Make yourself at home

Loved and maintained by four generations of women from one local family, Meroogal has barely changed since it was built in the 1880s. The house still overflows with their favourite belongings, and the garden with fruit and produce that hint at their self-sufficiency and hospitality. Books and ornaments, furniture, photographs, diaries and journals, clippings, recipes and receipts – all tell a multitude of stories about the pleasures and labours of daily life, the Meroogal women and the south-coast community in which they lived. It’s also home to the biennial Meroogal Women’s Art Prize.

Bedroom, Meroogal

Meroogal Women’s Art Prize

Museums of History NSW is excited to announce that entries are now open for the 2024 Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, with a prize pool of over $10,000

Stories

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Image of the Meroogal homestead on a sunny day.
Museum stories

Make yourself at home

Meroogal became home to four generations of resilient and resourceful women, whose house was their livelihood as well as their home

Sepia toned photo of Meroogal house exterior with three figures behind fence.

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 Jacaranda tree in bloom with Meroogal House in the background

Learn more about Meroogal

Discover the history of the house, the people who lived there, and the collection still held within the walls of this historic property

Rendez-vous by Vita Cochran

Celebrating women artists across NSW

The Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, now in its 19th year, was launched on 16 September 2022

Our manifold nature: loutrophoros for the new woman by Ebony Russell (WINNER 2022 Meroogal Women's Art Prize)

In conversation with Ebony Russell

We sat down with the winner of the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2022

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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

Learning programs

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Benchtop and cupboards below curtained windows in older style kitchen.
Onsite

Meroogal student tours

Tours are available at Meroogal for students in Stages 4, 5 & 6, exploring aspects of the collection relating to food technologies, textiles technologies and Industrial technologies – timber

Two girls pumping water at Meroogal House
Onsite

Then and Now: Playing with the Past

Students investigate how home life has been changed by the domestic and leisure technologies introduced since the late 19th century as they explore Meroogal, built in 1886

Annual Giving 2023–24: engaging with history

Supporting children to discover history

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