'Calala' was built in 1875 by Philip Gidley King, the Superintendent of the Peel River Land and Mineral Company's Goonoo Goonoo Station. He added a large timber ballroom to entertain dignitaries such as Governor Hercules Robinson, who travelled to West Tamworth in 1878 to mark the arrival of the railway in Tamworth.
A Museum Since 1976
The house has been occupied by a number of families over the years, including two sisters, Alice and Una Vernon, both nurses, who used the house as a private hospital.
Original plans by the Town Clerk, Vincent Guy Kable, involved the Vernons selling the house to Council which was going to incorporate the house and land within 'Kings Hill Park'. Ultimately Council purchased the house and rented it and the Slab Hut to families until 1974.
Tamworth Historical Society opened Calala House to the public as a museum in 1976. It now features a selection of objects, photographs and household items from the collection, mainly from the late Victorian period.
