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16 May 2025
We are thrilled to announce our win in the Advocacy Category at the 2025 National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards. The judging panel described us as "an amazing and inspiring group that have demonstrated outstanding commitment to advocacy for over 70 years". We acknowledge the contributions of our members, volunteers and project partners, past and present. Thank you to all our supporters and to the National Trust for this recognition.
6 & 7 May 2025
Member for Port Macquarie, Robert Dwyer, has given us not one, but two recent mentions in NSW Parliament. The Community Recognition Statements acknowledge our recent achievements including the Barayal Bila exhibition working with Birpai Elder Dr. Aunty Rhonda Radley (6 May), and our Bronze award at the 2024 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards (7 May).
23 April 2025
Excited to be short listed in the 2025 National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards - Advocacy Category for our project 'Ensuring the Future of Port Macquarie Museum'. Looking after a State significant building requires an ongoing commitment to maintenance, conservation and advocacy. The announcement marks 65 years since the Museum opened at 22 Clarence Street and almost 70 years of preserving, sharing and showcasing the rich heritage of the local community.
10 April 2025
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new Historic Places Driving Tour Guide which complements our Historic Places Driving Tour app on izitravel. It's a guide to discovering and learning more about our town and its history. Its available from tourist information brochure racks around town and from our Museum. The brochure was supported by Create NSW’s Cultural Grant Program, a devolved funding program administered by The Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
4 April 2025
It's a wrap and a revelation! Design 5 Architects have completed work on a Conservation Management Strategy for our historic Store building. Their work has provided new insights into the age, construction and use of our heritage building. The report also identifies maintenance issues, access and other opportunities for improvement. The project was proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with The Copland Foundation and Port Macquarie Historical Society.
31 March 2025
We have reached another digitisation milestone for our Museum, with 1,000 objects from our collection digitised to sector standards and publicly accessible on eHive.
Our digitisation work has been made possible through the Mid North Coast Regional Digitisation Hub which was proudly funded by the NSW Government through the Creative Capital Minor Works Program (2022).
25 March 2025
This afternoon we launched Barayal Bila, a new exhibition bringing Birpai voices and Gathang language into our Museum for the very first time. Working with Dr. Aunty Rhonda Radley, Barayal Bila tells a story about Dungang (Hastings River) and the need to protect it for future generations. This has been supported by Powerhouse as part of the extending Storyplace project with Museums and Galleries NSW.
21 March 2025
Wow! We are thrilled to have won BRONZE in the cultural tourism category at the Australian Tourism Awards held this evening in Adelaide.
Thank you to our amazing staff, of of them are volunteers! Thanks also to our visitors and project partners who make it all possible. We couldn't have won this award without you!
17 March 2025
We are excited to be heading to Adelaide for the Australian Tourism Awards on 21 March and to be representing NSW in the Cultural Tourism Category alongside other state finalists.
Its great recognition of our team's hard work, dedication and passion.
02 February 2025
Join us on Monday 3 March for a special free Seniors Festival Open Day. View the new Fibre Flair! exhibition, enjoy free morning tea together with talks and demonstrations by Port Macquarie U3A Textile & Fibre artists in conjunction with the exhibition. This event is supported by a 2025 NSW Seniors Festival Grant from the NSW Government.
02 February 2025
We are continuing our long association with the NSW Seniors Festival this year, offering free museum entry for all Seniors throughout the festival dates - Monday 3 March to Saturday 15 March 2025. This year's festival theme is 'Time to Shine' and we are shining a light on the work of Port Macquarie U3A Textile and Fibre artists and their new exhibition Fibre Flair!
28 November 2024
Tonight we took out GOLD in the Cultural Tourism Category at the NSW Tourism Awards! What an amazing achievement. Our museum has always been a place where history, culture, and storytelling come together.
Thank you to our visitors, staff, and local partners who make it all possible. We couldn't have won this without you!
20 November 2024
Today, Leslie Williams, Member for Port Macquarie recognised our Museum in State Parliament, including being announced as a finalist in the cultural tourism category in the NSW Tourism Awards. Wonderful recognition of the work of our members and our volunteers. You can read the full statement in the NSW Parliament Hansard.
12 November 2024
As part of our NSW Tourism Award entry process we have been awarded sustainable tourism accreditation meeting the requirements of the Quality Tourism Framework. The Quality Tourism Brandmark (QTB) identifies those businesses that have successfully completed the minimum standards that underpin the Quality Tourism Framework (QTF).
