The Sir Henry Parkes Memorial Museum is in Tenterfield, New South Wales, in the National Trust-listed School of Arts building. Built on the site where Sir Henry Parkes delivered his 1889 speech that helped revive the movement for Australian Federation, the museum is considered the birthplace of the Federation movement.
The museum focuses on Federation and Parkes’ life, displaying memorabilia such as a portrait by Julian Ashton, personal journals, and ivory carvings, plus thematic, interpretive exhibits about Australia’s path to federation and Tenterfield’s local role in that story.
The complex houses the Banquet Hall (the room where Parkes spoke), a historic cinema/theatre that runs community screenings, the Tenterfield Public Library, and function spaces; the museum uses modern exhibition design and technology to present its stories.
The museum is also the Visitor Information location for Tenterfield, replacing the earlier dedicated building for visitor information.
In the entry of the School of Arts, the following is displayed:
The things done and the words spoken in the name of Democracy in the fair lands of Australia which have the repellant features and harsh tone of oppression must be familiar to all thoughtful observers. It would almost seem that when many men talk loudly of freedom, their meaning is the freedom to trample upon the rights of their fellow men.
Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History
Sir Henry Parkes, statesman, politician, author