Learn about our history by taking part in it. Take a tour of the visual tale of our town from the rough-sawn Whitestone beginnings to the polished and finely worked grandeur of our facades that still exist today. Partake of Victorian pastimes or boldly go beyond the curtains to encounter our colourful past. Leisurely repose oneself in the sumptuous surrounds of our parlour.

Welcome to the Waitaki Museum & ​Archive/ Te Whare Taoka o Waitaki. Waitaki Museum tells the stories of the natural and cultural history of the Waitaki District with 3 new exhibition spaces: Our Land Tō Tātau Whenua: a sample of Waitaki district’s geology. Kā Puipuiaki o Korotuaheka: discover the Waitaha Taoka | Stewart Willetts Family Collection. European Settlement: stories of the arrival of European settlers in the Waitaki District.

Author Janet Frame lived at 56 Eden Street from the age of six until she left Oamaru after completing secondary school. Her childhood became one of the best known of any New Zealander after she wrote of its joys and sorrows in her bestselling autobiography, which was immortalised in the celebrated film An Angel at my Table. The key rooms are very much as they looked during the Frame residency. The dining room (with its original lino) and the bedrooms have not changed since those days. The house is not a restoration, it has become what is now called a re-framing, a combination of known facts and recollections. In many ways, the house is as the first lines in To the Is-Land '.. with its mixture of facts and memories of truths'. The Janet Frame Eden Street Trust owns and administers the property at 56 Eden Street, Oamaru. Opening Hours 2.00 - 4.00pm daily during the summer (1st November to 30 April).

The Forrester Gallery is housed in a spectacular neo-classical building originally constructed in 1884 for the Bank of New South Wales. The Forrester offers the Waitaki and wider region a varied and exciting exhibition programme, houses a growing collection of artworks significant to the region, and stands as an icon of Oamaru's unique historic precinct.