31 October 2024
As part of our NSW Tourism Awards entry process we have been awarded tourism accreditation meeting the requirements of the Quality Tourism Framework. The Quality Tourism Brandmark (QTB) identifies those businesses that have successfully completed the minimum standards that underpin the Quality Tourism Framework (QTF).
24 October 2024
We are thrilled to announce that our Museum has been named a finalist in the NSW Tourism Awards for 2024! This incredible recognition reflects the hard work and dedication of our team and the support from our wonderful community. We invite you to join us in celebrating this achievement and to continue exploring the rich history and culture of Port Macquarie.
1 August 2024
Excited to be awarded bronze for 'Excellence in Cultural Tourism' at the North Coast Tourism Awards this evening. This award is a testament to our team’s dedication and the vibrant cultural heritage we strive to showcase. A huge thank you to our staff, community and visitors for your ongoing support.
13 June 2024
Design 5 Architects have begun work on a Conservation Management Strategy for our historic Store building. The strategy will consider maintenance issues, access and opportunities for improvement. The project is proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with The Copland Foundation and Port Macquarie Historical Society.
06 June 2024
Thrilled to be named a finalist in the North Coast Tourism Awards! Being recognised for our work in showcasing the rich history and culture of Port Macquarie community is an honour. Thank you to all our visitors, supporters and staff for making this possible.
28 May 2024
First Sunday Free is back! Visit for free on the first Sunday of the month between 11am and 2pm during June to October. Explore, discover and learn about Port Macquarie's rich and unique history through our themed exhibitions illustrated with objects, artworks and photographs from our collection.
17 May 2024
Journeys MNC has been Highly Commended in the Publications and Resources Category at the 2024 National Trust Heritage Awards. Thanks to all our fellow museum and heritage collaborators and AMaGA Mid North Coast Chapter. Journeys MNC was funded by a NSW Heritage Grant.
08 April 2024
Today we adopted our inaugural formal First Peoples Action Plan. The plan sets out our commitment and pathway to advance truth telling and reconciliation.
The plan focuses on a set of principles and actions to build relationships, respect and reconciliation.
Image by: Chaney Boyle, 2020
26 February 2024
The Mid North Coast Regional Digitisation Hub has reached a major milestone of 1,000 items digitised and publicly accessible on eHive. Thanks to all our participating museums.
The Mid North Coast Regional Digitisation Hub is proudly funded by the NSW Government through the Creative Capital Minor Works Program.
12 January 2024
Our latest publication Burrawan - The desecration and resurrection of Lake Innes, by John Heath and Ashley Barnwell was launched today.
The publication has been supported by Create NSW Cultural Grants Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
18 December 2023
Mono Couture is a new exhibition exploring fashion and design. The exhibition features couture clothing from 1845 to 2004 in a black and white theme. We are open Mon to Sat throughout the holidays except for Christmas Day. The exhibition is supported by Arts Mid North Coast through the NSW Government's Country Arts Support Program.
4 September 2023
The new online exhibition showcasing collections, stories and heritage places across the Mid North Coast was launched today by Leslie Williams, Member for Port Macquarie. The project, an initiative of AMaGA Mid North Coast Chapter, was funded by a NSW Heritage - Community Heritage Engagement Grant with additional support from Arts Mid North Coast.
16 June 2023
Over the past few months, we have been busy purchasing equipment for the Mid North Coast Regional Digitisation Hub, and today we finished installing it! Next steps are finalising all the operating procedures and training materials. We will soon be ready to start digitising and sharing MNC collections.
28 May 2023
First Sunday Free is back! Visit for free on the first Sunday of the month between 11am and 2pm during June to November. Explore, discover and learn about Port Macquarie's rich and unique history through our themed exhibitions illustrated with objects, artworks and photographs from our collection.
16 May 2023
Today we celebrated National Volunteer Week with a thank you lunch for all our hard working and dedicated volunteers. Our volunteers contribute over 21,000 hours each year to our operations. Without them we could not preserve, document or share our local history and heritage. A big thank you to each and every one of them!
10 May 2023
Introducing PAST PORT a toolkit for teachers. This online and downloadable resource provides suggested classroom and offsite activities to support specific learning outcomes for students in Stages 1, 2 and 3 within the K-10 History concept and skills continuum of the NSW HSIE Syllabus.
