The museum complex is made up of a cottage built by the first Mayor of Tamworth in 1875 adjacent to a vertical slab shepherd's hut (ca1845), both on their original sites. The Mayor was Philip Gidley King, superintendent of the Peel River Land and Mineral Company (also at times known as the Australian Agricultural Co). King was the great grandson of the third Governor of New South Wales of the same name. Both buildings have been restored and conserved and furnished circa 1890s. They display memorabilia and bric-a-brac of historical interest in a garden setting.