The Garden gallery is currently showing works from 3 private collections – which all focus on New Zealand art. 
Works have been kindly loaned from the Woolstore Collection, the Stevenson Collection, and are hung alongside new works from the Anna Bidwill collection that are not part of the permanent collection on display in the homestead gallery at Rototāwai.

The standing Collection is housed in the Rototāwai Homestead and hung in the main rooms on the ground floor. The Collection is recognised as a significant group of works (painting and sculpture) by established contemporary New Zealand Artists. 

The park and gardens at Rototāwai have been re-developed by renowned landscape designer Ross Palmer. The Homestead gardens have been expanded and are designed to be sustainable – featuring informal beds of resilient planting with very low water needs.

Self guided walks are encouraged, maps of the walking paths and feature planting are available free for visitors. 

In 1928 the timber homestead at Rototāwai was destroyed by fire. The owner, W E Bidwill, commissioned Stanley Fearn to design the present house. Plans were prepared in April 1928 and the house was completed in July 1929. Rototāwai is regarded as a valuable statement of his own personal interpretation of the English neo-Georgian theme in domestic architecture.

The Rototāwai estate consists of 8 hectares of magnificent gardens, historic trees and lake frontage. Birdlife in the park is abundant – the lake has ducks in season, and a resident bevy of black swans.

As you tour the gallery and homestead at Rototāwai, you will encounter architectural details, references to family history and stark reminders about how different farming and family life were in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. 

The first of the Bidwill family to arrive in Aotearoa was John Carne Bidwill (1815 - 1853) – who was an English botanist who documented plant life in New Zealand and Australia. He is attributed with the discovery of several Australasian plant species – including Araucaria bidwillii.