You can visit the cottage and enjoy the latest exhibition, Delicate: An Exhibition of Laces and Trims, in the back room exhibition space.

Lace working is a delicate skill whose origin goes back over 500 years.

At Tarella Cottage Museum we are privileged to have been given some beautiful pieces of lace and handmade clothing featuring lace. Other delicate handmade items and trims have also been entrusted to the society’s care.

In 1969, Miss Beryl McLaughlin donated to the Blue Mountains Historical Society a collection of lace, believed to be the lace her brother, Geoffrey McLaughlin, acquired for his mother and sisters while he was in Malta in 1915 serving in WWI.

In his letters to the family he tells of getting the lace at a very good price and advises that his mother can sort out who gets what. 

Major Geoffrey McLaughlin did not survive the trenches of Passchendaele. He died there in 1917 and is buried in Belgium, far from home, so it is obvious why most of the lace received from him was kept aside and deeply treasured by the McLaughlin family.

You will have the opportunity of inspecting this lace and other lace works in the Museum’s possession at the open day.  

Admission to the exhibition is included as a free added extra to your entry fee to Tarella, which is $5 for adults and $2 for children.