15 April 2023
Our MNC Regional Digitisation Hub is looking for a Digitisation/Training Officer to help us support, assist and train museum volunteers in creating high quality digital records of collection items using a range of photographic/imaging equipment and associated software. Five month fulltime contract. Expressions of Interest close 28 April 2023.
1 February 2023
We kicked off the the NSW Seniors Festival with free mask making workshops today. Participants were led by artist Lisa Hort to make masks for the Masked Messages exhibition. If you missed out, make a mask at home by following the attached instructions, drop off at the Museum and we will add it to the exhibition.
Masked messages is a NSW Seniors Festival event proudly supported by the NSW Government.
25 January 2023
Excited today to have the Premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet and Leslie Williams, Member for Port Macquarie visit to announce State Government funding for our MNC Regional Digitisation Hub. We are looking forward to working with our partner museums across the region on this transformational project.
Photo credit: Mardi Borg, Port Macquarie News.
24 November 2022
New Journeys Broad Horizons was awarded a Highly Commended in the Museums and Galleries NSW IMAGinE Awards (Engagement Projects 2 or less paid staff). The project has helped us to engage with new audiences, particularly young people interested in creative and visual arts. It has broadened our audiences, increased participation, extended reach and developed new interest in exhibitions and collections.
This project was supported by Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program.
18 October 2022
Port Macquarie's First Convicts has won its author, Clive Smith, a Mander Jones Award from the Australian Society of Archivists. The award was for the best publication by an individual that uses, features or interprets Australian archives.
The publication was supported by Create NSW Cultural Grants Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
26 September 2022
Port Macquarie U3A Textile and Fibre artists were exploring new art techniques and media at a workshop today led by Vivianne Hazenveld. The series of workshops are developing artist skills and creativity to inform a new collaborative exhibition 'Curiosity' for next year's Seniors Festival. Today, artist's took a colour adventure using acrylic paints on canvas.
The Creative Curiosity workshops are supported by Arts Mid North Coast through the NSW Government's Country Arts Support Program
25 September 2022
Paint spinning, who knew! Thanks to artist Lucy Frost from Art Local and all our enthusiastic creative participants these past two days. There were some amazing fabric printing, paint spinning, drawing and even some new Hello Koala sculpture designs.
A big thank you to the support from Charles Sturt University's Community University Partnerships (CUP) Program which made this artist in residence program possible.
29 August 2022
Our latest publication To Be Worked In Irons - Stories from the Port Macquarie Bench Books by Tony Dawson and Heather Aynsley was launched this morning.
The publication has been supported by Create NSW Cultural Grants Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
30 July 2022
Our new online tour booking form is now live and ready to use on our Visit page. This is where you will also find the latest information and resources for school visits.
Our website expansion and e-commerce project was funded by the Australian Government's Culture, Heritage and Arts Regional Tourism Program.
27 July 2022
We are pleased to announce that our online store is now open. You can shop with us any time of the day or night. New publications will be added in coming weeks.
Our website expansion and e-commerce project was funded by the Australian Government's Culture, Heritage and Arts Regional Tourism Program.
26 March 2022
Today we hosted the launch of the Fifth Season film an initiative of the Greater Port Macquarie Dementia Friendly Community Alliance produced with the support of the Dementia Australia Community Engagement Program. The film highlights the positive and negative experiences of people living with dementia during isolation through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and records their unique stories for future generations. The film screens until 2 April 2022. Free entry for seniors all week.
25 March 2022
A new exhibition by Port Macquarie creative Lucy Frost was launched this evening. Lucy has responded to five items from the collection bringing their stories to life in the 21st century. The interactive exhibition considers both the journeys of the objects and Lucy’s personal journey. Lucy’s works and the original items are on display. This project is supported by Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program.
24 January 2022
Thanks to artist Mic Rees some of Annabella Boswell’s artworks and archives have been reimagined digitally into a new exhibition at our Museum and online. Mic was drawn to Annabella’s beautiful sketches and watercolour paintings and chose 7 artworks to retell in animation. This project is part of Museums and Galleries of NSW’s Let’s Get Digital initiative, proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW as part of Arts Restart.
22 January 2022
Each week we provide selected news articles and photographs from 50 years ago for publication in the Port Macquarie News. A recent article captured so much attention that the Port Macquarie News did a follow up story on how Kenny Little's car ended up in Kooloonbung Creek in 1972 and what happened afterwards.
