 17th century.

Mary Margaret (Peggy) Manning

During World War I thousands of women joined Voluntary Aid Detachments, whose members were simply known as VADs. Many, trained in first aid and home nursing, worked in hospitals caring for sick and wounded soldiers, but others performed general domestic and clerical tasks or worked as drivers and storekeepers.

Muru Mittigar Education Programs at Rouse Hill House & Farm

A partnership with Aboriginal social enterprise Muru Mittigar is transforming students’ learning experiences.

Nailing history at Rouse Hill House

This man built many of the oldest farm buildings surviving at Rouse Hill and was a close friend of the Rouses. Find out about his tragic ending.

Norman Matthew Pearce

Rouse Hill House contains a number of objects that reveal the close relationships between the families associated with the house and the Pearce family, particularly Norman Pearce and his fiancée, Kathleen Rouse.

Patriotic verse: ‘Wings’ by Eva Manning

In the collection at Rouse Hill House there are four copies of Wings, a little booklet of patriotic verse written by a schoolteacher named Eva Marion Manning.

Preserving our culinary heritage

Autumn is the time when families like the Rouses of Rouse Hill House & Farm preserved the last of the warmer weather’s bounty to enjoy in the months to come.

Putting springs in their place

Relax, slow down – and learn

Discover the vision and message behind this year’s NAIDOC Week event on Sunday 14 July at Rouse Hill House & Farm.

Rouse Hill recipes

Through most of the nineteenth century, Rouse Hill House was the social hub of the district and the Rouse family regularly played host to many events.

Shrouded House: collection care at Rouse Hill House & Farm

Staff at Sydney Living Museums work tirelessly to ensure that buildings and collections are lovingly cared for, and to secure their longevity.

Songs and scandal uncovered: The Dowling Music Project

In an exciting collaboration between Sydney Living Museums and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, performers from the Historical Performance Unit are bringing to life a previously unknown collection of sheet music which belonged to a young Sydney couple in the 1830s.

The splendid clipper 'Sobraon'

The forlorn hulk of the HMAS Tingira features in several 1930s drawings of Berrys Bay by celebrated artist Lloyd Rees. Presented by Rees as a solitary, romantic figure in the serene harbour landscape, the former luxury clipper has particular resonance not only with Rees, but with one of our properties - Rouse Hill House & Farm - and a prominent colonial family, the Rouses.

Tracing family connections

Using treasured objects from our collections, we chart the unique relationship between Rouse Hill House (c1813) and Meroogal (1885).

Uncovering the musical treasures of Rouse Hill House & Farm

Nicole Forsyth, a professional viola player and casual lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is currently researching the Rouse Hill House & Farm sheet music collection for her PhD.

William Knox (Billie) Child

Billie Child was one of the lucky ones. Although he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, he never embarked for overseas service.