Elizabeth Farm
'A most excellent brick house' Elizabeth Farm
Curator Dr Scott Hill explores some of the enduring mysteries buried in the architecture of Australia’s oldest surviving homestead
A stitch in time
Tatting, knotting, knitting, pin-tucking, crocheting, pinking, stitching, stuffing, embroidering … needles fly at Elizabeth Bay House
A taste for the ornate
Traces of long-lost decorative features at Elizabeth Farm provide insights into changing fashions in 19th‑century architecture and design
Museum stories
A turbulent past
With its deep, shady verandahs and elegant symmetry, Elizabeth Farm is an iconic early colonial bungalow
Museum stories
Abundance & curiosity at Elizabeth Farm
One of the great pleasures of visiting Elizabeth Farm is strolling from the drawing room onto the winding paths of the pleasure garden, just as the original occupants, the Macarthur family, did two centuries ago
Plant your history
Aloe arborescens ‘candelabra aloe’
Tours at Elizabeth Farm often start alongside a large bed of succulents, dominated by towering cactus
Bicornes, bonnets & boaters
There’s a variety of headwear across our collections ranging in date from early to late nineteenth century
Plant your history
Billbergia nutans 'Queen's tears'
As it's bursting into bloom right now in MHNSW gardens, we are revisiting a bromeliad with the evocative name of ‘Queen’s tears’
Onsite
Colonial Life at Elizabeth Farm
As they explore the Macarthur family home, which dates from 1793, students learn about the lives of the family and their convict servants and the impact of colonisation on the traditional owners of the Parramatta area