National Trust

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The Federal Standard Printing Works, Chiltern

Winter might still have another month up its sleeve, but not everything is battened down. We’ve pulled together some of our favourite places with open doors this August, and they’re well worth stepping out for.

Discover haunting tales

If you think it’s cold out there, wait till you see how winter fares inside the Old Melbourne Gaol. Running on various weeknights, and conducted in the dark, the bone-strumming and hair-raising night tours are the perfect way to embrace the wintry nights with haunting stories of the unexplained.

Return to Rippon Lea

Wandering through Rippon Lea house this month, it’s as though the family has simply stepped out for the day. Each room is waiting for you to explore. Experience over a hundred years of domestic life. Time travel to 1874 and play in the night nursery, sign a 1960s petition to save Rippon Lea or relax and listen to popular tunes from the 1930s.

Recreating the Past

Join our curator, Elizabeth Anya-Petrivna for the next installment of our Trust Talk series. Over six years, Elizabeth has sought to recreate the rare gilded wallpaper that adorned the inside of Rippon Lea more than a century ago. Thanks to the Kinkarakami Institute of Tokyo, this endeavour is now underway. Join this free talk to discover the fascinating story behind this unique process.

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Explore Chiltern

Unlike other gold rush towns, historic Chiltern has remained virtually untouched. Spend a day roaming the childhood home of The Getting of Wisdom’s author Ethel Florence Richardson at Lake View House, explore the intact Dow’s Pharmacy, the only museum of its type with over 4000 items in its collection, and experience up close one of the last standing newspaper printeries, The Federal Standard Printing Works.