Our houses and museums are packed to the rafters with stories of all kinds, and there are more being uncovered and discovered all the time. Latest stories 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. Brushing up on our housekeeping No chemicals, nothing abrasive, just some elbow grease, an eye for detail, and steady hands. Cool Colours In Spring 2015, Sydney Living Museums was asked if it could assist in the recreation of a 1950s colour palette for Hillary’s Hut, located at the Scott Base, Antarctica. Washed away: the story of Meroogal's clock In the hallway at Meroogal is a grandfather clock with the most wonderful and eventful history. It first arrived from Scotland with the McKenzie family and was with them when they moved to a small village called Terara, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. There the McKenzie family and their clock might have stayed if not for a catastrophe that struck in 1860. Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845 On 28 March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds. The battle of Broken Hill On New Year’s Day 1915, a mass shooting in which four people were killed and seven injured occurred in the mining town of Broken Hill. The attackers, two men variously described in the press as Hindoos, Indians or Turks, were later killed in a gun battle with local rifle-club members, civilians and police. The act of violence made headlines around Australia: ‘Dreadful affair’, ‘Two foreigners run amok’, ‘War in Broken Hill’, ‘War in Australia’, ‘Holy War at Broken Hill’. The story of that day in Broken Hill is complex and emotionally charged. The actions of the two shooters, Mullah Abdullah and Gool Badsha Mahommed, have been variously understood as the violent eruption of two unhappy and disenfranchised men or as an act of war on Australian territory. Driver Robert James Macgregor Barnet Robert James Macgregor Barnet was a great-nephew of the Thorburn sisters of Meroogal. He was the eldest son of Jessie Macgregor (1869–1946) and her husband, the Reverend Donald McKay Barnet (1869–1940). Barnet was a keen amateur photographer, developing and printing his own photographs and carefully storing and listing the negatives in a special Kodak negative album. The pictures he took in the months leading up to the outbreak of World War I and in the period before he embarked for war service overseas provide a poignant record of a young man at the beginning of his adult life. New Research Partnership Sydney Living Museums has announced a new partnership with the University of Southampton and the Royal College of Music as part of a three-year research project exploring domestic music and heritage in the Georgian home. Load more Explore by Place Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection Elizabeth Bay House Elizabeth Farm Hyde Park Barracks Museum Justice & Police Museum Meroogal Museum of Sydney Rose Seidler House Rouse Hill House & Farm Susannah Place Museum The Mint Vaucluse House Buy Eat Your History Stories & Recipes from Australian Kitchens Buy An Edwardian Summer Sydney & beyond through the lens of Arthur Wigram Allen Buy Public Sydney Drawing the City Buy Lloyd Rees Painting with pencil 1930-36
