Warkworth Museum in RD 2 Warkworth, Rodney District, New Zealand | Museum | Museum Services | Heritage Museum

Welcome to the Warkworth Museum, located in RD 2 Warkworth, near Auckland in New Zealand. Only 50 minutes drive north from Auckland, look out for our Museum signs just south of RD 2 Warkworth.

The modern Warkworth Museum, located in RD 2 Warkworth, near Auckland, are proud of the constantly developing and changing displays that give an insight into the lives and pursuits of our pioneering families. From the past to the present, we have a magnificent display of colonial history which is beautifully presented. There are numerous display rooms on the ground floor.

On the first floor there are re-created rooms of the 1920's - a corner store, kitchen, bedrooms, sitting room, carpentry and blacksmith workshops and a washhouse showing the furniture, clothing, tools, of yesteryear, and throughout the Museum there are clothing displays from 1890 to the 1950s.

The Museum has wheelchair access to all levels. Features of the Museum setting are the magnificent McKinney and Simpson kauri trees standing in full view of the carpark. The largest trees of their kind to be seen on the east coast of New Zealand, these giants are a reminder of the days long gone when the kauri was known as "king of the forest".

There are many outdoor displays and there are bush walks through the native bush in Parry Kauri Park.

SOUVENIR SHOP
Browse the Museum shop for quality gifts and souvenirs. Cold drinks and brochures also available

Specialist Interest Groups
We are happy to provide a hosted tour of the Museum for groups. Choose a "Behind the Scenes" tour and see how our hundreds of items are cared for.

Walk through the workshops, explore the Archives Department and the research facilities. Visit the Textile Department where a textile conservator will provide a descriptive commentary.

Our Textile department has a large range of clothing - men, women and children from the late 1700s to the 1960s. Fine needlework, hats, and accessories are also in our textile department. Skilled and experienced conservators make sure that these treasures are kept in optimum conditions.

There are ever changing displays of clothing scattered throughout the Museum.

After you have visited the Museum take one of the board walks through the native bush of Parry Kauri Park. Brochures are available (free) from the Museum souvenir shop. The brochures describe and identify the native trees and shrubs to be found in the Parry Kauri Park.

In the Museum's courtyard are a number of old buildings from the early 1900s. There is a four-man army hut built of native timbers and used by both New Zealand and American Forces stationed in Warkworth in WW2. The name of one of the American occupants can still be seen on the wall where he wrote it. There is a display of memorabilia inside the hut. Other old buildings from around the district, for example a bushman's hut from the gum digging days, are on display.

There is the tiny Post Office, a set of stocks, and the old Warkworth Jail.

Old machinery - tractors, plows, pumps, and a "Matakana Punt" are also displayed outside the main building.

In the Big Shed there are displays of wagons, harnesses, and chaff cutters, farm implements - everything that was needed "Down on the Farm" in the early 1900s.