Liverpool Regional Museum

Preserving and promoting Liverpool's cultural heritage, history and stories

^{Dame Edna (1934 Humber Snipe) visits Liverpool Regional Museum}

Liverpool Regional Museum was opened on 3 June 1989 as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations.

The museum presents and collects items reflecting environmental, heritage and social themes within south-west Sydney. Whilst preserving and promoting Liverpool's cultural heritage, history and stories through collections, exhibitions and public programs.

Visitors can experience our permanent exhibition ‘RESONANCES: objects, lives and stories of Liverpool’ accompanied with a program of diverse changing exhibitions, including public programs that engage and inspire the community.

We are available to guide visitors through our exhibitions and assist with enquiries. Visitors can also research their family history from our resident Liverpool Genealogy Society.

To make a booking for your group or school email: liverpoolregionalmuseum@liverpool.nsw.gov.au

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

EXILIO (EXILED)

RESONANCES

EXHIBITION
LIVERPOOL REGIONAL MUSEUM

EXILIO (EXILED)
CHILE TO SOUTH-WEST SYDNEY

21 May 2024 – 28 September 2024

Exilio exhibition photos

The 1973 Chilean Military Coup d’état forced a whole generation into exile.

One of the darkest chapters in the history of Latin America caused thousands of Chileans to be kidnapped, tortured, disappeared and murdered. The military, commanded by General Pinochet and supported by the US, UK and Australian Governments, overthrew the democratically elected left-wing government of President Salvador Allende.

By 1981 more than 18,000 arrived in Australia after seeking refugee status with further waves throughout the 1980s. Many made their new home in Sydney’s western suburbs of Liverpool, Campbelltown and Fairfield.

Liverpool Regional Museum has commissioned Chilean born filmmaker Milena Sanhueza Ben-David (Recapture Productions) to create a series of video testimonials from the Chilean Community in Western Sydney.

The geopolitics leading up to the coup and generational after-effects of trauma and loss are presented in archives, artefacts and ‘Arpilleras’ – a communal folk-art process created by women which depict pictorial narratives and testimonies of protest in brightly coloured textiles. This is some of their stories.

This exhibition is officially supported by Consulado General de Chile en Sydney, Gobierno de Chile.

Exilio logos

Image credit:

Left: Rivera Family departing Chile, Aeropuerto Internacional De Pudahuel, Santiago, 1977 (Courtesy of Nadia Rivera).

Right: Chilean Military Coup d’etat, Santiago, Chile, 11 September 1973, La Moneda (Presidential Palace), Streets of Santiago, Estadio Nacional used as a torture and detention camp after the Coup.

RESONANCES
OBJECTS, LIVES AND STORIES OF LIVERPOOL

PERMANENT EXHIBITION

Objects shape who we are, the people we engage with, our attachment to place, our values and ideas.

Resonances takes you on a journey to discover Liverpool’s heritage through its collection of donated objects, unifying a diversity as an eclectic assembly of artefacts and oral histories.

We can only speculate about the personal meanings and significance an object holds for an individual or family; donors provide a trace of their story as a gift for future generations.

Resonances combines the collection within six themes: