This November, the Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum is celebrating a milestone 40 years in Parramatta.
Those familiar with driving down Marsden and George Street in Parramatta will have no doubt noticed Brislington House, an impressive two-storey, Georgian building that sits on the corner of the two streets.
As the oldest existing dwelling house in the inner city of Parramatta, the building stands out among the surrounding office towers and Justice precinct.
And with so many heritage buildings being lost to modern development, Brislington Volunteers Secretary Robyn Dyball believes the time has never been better to take an interest in local history.
“We have so much rich history, there’s so much of the past that needs to be told, we’ve lost a lot in Parramatta, so [Brislington] is a link to the past,” she told Parra News.
“It’s social history, medical history, it’s our convict history all tied up together in our little museum.”
The museum was originally put together in November 1983, in response to Parramatta Council’s request to have a display on medicine. It was designed to show a ‘then’ and ‘now’ picture of medical science and hospital care in Parramatta, paying tribute to a “by-gone era.”
The public’s response to the museum was so positive, the call was eventually made to make it permanent.
40 years on and the Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum is still delighting visitors with its collections.
“We have five different rooms with five different themes in the collections, two rooms on the bottom floor have a theme of colonial past because there’s a really rich convict story with the building of the house over 200 years ago and also the emphasis on medicine in Parramatta,” Dyball said.
“The first hospital set up in Parramatta was in 1790, it was a hospital for the convicts, and so Brislington House has been associated with medicine for a long, long time.
“It’s been well and truly a part of the Parramatta heritage landscape.”
Photo: Angie Way.
Open twice a week, the museum is entirely operated by volunteers, including Dyball, who has been involved with the museum for 13 years.
Now, with Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum having reached its 40th anniversary, Dyball is hoping to encourage other locals to book in for a visit.
“A lot of people walk past the place and say ‘I didn’t know that you existed’, it’s really sad,” she said.
“We’re just trying to promote the fact that we are there and we’d like the community to know that… people do hear about us and bring small groups through so that’s really nice as well. The word is getting out there.”
To find out more, visit http://www.brislington.net/index.html or contact 0403 764 070.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.