Experiment Farm Cottage, Colonial residence museum in Harris Park, Australia
Experiment Farm Cottage is a colonial house museum in Harris Park, New South Wales, built around 1793 for an early settler. The building displays Indian influences in its design, with verandahs and raised platforms suited to the hot summers and wet periods of the local climate.
James Ruse received this land in 1789 as Australia's first grant to a convict, proving that farming could sustain a family in the new colony. His success with growing crops encouraged later settlers to believe self-sufficiency was achievable in the harsh environment.
The cottage sits on land with deep connections to the Dharug people who lived here for generations before colonization. Today visitors can sense how the property bridges both Indigenous and settler histories in its physical setting.
The site offers parking and picnic areas for a comfortable visit with family or friends. Guided tours are available to learn about the house interior and the reconstructed 19th-century garden that surrounds it.
The cottage opened as a house museum in 1963 when the National Trust took it over, making it one of the first places in Australia dedicated to showing how colonial families furnished and lived in their homes. The focus on domestic objects and household spaces was quite unusual for museums of that era.
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