Monthly archives: July 2014

First, catch your bandicoot

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Stag trophy in the vestibule at Rouse Hill House

Stag trophy in the vestibule at Rouse Hill House. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

Here at the Cook and the Curator conversations often have a circuitous feel to them. This week a chat about Mrs Rawson’s 1879 Queensland Cookery Book and recipes for stewed bandicoot (to the incredulous horror of our colleagues who were listening in) ended up with the taxidermed trophies in the front hall at Rouse Hill House – and the broader topic hunting in the 19th century. Continue reading →

Dining by lamplight

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The Rouse Hill dining room by candlelight

The Rouse Hill dining room by candlelight. Photo Scott Hill © Sydney Living Museums

Currently at various Sydney Living Museums Houses we’re running a series of night time tours, where you can see the houses as their original occupants saw them lit by candle and lamplight. Which raises the vexing question of just HOW should you light the historic dining table? Continue reading →

Celebrating knowledge and sharing of tastes

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Detail view of 'Edge of the Trees' art installation, First Government House Place (forecourt), Museum of Sydney.

Detail view of 'Edge of the Trees' art installation, First Government House Place (forecourt), Museum of Sydney. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

From the edge of the trees the Gadigal people watched as the strangers of the First Fleet struggled ashore in 1788. This installation by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley symbolises that first encounter. Wander through trees embedded with materials and language evoking the layers of memory, people and place. 

Museum of Sydney, built on the site of first government house, is in part, a monument to the commemorate first contact between British colonisers and Sydney’s Indigenous Peoples. The Edge of the trees art installation on the museum’s forecourt and interpretive displays in the museums help relate Aboriginal Peoples’ part in Sydney’s story – past and present, and NAIDOC week celebrations in Sydney continue to celebrate each year. Sydney Living Museums is hosting a NAIDOC open day at Rouse Hill House and Farm this weekend. Continue reading →