Women's stories

(Re)making a home
An evocative collection of household items belonging to the last tenants of Susannah Place

On This Day
10 Sep 1823 - escapee re-transported to NSW
On the 10th of September 1823 Susan Courtney was tried in England for returning from transportation

40,000 women and the dormitory experience
It’s well known that 2253 Irish orphan girls were some of the first occupants of Sydney’s Female Immigration Depot, but they were only just the beginning of the women’s story at Hyde Park Barracks

First Nations
A fisher woman of Warrane
Daringa’s short but fascinating life reflects the connection of coastal Aboriginal peoples to the water, and the key role played by women in the fishing economy

A home of their own
A young woman of the Victorian era, Tot Thorburn had suitors and male friends but chose not to marry. She enjoyed a long and happy life with her sisters at Meroogal

A manuscript cookbook from Meroogal
Cooking was an integral part of the rhythm of life for the family at Meroogal, near Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales

WW1
A patriotic fundraising memento
This tiny celluloid doll, just 10 centimetres in height and clothed in panels of ribbon, is showing her age

Baubles, brooches & beads
We wear jewellery as articles of dress and fashion and for sentimental reasons – as tokens of love, as symbols of mourning, as souvenirs of travel

WW1
Bessie Rouse and the Kellyville-Rouse Hill Red Cross
Eliza Ann Rouse, affectionately known as Bessie, mistress of Rouse Hill House, was in her early seventies when war was declared in August 1914