Historic Buildings

The organisation was formed to preserve the contents of the historic Council Chambers built 1867 and contains photographs, letters, maps, diaries, photographs of Councillors and history of the area. The original Court House (1874) contains original furniture and now houses an extensive display of the service personnel of the district, as well as Lodge relics.600 items
Geelong Gallery's outstanding collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts spans the art of Australia from the colonial period to the present day. Frederick McCubbin's masterpiece. A Bush Burial was acquired four years after the Gallery's establishment in 1896. Since then, the Gallery has amassed a magnificent collection of 19th and 20th century Australian and European paintings. Interspersed throughout the nine galleries are exhibitions of decorative arts. Including 19th and 19th century English porcelain, British art pottery, colonial Australian silver, as well as contemporary...
Sovereign Hill is a dynamic group of museums that captures the mining and social history of Ballarat. Its principle components are: an outdoor museum that represents the diggings and township of Ballarat in the period 1851 to 1861; the Sovereign Quartz mine consisting of above-ground mining plant and below ground mining museum; the 'Blood on the Southern Cross' sound and light show that tells the story of the Eureka Stockade rebellion; the Gold Museum which presents temporary and permanent exhibitions exploring the history of the district, encompassing both Ballarat social history and Koori...
The library is maintained by the Humanist Society of Victoria. It covers 150 years of local Australian material, associated manuscripts and related records from overseas. It is a repository of privately-held material of the major secular, freethought groups that have operated throughout Australia over the past century.Archival records minute books, biographical data, photographs, drawings, pamphlets, fliers, magazines, journals, books and associated materials as well as memorabilia of the Australian Freethought Movement, which modern Humanist and Secular Societies define as an integral part...
Friends of J Ward Inc is a volunteer group dedicated to preserving the structure and history of J Ward Ararat. J Ward was for over 100 years the place of incarceration of Victoria's Criminally Insane. Built as a prison during the gold rush of 1857-61; was soon redundant and taken over by the lunacy dept. Now considered draconian to house even the Criminally Insane, J Ward is a museum to a bygone era.The Museum at J Ward includes some of the horrifying p of yesteryear and some used not so long ago. The single most important item preserved is J Ward itself. See life as it was in the institution...
'Dromkeen' a graceful nineteenth century homestead, houses a unique collection of original artwork, manuscripts and other pre-publication material from Australian children's books. Artwork from early Australian to contemporary and indigenous works can be viewed in the gallery rooms. Browse in the extensive bookshop specialising in quality children's literature and enjoy a picnic in the gardens where you'll find bronze sculptures of book characters. General admission and education programs are available each day from Tuesday to Friday (excluding public holidays). On 'Sundays at Dromkeen'...
Overlooking Corio Bay, the Geelong Maritime Museum is located in the stable of Osborne House which was built in 1857. The museum has displays looking at the colourful history of Osbourne House which was the site of the first Australian Naval College in 1913 and the first submarine base in 1921. The museum also focuses on the history of Corio Bay as a port.Naval: from Nelson and Trafalgar to WW11; Maritime: merchant navy, our Corio Bay, sail instruments; Library: charts, maps, maritime and naval reference
Australia's first outdoor museum, Pioneer Settlement Museum portrays life in the Murray-Mallee in the era 1830-1930, including pre-contact between aborigines and settlers. There is an excellent schools education program, riverboat cruises on the Murray River, Australia's first sound and light show, regular street theatre and staffed shops. The museum covers 7 acres, with areas showing town and rural life of the settlement period, and aboriginal display areas. Included in the entry price are rides in horsedrawn vehicles and vintage cars. A working blacksmith fashions artifacts, the printer...
The museum is operated by the Wangaratta Historical Society Inc. and is housed in the former Wangaratta Fire Station. The lower floor is divided into two display rooms and a research room, upstairs a storage area. Approximately 160 square metres of floor space. In addition there are a number of items on display in the cellar of the Vine Hotel at north Wangaratta.Smaller items of historical significance; household, commercial, industrial, agricultural military etc, from the Wangaratta District (we do not have space for large items such as farm vehicles). 10,000 photographs from the local area...
Historic Former Methodist buildings (CATD Memorial); with extensive archives (Methodist, Presbyterian, Congressional, Uniting Church); Small historical display and reference library. Archive financed by SYNOD of Victoria and staffed by volunteers. Part of national network of archives in Uniting Church. Undertakes research for a fee. Linked with UCA Historical Society (VIC) in Lectures and displays.A Fairly complete Methodist collection with significant holdings of Congregational and Presbyterian material and a collection of Uniting Church Archives at state and local level.
