Volunteer

Sydney Open sees Sydney throw open the doors of many of its award-winning contemporary and much-loved heritage buildings on the first weekend of November each year. Sydney Open’s success depends on the generous support of hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers, who help on the day or in the months leading up to the event.

Our museum volunteers make our visitors feel welcome and provide great customer service. They engage our visitors in informal conversations, sharing museum stories. This role varies from museum to museum. Some roles include helping with kids’ activities, while others involve tour guiding. It’s a role that requires direct contact with the public and suits people who are great at customer service and communicating with people.

Event volunteers help us with a wide range of programs and events throughout the year, at a range of locations. Event volunteers provide support with logistics to help the event run smoothly, welcome visitors, and support the running of activities. So in this role, you need to be flexible, enjoy working with a variety of people of different ages and backgrounds, and be ready to step in and help wherever needed.

Soft furnishings volunteers bring their sewing skills and work as a team to create replica items for a number of our house museums. Pieces may include window curtains, blinds, carpets, upholstery, loose covers, cushions, bed hangings, passementerie and more. The volunteers’ work greatly enhances the interpretation and presentation of our domestic museum environments.

Volunteer gardeners work as a team to enhance the presentation of the garden, mainly in the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House. Working with our Horticulture team, they assist with weeding, watering, composting, mulching, pruning, raking, propagation, sowing and more. Volunteer Gardeners enhance the experience of the garden for visitors.

Collections volunteers work at the Western Sydney Records Centre at Kingswood helping to enhance access to the State Archives Collection. This team of volunteers work together on indexing, listing, and digitisation tasks that help increase access and make the Collection more discoverable. Our volunteers are particularly good at transcribing 18th, 19th, and early 20th century handwriting.

Conservation volunteers also work at the Western Sydney Records Centre at Kingswood using their skills on targeted preservation tasks such as basic conservation rehousing and repair treatments to stabilise fragile archives. These volunteers help to enhance the preservation and access to the State Archives Collection. Good manual dexterity is essential for this role.