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Remembrance Day – 11 November 2025
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Preservation of the 1887 Moruya Town Map
Or Love in the Time of COVID! The 1887 map of Moruya showing the names of who owned which property, arrived unannounced one morning on the doorstep of the Moruya Museum with no details, not even any hint as to who had left it there. Objects without provenance are usually not welcomed but this object…
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Museum wins IMAGinE 2021 award
We are proud to announce that the Museum has just received an IMAGinE award for its online exhibition “ILLUMINATED: The Art of Children’s Book Illustration”. The annual IMAGinE awards are run by Museums and Galleries NSW and reward innovation and creativity in museums, galleries and cultural centres. ILLUMINATED received a Highly Commended award in the…
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MORUYA OPENS DOORS AGAIN WITH TWO REMARKABLE EXHIBITIONS
Moruya & District Historical Society is pleased to announce that it is re-opening on Wednesday 25thNovember. We are registered as a COVID safe venue and will be following the Government guidelines to keep all visitors and volunteers safe with contact tracing, sanitizing, social distancing etc. We are excited to be welcoming our members and the public…
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Narooma is ‘en fete’ at the grand Catholic Ball
Featured image: The Narooma Kinema, formerly the Narooma Soldiers’ Memorial School of Arts. Shire-wide news extracts from the Moruya Examiner of 21 August 1920, provided by the Moruya & District Historical Society NAROOMA (From our Correspondent). On Friday night last Narooma was en fete. The occasion being the grand Catholic Ball, which has so long…
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ANZAC Day jigsaws
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Inside Our Collection – the Irish Land League Poster
The object The large framed Irish Land League propaganda-style poster depicts the 1881 trial in Dublin of Charles Stewart Parnell and other leaders of The Irish Land League. The men were arrested on 13 October 1881 and imprisoned under a proclaimed Coercion Act in Kilmainham Gaol for “sabotaging the Land Act”, from where the No…
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Highlights of the Museum
The Museum has a rich collection of artefacts which range in date from pre-European settlement to the modern day. The museum also houses an extensive collection of documents, microfilms and photographs. Many of these objects tell personal stories about people’s lives, places and artefacts. It is these stories that make the objects so interesting. The…
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Seasons Greetings!
What would Christmas be without the much loved symbols of the season – the decorated Christmas tree, gift giving, Christmas crackers (bon bons) and Christmas cards? These symbols all became immensely popular during the Victorian era. By 1900 Christmas was the biggest celebration in the British, and therefore Australian, calendar, The first Christmas card was…
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Modesty must be preserved at all costs!
One of the most striking exhibits in the Moruya Museum’s current exhibition Highlights of the Moruya Museum is this side saddle. Fran Hassall, one of our volunteers, chose this striking object to display and wrote the text, and the title, for the object’s label. The exhibition, featuring objects ranging from a ball gown, an 1861 school…
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Inside Our Collection – The Letter Book
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Heroes of the Eurobodalla remembered
The Eurobodalla Shire Council issued the following press release yesterday, 23 April: Heroes of the Eurobodalla remembered A new web-based database showcasing the 500 men and women who enlisted/served in World War One from Eurobodalla is now live. Heroes of the Eurobodalla, created by the Moruya & District Historical Society with support from Eurobodalla Council,…
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Inside Our Collection – The much travelled Willow Christmas cake tin and ‘postal bag’
In many museums it is easy to find objects that look really quite ordinary. You might wonder why they have been kept at all. Strangely, it is often these very ordinary looking objects that have the most extraordinary stories to tell. This is certainly the case with a Willow cake tin and a handmade calico…
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Inside Our Collection – Christmas Greetings From France, 1917
In our small collection of exquisite embroidered greeting cards, or World War 1 Silks, is this wonderful Christmas card sent by John Henry (Harry) Keyte to his sister Sarah May (known as May) Louttit nee Keyte. In 1917 May and her husband Sid Louttit* were living at Kiora. The postcard was sent from France on 18 October…
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Left-tenant Fred Hutching’s letter to the Editor from Palestine – 10 November 1917
A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM “LEFT-TENANT” FRED HUTCHINGS NOTE: On 10 November 1917 a letter from Sapper Herbert Frederick (Fred) Hutchings was published in the Moruya Examiner. Fred was a local boy from Bergalia where his father was a farmer and the manager of the Cheese Factory. He enlisted in October 1915 at the…
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Inside Our Museum – Cigarette Cards c.1917
Cigarette and trade cards were a form of advertising card issued between the 19th century to the present day to promote goods or services. They were often distributed by merchants or enclosed with products such as bread, cigarettes, coffee and chocolate. Cards often bear the sellers or product name and a pictorial representation of the…
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Corsets, Camisoles and Combinations – Moruya Undressed
Come along to the Moruya Museum this Friday evening for the official opening of our exhibition MORUYA UNDRESSED. See our extensive collection of camisoles, combinations (some crotchless) and corsets. If every picture tells a thousand stories, then these undergarments tell many times that number. Garments such as the maternity corset shown below seem like instruments…
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charlie Chaplin and In the Grip of Alcohol come to Moruya
Shire-wide news extracts from the Moruya Examiner of 20 May 1916, provided by the Moruya & District Historical Society: WANTED – An Agent or Caretaker for the Buckley’s Family Cottage and Shop in Campbell Street, Moruya. INSURANCE: The Buckenbowra Wattle Bark Company’s Mill which was recently destroyed by fire, was valued at £5000, and was…
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It’s All About Hats Exhibition – Friday 6 November
I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality. Why just be yourself? Margaret Atwood Do you know the difference between a cloche and a toque? What did women do to their cloches to show that they were single and ready to mingle? Why did the extravagant Edwardian confections featuring feathers, ribbons…
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Inside our collection: The flat iron
In our museum we have many artefacts that our great-grandmothers would have had a real love/hate relationship with. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the laundry with the old copper, mangle, wringers and many irons taking pride of place! Who can remember a time when Monday – all day Monday – was the obligatory…
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Inside our museum – The story of the Willow Pattern
Like many museums we are lucky to have some good examples of the much-loved willow pattern in our china and ceramics collection. The item featured here is a large meat platter. The history of The Willow Pattern: The Chinese invented porcelain more than 2000 years ago, and finely decorated examples remained one of their main…
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Inside our museum – Stereoscopes and stereographs
The objects of the week could be seen as the 18oos version of 3D movies at IMAX theatres. Stereoscopes and the accompanying stereographs (stereo view + photographs) were used for entertainment and educational purposes from the 1830’s until the 1920s. When you look at the objects featured in this post you really do wonder about what the…
