The Heidelberg Historical Society Museum and research room is open on Sunday afternoons, 2PM - 5PM.
The Museum is located at the corner of Jika Street and Park Lane, opposite Heidelberg Park.
Some museum objects seem to be asleep in our storage rooms. They are like "secret agents".
From the extensive array of objects collected over the past 55 years, this exhibition presents more than 150 secret agents. Their undercover identities slept in our store, preserved by our Society.
We have awakened an amazing range of gadgets, badges, fashion, plaques and quirky things.
Bring your family to play the “I Spy” game with our objects: amongst their names you’ll find something beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Can you identify the A to Z directory of secret agents?
Eye Spy offers multiple interpretations of our chosen objects to awaken your curiosity. New research findings will intrigue you. Recollections from our members and friends will enlighten and amuse. What ideas and memories will our secret agents stir for you?
Exhibition open from 2 pm to 5 pm on Sundays, 4 February to 12 May 2024.
Group visits at other times can be arranged by contacting the Society.
Heidelberg 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 of records on computer databases, which are also available to visitors and to members.
Volunteers meet at the museum on other days to work on the collections, maintenance and care of the museum's exhibits.
Some accounts of Australian history have tried to restrict our interest to the last 200 years, since Europeans arrived. This ignores the rich history and guardianship of the land by the First Nations people. So much can be learned from First Nation history.
There is evidence of human activity in Australia for at least 60,000 years. At the mouth of the Hopkins River in Western Victoria, middens have been dated as far back as 120,000 years. At the very least, First Nations people have lived here for tens of thousands of years. European settlers only began to arrive in the this area in 1830s.
Another matter of concern is the struggles between settlers and First Nations people. Some accounts downplay the suffering of the First Nations people, while many more recent historians acknowledge this and seek for better treatment of those who still suffer the effects of their loss of culture and way of life.
Introductions to the history of the district should include such sources as The Wurundjeri Website.
More information about treatment of First Nation people can be found at the Minutes of Evidence Site.
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.
Places of interest to Heidelberg Historical Society include anywhere that was ever in a local government area called "Heidelberg". Fairfield and Hurstbridge, have long ceased to share local governments with us, but we still have some historical information about them.
Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe,1920s, looking south-west. This continues to be a major shopping precinct.
Mount Street and Yarra Street intersection, Heidelberg, near the railway station. Area of car and bus park near station. Yarra Street runs top right to right side of photo. Date unknown but c1900.
By 1981 Rosanna had become a busy and fast growing residential suburb. The site of the famous Golf Course was now a park and a housing estate. In 2020, the railway formed an overpass above Lower Plenty Road, incorporating the Rosanna Railway Station.
Viewbank in the 1950s. Not so many houses there then. Looking south from Lyon Street.
Yallambie is an historically important house, built in the 1870s, in Italianate style. It is also the name of the suburb.
The Treyvaud family lived in "Moora", 198 Upper Heidelberg Road, West Heidelberg, during the 1920s.
Aldermaston, located in Watsonia Barracks. was built in the 1930s and requisitioned by the army during WW11.
An overhead view of the Australian Paper Manufacturers at Alphington in 1936.
Fairfield Railway Station was called Fairfield Park in earlier years. It was from there that the railway junction to the APM was managed.
"Moorawatha", 3 Wilmot Street, Macleod was buit in 1908.
Around 1900, a hot air balloon landed on Mt Eagle, attracting the interest of local residents.
Heidelberg Historical Society (Inc. No. A0042118P)