Bangalow Historical Society

Over 2023, the Society hosted its own markets, Art and Craft Fairs, book launches, garage sales, cakes stalls, funerals and wakes, held morning teas for groups of visiting senior citizens, and exhibitions, which run for six weeks.
One of the most popular 2023 exhibitions, ‘Brides, Bridesmaids and Ballgowns’ attracted dozens of fascinated visitors, who paid a $5 entry fee which included the program. The next exhibition happening in March-April 2024 is titled ‘Teddy Bears, Dolls and Doll Houses’.

Kids’ days at the museum attract keen interest from primary school-aged kids. One in particular was a hit: the 1950s games day, where kids could experiment with such toys as slinkies, hoola hoops, dominoes, drafts, and knuckles. (Hundreds-and-thousands on white bread, milkshakes and choo choo bars were also available.)

In previous years, the Society ran a tea-rooms on the verandah. Though popular, this proved to detract from the purpose and function of the museum itself. These days, an independently operated coffee cart adjoining the museum building, provides drinks and snacks to visitors of all ages. It’s particularly popular on Saturday mornings when the Library Bus is stationed just outside on Ashton Street, as well as providing just what’s needed for the many parents of children using the two Piccabeen Park playgrounds.

Obtaining the Heritage House building itself was an early example of creative recycling. A former Brunswick Heads brothel, the business had fallen on hard times, and – the story goes – owed Byron Shire Council a decent amount of back rates. An enterprising Bangalow local, Betty Dengate, offered Council’s General Manager of the day a way out of a tricky situation. Bangalow’s Historical Society had a mountain of historical documents and items going mouldy in members’ garages, while the old brothel was lying empty. Why not relocate the building to Council-owned parkland in the heart of Bangalow and use it to house a museum for Bangalow?

And so it happened. In 1994, the building was relocated to its current pleasant site, a generous local donated enough money to construct a welcoming – and very useful – verandah, and the rest (sorry!) is history. The building had its official opening as a museum on Australia Day, 1995.

The aim of the Bangalow Historical Society is: ‘To preserve our past, and protect our future. Heritage House is where family district records, treasures and memories find a good home’.

The museum of the Bangalow Historical Society is called Heritage House – an old Queenslander-style wooden building at the corner of Ashton and Deacon Streets in Bangalow. Its location on the northern boundary of Bangalow’s parklands, now named Piccabeen Park  – 2.67ha (6.6 acres) of primarily native parklands – provides the perfect, peaceful backdrop for the museum.