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​Sutherland Shire Historical Society
​​Mindful of the Past
​Focused on the Future
   OUR MUSEUM
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88 Venetia Street
Sylvania 

                                                          
​Our central theme at SSHS’s new Venetia Street museum is ‘Old but New’. Here we highlight a selection of objects and stories reflecting this old but new history of Sutherland Shire – described in 1929 as, ‘A sort of no-man’s land between Sydney and the Illawarra’.
Museum displays highlight:
  • Aboriginal life and art
  • First contact - Captain Cook’s arrival in 1770, including Banks and botany
  • The story of Bass and Flinders
  • Early landholders in the district especially Thomas Holt
  • The Holt-Sutherland Company  
  • Farming 
  • Industry 
  • Essential services, including electricity, water, toilets, health
  • The Coming of Suburbia
  • Migrant stories 
  • Surfing and water sports
  • Science & research
  • Murder & Mayhem
  • Craft section including Clarice Nelson's samplers dated 1898.
  • Environmental disasters 
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A specialist research room contains a very comprehensive data base of suburb and general histories, books and artwork relevant to the Shire.
Opening hours are:
Saturday 9:00- 1:00pm
Tuesday 12:00 - 4:00pm
Thursday 9:30- 1:30 pm
Except Christmas , Easter and  public holidays
We cater for school groups, Probus, Rotary and various other groups.
Entry $5.00pp ​
Email [email protected] to arrange a visit.

​Museum Tour Description
Take our new 45 minute interactive Shire Snapshot Tour. It is free with Museum entry fee.
Find out how our waterways allowed our local indigenous people to thrive here for thousands of years and led to the coming of James Cook and colonialism. Touch a real piece of Cook's ship the Endeavour, and find out how it got here.
See the role our local area played in the growing colony  of Sydney and meet the Shire's biggest landowner of their time. Hear and see how the Shire grew through land development, farming, transport links, arrivals of migrants, industry and community contribution.
Hold a Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch that was carried through the Shire.
Book your group tour on one of our opening days and share in the great stories that make the Sutherland Shire the place it is today.



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SUTHERLAND SHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Inc
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