The museum is open:
Monday 2pm - 4pm, Tuesday 10am - 4pm, Thursday, Saturday 1pm - 4pm
Please call 0407 332310 to arrange a visit outside of these hours. Our charges are: Adult $5, Student $2
Bus groups: can have one of our Volunteers board the bus for an informative tour of the town @ $2 pp. Our museum boasts a very good, clear story about the years leading toward Federation. It is suitabl
e for school children and adults. During the 1880's the Government seemed to put Federation on hold. In the towns on each side of the Murray River, the tariffs and charges were crippling businesses and making it next to impossible for householders who had to purchase their food in the opposite states. Members of the Federation League and the Natives Society decided to hold a conference on the border and they chose Corowa because it was central to most of the people who were to attend. It was at this Conference that John Quick, from the Natives Association at Bendigo, put forward his proposal which made it impossible for Government to keep shuffling the problem about and causing them to hold the Premiers' conference in 1895. At this Premiers' conference the Government acted upon the proposal put by John Quick and on January 1, 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed and Corowa claimed the title of 'Birthplace of Federation'. We have sketches by Tommy McRae, a local Aboriginal Artist from the Lake Moodemere district. We also have other links to artists such as Tom Roberts, who painted his iconic 'Shearing the Rams' on a property north of Corowa, and some wonderful oil paintings by a Tasmanian convict artist, Costantini, portraits of one of our earliest families, the Martins, who built the Royal Hotel at Corowa. There are some lovely old gigs and wagons, lots of saddlery, a locally built gas producer, a number of locally made agricultural implements by Riverina Harvester Co & John Oswald & Sons, and some wonderful displays that bring back memories of how Australians lived in the early years. We also boast a great display of tools used in the early days. The museum is managed by a group of volunteers, members of Corowa District Historical Society Inc.
