About Paterson Historical Society

In 1973, a small group of locals met to look into forming a group to preserve the local region's history. They had no real guidelines to work on, except to collect photographs of Paterson as it was in the early days, old stories, papers and any other memorabilia from Paterson's past. Meetings were held in the School of Arts, and material was stored in homes.

Fortunately the society was lucky that the Dungog Shire Council at this time offered the Court House to any group in Paterson willing to use it and take care of the building. The Court House was built in the 1860s and run for its original judicial purpose until 1967, but was no longer needed and was empty. The Court House provided a place to display the mounting number of items that were being donated.

On Saturday 4 November 1974 the museum was officially opened by the local Parliamentary representative, Mr Milton Morris.

The ambition of the Society has always been a simple one: to collect Paterson's written, oral and photographic history and present it to others; and to help people in their search for information about their forebears from the district. Over the years the Society has received several government grants for maintenance on the Court House building, and after lots of hard work by members and professionals, the building itself is now a landmark in its own right as well.

Past issues of Museum News are available here.

Paterson Historical Society meets in the museum at 7.30pm on the first Thursday of each month except December and January. Visitors and new members are welcome.