Vintage Village

The Vintage Village is our "living history museum" - a historic recreation of Fairfield City businesses and residences between the 1880's and 1930's. It is one of our most popular attractions and offers a chance to experience history firsthand, as if you were there in that time period.

The Vintage Village has a mixture of original heritage-listed buildings and reconstructed buildings. Some of the historic sites you can see at the Vintage Village are:

• Victoria Street School is a one-roomed schoolhouse which reflects conditions in public schools in Australia in the 1930s and was moved to the Museum in 1984.
• Caversham Cottage was built around 1880 at 63 Smart Street, Fairfield and was the lifetime home of Eva Stone (nee Jeffress), who was born in the house on 8 November 1894.
• The Slab Hut was built by Nathan Rule circa 1886 using local timber. It used to be located at 53 Church Street, Cabramatta and originally included a kitchen and dining room.
• Wheatley's Store, a reconstruction of the business which ran from 1892-1953 on Hamilton Road in Fairfield West. Here you will see the store and its stock as it would have appeared around 1932.
• The Biz Printery reconstructs the printing house circa 1932 which printed Fairfield's first newspaper. Here you will see authentic machines and tools used by The Biz, such as two foot-operated Arab platen printing presses, an Elrod strip casting machine, an ink mixer and a paper perforator.
• Robson Bros. Blacksmiths is a reconstruction of a Smithfield-based blacksmith business as it existed between 1911 and 1924. Here you will see the tools of the trade used by blacksmiths during that time period.
• Money's Motor Garage is a reconstruction of the Money family bus and motor garage business which was on the corner of Liverpool Road and Smithfield Street from 1929-1956.
• The "Hay Shed", is similar to the hundreds of tin sheds built on farms throughout Australia. The items stored here reflect some of the rural industries that existed in the Fairfield area until the 1960's. 

You can download the self-guided tour brochure here and explore our Vintage Village at your own pace. 

The Vintage Village has a free interactive tour for children aged up to 12 years called Vintage Adventurers. Click the button below to learn more about Vintage Adventurers on our Self-Guided Tours page:

Learn more about Vintage Adventurers

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