Wurundjeri
The First People of this Area
We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. We also pay our respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to all other Indigenous Australians. Our way forward is to look honestly at the past, avoiding the old distorted historical accounts as much as possible.
Heidelberg Historical Society
Museum & Research Centre
Heidelberg Historical Society Museum is located in the old Heidelberg Courthouse, Jika Street, Heidelberg. Here we have collections of historical records and objects with facilities for researching subjects of interest.
Periodic exhibitions of special interest are also held at the Museum.
Normal opening hours are 2PM-5PM on Sundays, COVID permitting.
During the year, arrangements can generally be made for visits at other times. A small charge is made for entry to the museum, except for Members, who can enter free of charge.In addition to physical records and objects, museum volunteers have entered large quantities records on computer databases, which are also available to visitors and to members.
OUR LATEST EXHIBITION
TRUTH, BEAUTY & UTILITY
The Arts & Crafts Movement in Heidelberg.
Before the mid-nineteen thirties, it was the conscious or unconscious aim of most people with a little money to live in an ‘artistic’ home—even if they were accountants rather than artists.
The idea that one’s home should be anything other than richly sumptuous and created in the image of the Italian Renaissance was a new one. It was a reaction to the triumph of machine-made products of the Industrial Revolution and to that age itself.
The new mode was for the lady of the house to demonstrate her sensitivity to the beauty of handmade objects and for her husband to pretend that their new house had affinities with a country manor or humble cottage—something older and more ‘picturesque’ than the typical rich man’s mansion.
This quaint image was created by the use of plain, dark-stained timber, inside and out. Houses had steep roofs—often with an attic—and tiny leadlight casements set in roughcast walls.
Around the cosy fireplace ingle, copper plates and vases might wink in the light shed by some antique lantern and choice pieces of the potter’s and embroiderer’s craft might be displayed for visitors.
This was the mental image of the ideal home. By the 1920s this essentially English model became influenced by the American Arts & Crafts style and its greatest product: the rugged Californian bungalow. This style was easily adapted for a democratic Australian market and found favour in Heidelberg.
The Shire attracted practitioners of the artistic crafts. Harold Desbrowe-Annear designed and built quite revolutionary houses and demonstrated how Australians ought to live. Mervyn and Christian Waller and Klytie Pate practised their respective arts in just such a cottage set among the gumtrees on the banks of the Darebin Creek. This exhibition features a rare hand-printed book of drawings by Christian Waller and two examples of Arts & Crafts pottery by her niece, Klytie.
EXHIBITION OPENINGS
From Sunday 6th March 2022
- Open Sundays 2.00pm-5.00pm & for group bookings
- Contact Us:
- HEIDELBERG HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
- 15 Jika Street, Heidelberg 3084
- (03) 9455 2130
- (heidelberg.historical.society@gmail.com)