By way of a ‘thank you’ to our wonderful members for their continued support of the organisation through these difficult times of uncertainty and change, we would like to offer our 2020 online program for free to members.

In addition, as an HHA member, if you are unable to attend the online event live, you can register to receive free priority access to a recording of the event as soon as it becomes available. 

Tickets are offered to non-members at a price of $10.

The HHA is rightly proud of the high calibre of events we deliver and we hope you can join us in celebrating the commitment of our speakers and their contributions to heritage and history.  

Engage With The Experts: Highlights From The Tulkiyan Collection

Wednesday 21 October 2020, 7.00pm - 8.30pm

Managed by the HHA, Tulkiyan is one of the few remaining intact Arts and Crafts houses on the North Shore of Sydney. Currently closed for restoration we are delighted to be reaching the end of this long process. For this online event we are bringing together the Tulkiyan curator and conservation experts to highlight the historical significance of the collection and provide an insight into the restoration and conservation of the many furnishings, ceramics, decorative items and interior design elements.

Curator Robert Griffin will provide background on the house and its collections and introduce furniture conservator Ian Thomson and ceramics expert Alan Landis, who will speak about their work at Tulkiyan and discuss some of highlights of the collection.

Time is allocated for Q&A with the three experts on this fascinating collection and house history.

Dyarubbin: The Real Secret River

Wednesday 11 November 2020, 6.30pm - 8.00pm

In 2017, historian Grace Karskens stumbled across an astonishing document in the Mitchell Library: a list of over 170 long-lost Aboriginal names for places on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River. The list was compiled early in 1829 by a young Presbyterian minister, the Reverend John McGarvie, incumbent at Pitt Town. Not only did he carefully record the names given to him by Aboriginal informants, in many cases he included locations.Almost 100 of these names have been relocated and mapped through a collaborative project, Dyarubbin: The Real Secret River, funded by the State Library of New South Wales’ Coral Thomas Fellowship. The project brought together Darug knowledge-holders, artists and researchers with historians, linguists, archaeologists and geologists. The likely meanings of the place names in their geographic, ecological and archaeological contexts were explored too. Bit by bit, these names are revealing lost geographies of river forests, plants and animals, zones of saltwater and fresh, men’s, women’s and ceremonial places, and areas of profound sacred significance.

Please join us for a fascinating webinar session, as Darug team members Leanne Watson and Erin Wilkins join historian Grace Karskens in a discussion of this significant project.

Seeking Out Walter Liberty Vernon: Monuments of Art and a Distinctly Australian Architecture 

Thursday 3 December 2020, 12.30pm - 2.00pm

Join an expert panel in conversation on the architectural philosophy, design approaches and progressive ideas of Walter Liberty Vernon (NSW Government Architect, 1890-1911). His built legacy includes the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Mitchell Library (part of the State Library), Central railway station and Newcastle Court House along with private commissions and monuments in nearly every town across NSW. Hear from the presenters about Vernon’s outstanding career as a key practitioner of various Federation styles and the emergence of the Free Style, advocated by the designers of the Art and Crafts Movement.

The expert panel includes Dr James Broadbent, well known as an historian, conservationist and author; Dr Noni Boyd architectural historian and heritage specialist whose PhD thesis traces how Vernon created a more informal public architecture, 'an architecture for the people'. Discussion is open to the audience and led by Matt Devine, a registered architect with a passion for architecture, design, community, and history. We’re also joined by Charles Pickett, lead curator on the exhibition Imagine A City: 200 Years of Public Architecture in NSW to talk about how Vernon’s work was displayed and reinterpreted for a contemporary audience.

The Historic Houses Association of Australia is an independent registered charity. We rely on income from membership fees, donations, and revenue raised from our ticket sales.