Merimbula Old School Museum

21/06/2026

Did you know that your donation can help take our community’s past into the future – and you may be able to claim it on your tax as well!

As the 2025-26 financial year comes to a close, we’re asking our local community to consider making a cash donation to the Merimbula Old School Museum.
Our museum holds the stories of our people, places and events — the industries, celebrations, school days, family histories, photographs, objects, memories and everyday moments that have shaped Merimbula, Pambula and the surrounding districts.
These stories belong to all of us. But keeping them safe, cared for and shared takes ongoing effort and support.

The Merimbula Old School Museum is run by volunteers, and every dollar that comes to us helps protect the collection, create new displays, care for the old school building, and keep the museum open for locals, visitors, families and future generations.

The museum has Deductible Gift Recipient status, so donations of $2 or more may be tax deductible.
If you can, please consider making an end-of-financial-year gift. Whether it’s $5, $50 or more, your support helps keep our community’s history alive for current and future generations.

Donations can be made by cash or card at the museum, direct deposit bank transfer direct deposit to Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society, BSB: 633000, Account number: 183453562; or by using the QR code link to our online donation page. Receipts are available.

Thank you for helping keep our community’s history alive.

18/06/2026

The Eden Killer Whale Museum and the Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society have been awarded grants for two quite different projects to…

15/06/2026

We are delighted to announce that Merimbula Old School Museum has been successful in its application for funding and in-kind assistance through the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme.

This support will allow us to begin the first stage of conservation work on a remarkable group of signal flags from the SS Empire Gladstone, which ran aground on Haycock Point in 1950.

These fragile maritime textiles are an important part of our local coastal history, and this project will help ensure they are properly cared for, documented and preserved for the future.

It will also provide a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in volunteering at the museum to get involved in meaningful, hands-on heritage work. Volunteers will have the chance to help with practical collection care activities while learning more about the preservation of historic objects from conservation experts from the Australian National Maritime Museum.

We are incredibly grateful to the Australian National Maritime Museum for supporting regional museums like ours, and we look forward to sharing the progress of this exciting project with our community.

If you have an interest in local history, maritime heritage, conservation or simply lending a hand, we would love to hear from you.

12/06/2026

Are you part of Merimbula’s story?

The Merimbula Old School Museum is looking for friendly local volunteers to help welcome visitors, share stories, support exhibitions, assist behind the scenes, and keep our community history alive.

Volunteering at the museum is a wonderful way to meet people, learn more about our district, contribute to the community, and help preserve the stories, objects and memories that make the Merimbula-Pambula district so special.

You do not need any prior experience in museums — just curiosity, enthusiasm, and a love of local history. Training is provided, and roles are flexible. Whether you enjoy chatting with visitors, helping with displays, researching local stories, lending a hand at events, or supporting everyday museum activities, there is a place for you in our team.

Local stories. Real history. Our community.

Come and help us preserve the past and inspire the future.

The museum is open Thursday and Sunday afternoons from 1.30 pm to 4.00 pm at 85 Main Street, Merimbula. To find out more, drop in during opening hours, phone 0493 616 048, or email [email protected].

Help keep your history alive — become a volunteer at the Merimbula Old School Museum.

08/06/2026

📖 A Remarkable Link to Pambula's Earliest Days – Now on Display at the MOSM

One of the most significant and personal objects currently on display at the Merimbula Old School Museum is the Thompson Family Bible.

Reportedly presented to Nathaniel Thompson after he left Didmarton, Gloucestershire, England, for Australia in April 1839, this Bible accompanied one of the district's earliest pioneering families on their journey to the far south coast. Within its pages are handwritten records of births, baptisms, deaths and family milestones, preserving details that might otherwise have been lost to history.

This Bible has a particularly powerful connection to the original township of Pambula, established on the river flats in the 1840s. Nathaniel and his wife Maria became part of that early community, which included homes, businesses, churches, a school, hotel, public pound and cemetery. Today, the site of this settlement has largely disappeared, but traces of the historic burial ground still remain.

Of the fewer than sixty people believed to have been buried in this early cemetery, Nathanial and Maria Thompson’s are one among only four of the head and footstones surviving and visible today, making this Bible an extraordinarily direct link between the people who helped establish the district and one of the region's oldest surviving heritage places.

Family Bibles were often the official record books of their day. Long before civil registration became commonplace, families carefully recorded births, marriages, baptisms and deaths within their pages. As a result, they provide invaluable evidence of migration, family relationships, faith, community life and the settlement in new lands.

Because of its age and fragility, the Thompson Family Bible will only remain on display until approximately September this year, after which it will return to protected storage for conservation reasons.

The Merimbula Old School Museum cares for many treasures like this. To ensure their long-term preservation, significant objects are regularly rotated on and off display, meaning there is always something new to discover with each visit.

Come and see this remarkable survivor from the earliest years of European settlement in the Pambula district while it is still on exhibition.

📍 Merimbula Old School Museum - preserving our past, inspiring our future
🕜 Open Thursdays and Sundays, 1.30 pm – 4.00 pm

31/05/2026

📣 TWO BRAND NEW EXHIBITIONS NOW OPEN! 📣

The Merimbula Old School Museum is excited to announce two fabulous new exhibitions celebrating the people, experiences and traditions that have shaped life on the Far South Coast.

🏥 Caring for Community – Health, Distance and Resilience

Step back in time and discover the remarkable story of healthcare in our region. From doctors travelling on horseback and pioneering women physicians, to community-funded hospitals, nursing, childbirth, ambulance services and the fight to retain Pambula District Hospital, this exhibition explores the challenges of providing medical care in a remote coastal district. Through personal stories, historic artefacts and local memories, it reveals the determination, ingenuity and resilience of the communities who cared for one another when help was often many miles away.

🦪 A Taste of the Tides – Oyster Delights of Pambula and Merimbula

For generations, the oysters of Pambula and Merimbula have been celebrated as one of the region's most treasured delicacies. This mouth-watering exhibition explores the story of oysters not simply as an industry, but as a food that has brought people together around tables, at celebrations and beside our beautiful estuaries for thousands of years.

Discover the traditions of oyster dining, elegant oyster plates and serving ware, seafood feasts, and the enduring appeal of the famous Sydney Rock Oyster. From Aboriginal shellfish gathering traditions to the region's reputation as a destination for seafood lovers, A Taste of the Tides celebrates the flavours, customs and social occasions that have made oysters an iconic part of life on the Far South Coast.

Together, these exhibitions reveal two very different but equally important stories of community life - one centred on caring for people, the other on gathering around food and sharing the bounty of our waterways.

Whether you have memories of local hospitals, a connection to the region's oyster traditions, or simply enjoy discovering the stories that make our communities unique, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

📍 Merimbula Old School Museum
📅 Open Thursdays and Sundays, 1.30pm – 4pm. Group bookings by appointment.

Come and discover the stories, flavours and experiences that have helped shape our community.

27/05/2026