Pioneer Womens Hut, Tumbarumba

Pioneer Womens Hut, Tumbarumba This museum is dedicated to the preservation of domestic objects belonging to rural families. It is about ordinary people and their everyday lives.

This museum is dedicated to the preservation of domestic objects belonging to rural families, especially women. The displays are unusual in that most objects are able to be handled, and a lot of work has gone into collecting the stories behind the articles. By putting the articles into the context of women's daily lives, the collection takes on meaning. There is always a local person available to

talk to visitors, and this museum has been run entirely by community volunteers since it opened in 1985.

“History is often seen as belonging to the rich and famous but in the end history is not about great events and famous people. This is what makes us Australians. ” Wendy Hucker 1991

Our collection of "Woman's Budget" magazines provides valuable primary source material from the 1920s and the 1930s. The...
09/03/2026

Our collection of "Woman's Budget" magazines provides valuable primary source material from the 1920s and the 1930s. The "chat pages" in particular, a precursor to the social pages of the digital age, bring to life the rarely documented attitudes and voices of working class women and men. An object as prosaic as an embroidered apron can become a visual link to a world that has all but vanished.

WOMAN'S BUDGET, 26 APRIL, 1933:
I had made a small purchase from a hawker the other day, and as he packed up his wares he made this remark: "It strikes me you ladies are like walking art galleries with all your fancy aprons. Nearly every house I go to the missus comes out with something round her with pictures on. Gee, the girl on that apron of yours is the dead image of a girl I used to go out with, but she chucked me when I lost me job at the jam factory, A nice girl Gert was." So that particular apron has been christened Gert.
Kitchy Koo

Thank you, Eastern Riverina Arts, for beautifully highlighting the heart and soul of the Pioneer Women’s Hut Museum. You...
13/02/2026

Thank you, Eastern Riverina Arts, for beautifully highlighting the heart and soul of the Pioneer Women’s Hut Museum. Your support helps shine a light on our wonderful museum, where everyday objects tell powerful stories of resilience, creativity, and community.
Please share this post far and wide because the extraordinary stories of seemingly ordinary lives are what truly make us Australian.🥰

13/02/2026
No doubt many of us have been complaining about the heatwave experienced over the last few weeks of January and February...
09/02/2026

No doubt many of us have been complaining about the heatwave experienced over the last few weeks of January and February. Spare a thought for our grandmothers and great grandmothers who, 100 years ago, faced these same conditions without the added benefit of air-conditioning or high tech laundry equipment.

As "C. McB." from Young NSW wrote in 1926:
"On hot washing days in summer, when work in my farm kitchen presses, and the temperature soars, I carry my basket of fresh clean clothes from the line directly to the cool, breezy living-room. Then, seated in my most comfortable rocking chair, I "iron" the coarse kitchen towels, dish towels, and other small flat pieces. I fold them evenly lengthwise, and run them over the sharp edge of the chair arm to crease. They fold away smoothly in the drawers, as though they had been ironed.
(Woman's Budget, 17 September 1926)

27/07/2025

Address

Tumbarumba, NSW

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 3pm
Saturday 10am - 3pm
Sunday 10am - 3pm

Telephone

(02) 6948 3333

Website

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