This past year we have been introducing our girls to May Gibbs’ stories about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie so I was excited when we discovered that her home ‘Nutcote’ was right here in Sydney. Over the break we managed to get along to see her house and it so happened to be May Gibbs’ birthday (she passed away a long time ago) so they had all sorts of special activities on including a lot of Scotty dogs and their owners coming along. May owned a few Scotty dogs so they were special to her, she even wrote a story or two about them.
The house was so interesting, well designed for the time with emphasis on her studio space. Her kitchen was small as she wasn’t much of a cook. For an older house I was amazed to find the built in wardrobes, really clever.
The most exciting thing by far (for me) was seeing May’s easel and her artwork storage cabinet. These were right there, where she used to sit and write her comic strips. The view onto the harbour is beautiful and apparently they moved there before the Sydney harbour bridge was built and were able to watch it being built from their balcony.
My kids loved the story time and the ability to dress up as ragged blossoms and I was able to see a historical DVD where she was interviewed.
If you are in Sydney make sure you go and see Nutcote, its really worth a visit to this bit of Australian history! Click on the images below to see a gallery of photos from our visit:
- Outside her home
- Plaque on the front of Nutcote
- The Living Room
- Hand painted postcards
- May Gibbs
- May’s easel
- May’s brushes
- May’s desk
- A watercolour painted by May Gibbs
- A watercolour painted by May Gibbs
- Harbour views
- The tiny kitchen
- Apple Pie
- Rolling Pin
- Magazine work she did
- May’s palette
- May’s sketch book
- May’s sketchbook
- Stories
- The Nutcote Tea Room
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the house! Hope to see you visit again some time soon!
Nutcote x