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The Hawkesbury district has a long history including a rich indigenous cultural heritage established by the Darug people, as well as a distinctive built environment dating back to the earliest days of the colony. Hawkesbury Regional Museum conserves and interprets that heritage to residents and visitors, many of whom have family links to the area.
The museum comprises a new, purpose-built construction at 8 Baker Street, Windsor, and the heritage building known as Howes House at 7 Thompson Square. Together they form a unique cultural facility offering a high-quality museum experience. As well as a permanent exhibition on the themes River, Land, People, the museum offers a program of changing temporary exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects.
Hawkesbury Regional Museum
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See remnants of the ‘Macquarie Wall’ built on the museum site in the 1800s
Opening Hours
Wednesday - Friday 10am-4pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am-3pm
Monday and Tuesday CLOSED (open by appointment for groups)
Public Holiday times: Closed Christmas Day, Good Friday and public holidays falling on Tuesdays to Fridays. Open 10am-3pm on public holidays falling on Saturdays to Mondays.
School and group visits may be arranged for other times.
Contact the Museum by email.
FREE entry
Phone: 4560 4655
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Current Exhibitions
River, Land, People
The main exhibition paints with a broad brush the themes and events that have made the Hawkesbury what it is today, beginning with the Darug people, whose lives revolved around the Deerubbin (better know today as the Hawkesbury) River. The river was vital to the survival of the Darug, as it was for the white settlers, who were subjected to its tendency to flood on many occasions. The worst of these was in 1867, and on display in the museum is a gauge showing the height of the flood at its peak. Margaret Catchpole wrote:
‘This happened the 22nd of last March [1806]… Some poor creatures riding on the houses, some on their barns, crying out for God’s sake to be saved, others firing their guns in the greatest distress for a boat. There were many thousands of head [of pigs]– all kinds of cattle lost, and so many bushels of all sorts of grain was lost so now this place is in great distress.’
Catchpole had arrived in the colony after being convicted of horse-stealing, sentenced to death, commuted to seven years transportation, making a daring escape from gaol, being recaptured and sentenced to transportation for life. She was one of many people who left their mark on the local community as well as making a contribution to the wider world. Others were Mary Archer, who set the precedent by which Europeans became legally accountable for killing Aborigines, and Andrew Town, who made a fortune as one of the most successful horse breeders in the country, only to lose it all in the economic recession of the 1890s.
John Tebbutt (temporary exhibition)
In 1973 a crater on the Moon was named in honour of John Tebbutt. Nine years later his image was placed on the back of the new $100 note. His was truly a stellar career.
In this year (the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first observations of the night sky with a telescope) we honour Tebbutt, who lived his whole life in Windsor. The exhibition includes Tebbutt’s astronomical globe and a wall-sized artist’s impression of the Great Comet discovered by Tebbutt in 1861.
Also on show are a number of telescopes from the collection of Hawkesbury Astronomical Society, space toys on loan from a Hawkesbury collector, and archival film footage showing NASA astronauts playing with toys in space.
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