21 January 2022
Our creative workshops with artist Lucy Frost from ArtLocal were a big hit over the school holidays. People of all ages participated, trying their hand at fancy lettering, collage, floral illustration and fabric printing. The workshops were held to inform new works by the artist for an exhibition New Journeys Broad Horizons. The Journeys themed exhibition opens in March. This project is supported by Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program.
09 December 2021
Our latest publication Healing the Spirit - A Birrpai Perspective on the Port Macquarie Penal Colony and its Aftermath by Bob Davis and John Heath was launched today at beautiful Mansfield Estate. This was our final activity of 2021 to mark Port Macquarie’s bicentenary as a British penal colony. The publication has been supported by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council's Community Grants Program.
13 September 2021
Yes, we are open again! Visit and experience our 2021 Bicentenary Exhibition Trail and other local exhibitions. Pick up your free Bicentenary Postcard and 2021 Bicentenary Souvenir brochure. Still the same friendly welcome and helpful service.
28 July 2021
Plans to transform our Museum into a world class regional museum, cultural destination and community meeting place are one step closer with the completion of our Master Plan and Schematic Design project (Stage 1). The project was supported by the NSW Government's Regional Cultural Fund, Port Macquarie Hastings Council's Community Grants program and the Port Macquarie Historical Society. Only three more stages to go!
28 June 2021
We have just completed a Preservation Needs Assessment of our Maritime Collection thanks to a grant from the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS). The report will be used to improve the way we display, store and interpret our significant maritime collection and ensure its survival for future generations.
11 June 2021
Our latest publication Port Macquarie's First Convicts was launched this afternoon. The book reveals the names of Port Macquarie's first convcits for the very first time. The publication has been supported by Create NSW’s Cultural Grant Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
13 May 2021
Our online exhibition Tourists Paradise was highly commended in the Events, Exhibitions & Tours category in the 2021 National Trust Heritage Awards. Quite an achievement considering other finalists in the category included the City of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums and Orange Regional Museum.
10 April 2021
We are marking Port Macquarie's Bicentenary with a new exhibition trail '20 Decades 21 Stories'. The trail guides visitors on a journey of discovery to reveal the key themes and stories that have shaped and defined Port Macquarie's history and identity over the past 20 decades. All visitors receive a free bicentenary postcard (while stocks last).
06 April 2021
We are celebrating our 61st Birthday at our State Heritage Store building at 22 Clarence Street with free entry from Saturday 10 April to Sunday 18 April 2021. Open daily 10.00am to 9.00pm.
Part of Port Macquarie's official Bicentenary Program.
29 March 2021
We have launched our new website and new stories page 'The Story Port'. Here you can discover, learn, browse and explore our online curated stories about life at Port Macquarie. New stories are posted regularly. The project was supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
1 February 2021
Our latest publication Return to Lake Innes was launched this evening. The book includes original letters and journal entries written by Annabella Boswell, nee Innes in 1848 and 1853. The publication has been supported by Create NSW’s Cultural Grant Program, a devolved funding program administered by The Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
20 January 2021
We celebrated Museum Selfie Day with free entry today. The day was aimed at raising awareness of history and cultural material collections and encouraged people to visit and interact with museums and collections in different and creative ways. It was another way we are making our collections and their stories more accessible.
19 November 2020
We have produced a series of postcards to mark Port Macquarie’s Bicentenary in 2021. The postcards feature designs created by Charles Sturt University (CSU) Bachelor of Creative Arts and Design (Graphic Design) third year students – Kim Adams and Chaney Boyle. The postcards have been supported by a CSU CUP Grant.
5 June 2020
We are pleased to announce our reopening. In accordance with Government guidelines we have made some changes to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our visitors and volunteers including changes to visitor flow, physical distancing measures and increased cleaning frequency. New opening times Monday to Saturday – 10.00am to 4.00pm, discounted admission fees and same warm welcome.
18 March 2020
To protect our volunteer staff and the community we have closed our Museum to visitors for the time being. We were to celebrate our 60th Birthday from 18 April with free entry and a new exhibition 'Looking Forward, Looking Back'. These will be rescheduled.
10 February 2020
Out of the Frame, a collaborative exhibition with Port Macquarie U3A textile, fibre and acrylic artists, and clients of Lisa Hort, Creative Ageing Practitioner was opened tonight by Leslie Williams, Member for Port Macquarie. The exhibition is supported by a NSW Seniors Festival Grant and runs until 31 March 2020.
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