About the collection

The Hawkesbury Regional Museum houses the collection of the Hawkesbury Historical Society. Between 1956 and 2007, the Society collected more than 6,000 items of material culture. The collection has a rich and diverse range of historic artefacts which are of local, state and national significance.

Museum themes are based on the stories of the Hawkesbury River, Land and People. Collection highlights include land grants and convict tools relating to the early colonial Governors, a 1870s original flood boat, items that belonged to the pioneering settler families of the Hawkesbury and indigenous tools belonging to the Darug and Darkinjung people, the traditional owners and custodians who have cared for the land around the Hawkesbury for many thousands of years.

The collection includes historically important artefacts such as the celestial globe, which belonged to internationally-renowned astronomer John Tebbutt (depicted on our earlier, paper $100 note), who lived his entire life in the Hawkesbury, a diary kept by a member of HMAS Hawkesbury during World War II, as well as the building level used in building Australia’s oldest church at Ebenezer, not to mention items relating to the Flabbit, an 'animal' unique to the Hawkesbury region!

The archaeological collection includes objects discovered during excavations carried out at the Museum in 2006 as well as Windsor Military Barracks (1977) and the Queens Arms Inn (Rouse Hill, 1993).

Through generous donations, the Museum has continued to collect objects that tell the important and fascinating stories, both big and small, about the Hawkesbury region. The Museum aims to preserve, develop and communicate information relating to Hawkesbury’s history for all to share.

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