Playing our song
Making music at Sydney Living Museums
Music offers a unique window into our past, and the stories and collections of Sydney Living Museums’ properties contain compelling clues about the music played and enjoyed by earlier generations.
WW1: stories from our museums
Often poignant and sometimes heartbreaking, the stories reveal combatants, pacifists, patriotic fundraisers and anti-war activists, explore broader narratives of patriotism and expressions of jingoism, and touch on the aftermath of war and the memorialisation of those who enlisted.
Street photography
Read the stories behind our current Street Photography exhibition and learn more about the remarkable acquisition of a collection of 5000 street snaps which provides a lively and revealing record of one Sydney street in 1950 and offers a rare glimpse through the street photographer’s lens.
The Cook & the Curator
For years we’ve enjoyed sharing our kitchens and vegie gardens and running special food programs for children and adults alike. The Cook and the Curator blog is just one way we’ll share our stories, places and recipes with you – so look out for upcoming events and programs.
Plant your history
From basic plant information, gardening techniques and tips, through historic versus contemporary understanding of gardens, to what’s currently in bloom at our sites, they have plenty of insights for you.
Latest stories
Explore by Place
Convict stories
James Ruse
Ex-convict James Ruse became the first person in NSW to receive a land grant when Governor Phillip gave him 30 acres at Parramatta in April 1791.
James Watsford, coachman for the Macarthurs
From convicted horse thief to trusted coachman for the Macarthurs, and finally coach proprietor, the story of James Watsford shows that with a little luck and the right connections some convicts were able to turn their fortunes around.
John ‘Black Caesar’
Convict John ‘Black’ Caesar became Australia’s first bushranger when he fled the settlement in December 1795 and led a gang of fellow escapees in the bush surrounding Port Jackson.
John Hudson
John Hudson, described as ‘sometimes a chimney sweeper’, was the youngest known convict to sail with the First Fleet.
Mary Bryant
Mary Bryant was the first convict to successfully escape the colony of New South Wales and return to Britain.
Runaways & returned transports: a tale of ten men
The history of convict transportation to Australia is peppered with tales of escape.
Sarah Pettit, the Macarthurs’ first servant?
Elizabeth Farm lists hundreds of employees, from assigned and emancipated convicts to those ‘born free’ in the colony. One significant name remained elusive – the very first. Until now.
The extraordinary life of William Buchanan: slave, convict, bushranger
The story of a Jamaican rebel who escaped from the Hyde Park Barracks.
The Maltese connection: the unexpected origins of Elizabeth Farm’s convict workers
The story of three men from Elizabeth Farm shows that theft was only one reason for transportation and that Britain was far from the only source of convicts sent to NSW.
The remarkable Margaret Catchpole
A Suffolk countrywoman turned Hawkesbury midwife; twice sentenced to death and twice reprieved; transported to New South Wales in 1801 and transformed after her death into a romantic literary heroine
Stories from our gardens
A gathering of flowers: the Florilegium collection
Finely detailed botanical artworks reveal the range of plants introduced to Sydney’s gardens over the past 200 years.
Abundance & Curiosity at Elizabeth Farm
One of the great pleasures of visiting Elizabeth Farm is strolling from the drawing room onto the winding paths of the pleasure garden, just as the original occupants, the Macarthur family, did two centuries ago.
Back from the brink
Shredding hail and torrential rains decimated the kitchen garden on Vaucluse Estate in late April 2015. While most of the larger trees and fenceline hedges were spared destruction, all but the hardiest plants were smashed to pieces with the main heirloom vegetable beds almost wiped clean.
Florilegium: plant stories from Sydney Living Museums' gardens
Native plants and exotic species from abroad have shaped Sydney’s gardens from the earliest days of the colony. Through the tales of their discovery, collection and exchange, and the horticultural trends that drove their popularity, Sydney Living Museums' gardens reveal captivating stories spanning more than 200 years.
From across the seas: the gardenesque at Vaucluse House
The pleasure garden at Vaucluse House, with its expansive green lawns and shrubbery of exotic curiosities, replicates one of the pinnacle movements of 19th century horticulture – the gardenesque.
From the collection: The garden year with Mr Bear
This charming children’s book was published in Sydney in late 1937 or early 1938 by the Australian seed company Arthur Yates & Co.
In the pink at Elizabeth Farm
Amid the late summer bounty in the garden at Elizabeth Farm, the crepe myrtle is the undoubted star of the show.
Resisting the water exemptions
Many people have made the mistake of creating water dependent gardens by relying on timed irrigation systems that do not allow their plants to adjust to the harsh conditions prevalent in many parts of Australia. Find out how we beat the water restrictions at Vaucluse House.
Surviving and thriving
The historic gardens at Rouse Hill Estate and Vaucluse House showed remarkable resilience through the heat and bushfires of 2019–20. Tristan Harman, a member of our Horticulture Team, explains his practices and introduces some of the gardens’ star performers
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.
The wisteria at Vaucluse House
The wisteria at Vaucluse House was once famed as one of Sydney’s finest springtime sights.
Turning the leaves of Australian garden history
The Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection comes into bloom with a beautiful collection of rare Yokohama Nursery Company catalogues.
Watch: The art of botanical illustration
The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is home to a fascinating array of significant Australian native and exotic species. One of the most iconic and recognisable is the towering Norfolk Island pine.