The original four roomed building, c.1888, from which the irrigation scheme for the Western Goulburn Valley was developed, was purchased and restored in 1988. This building now houses local history and information on the history of irrigation. Two brick extensions, totalling 200 sq. metres have since been added to house the Wartime Camps collection, included is a foyer, shop and lecture room come art gallery complete with video viewing facilities.Photographs, art and craft work, records, recollections and other archival material recovered from the former prisoners and internees from the seven...
The Performing Arts Museum of the Victorian Arts Centre exists to preserve, manage and make accessible Australia's performing arts history and traditions. The Museum was founded in 1977 and since that time has worked closely with the performing arts community to build a unique collection of material which tells the story of the performing arts in Australia.The Performing Arts Museum collection contains costumes and accessories, stage designs, props, photographs, posters, programmes and personal memorabilia relating to many of Australia's foremost companies and performers including Dame Nellie...
The three houses at Coventry Street are among the few 19th Century prefabricated iron buildings remaining in the world. Students of building, architecture, industrial archaeology as well as social history will find them of interest.
An audio visual tour provides a comrehensive account of these buildings in the history of white settlement in Australia and during the Gold Rush years in Victoria particularly.
Completed in 1890, Labassa is a French Renaissance mansion significant for the relative completeness of its richly decorated and finely executed interiors.300 objects. Labassa features detailed stencilling, rich heavy wallpapers and a grand staircase with a magnificent stained-glass window and rare trompe l'oeil ceiling.
Barwon Grange is an elegant intact brick home dating from Geelong's earliest residential settlement. It was built in 1855 and reflects the asperations of middle class businessman Jonathan Porter O'Brien and his family who had emigrated from Liverpool, U.K. The architecture is picturesque Gothic style with steep gables, unusual decorative timber bargeboards and verandah parapet.The interior contains a fine collection of early Victorian furniture and fittings faithfully accumulated according to an inventory compiled when the house was auctioned in 1856. The garden that complements the house...
Built in 1869 for Thomas and Elizabeth Austin by the Geelong architects Davidson and Henderson, Barwon Park is a majestic 42-room bluestone mansion and stables at Winchelsea.The interiors of the house remain largely in original condition. The fine plaster decoration in the elegantly proportioned principal rooms is noteworthy. The grand staircase is also a striking feature which resonates with the glory of Victoria's pastoral heritage.
The Mooramong Homestead, built in the early 1870s, was extensively altered in 1937 to conform to contemporary American tastes. It reflects the elegant lifestyle of D.J.S. (Scobie) Mackinnon and his wife, the Hollywood silent screen star Clare Adams, and remains furnished as lived in by the Mackinnons.Surrounded by hundreds of acres of operating farmland, the National Trust has established a flora and fauna reserve according to the wishes of the previous owners. It is home to a significant population of the endangered species Eastern Barred Bandicoot and a wide variety of native birdlife.
The mission of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is to be an independent membership organisation committed to the conservation of our heritage by our own action and by involvement and education of the community. Tasma Terrace is the principal office and is open weekdays, 9.00am to 5.00pm for enquiries, joining the trust and purchase of books and gifts. It is not however a museum property.The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) manages and opens the doors of many significant historical properties and gardens across Victoria. See separate Guide entries for Como Historic House and...
Como is one of few surviving large suburbab estates, dating from 1847, just over 10 years after European settlement of the Port Phillip district. For 95 years it was owned by the Armytage family, prominent graziers and well known members of Melbourne society. Much of their original furniture is in the house today. The house is surrounded by 6.5 acres of beautiful gardens.Approximtely 1500 pieces of furniture and decorative arts objects, mostly original to the Armytage family's period of ownership. (1864 - 1959)
The Nillumbik Historical Society's aim is to collect and preserve historical documents, articles and historic sites. The society's headquarters is a stone farmers cottage erected in 1865, which it operates as a museum and storage centre. The Society's collection includes some 1800 historic photos, in most cases accompanied with a slide and a negative, biographies of 90 local families and institutions, and artefacts and memorabilia.
A tem of speakers visit schools and local interest groups. Displays of historic photographs are mounted as requested. Because Diamond Creek was a gold mining town,...

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