The Port Macquarie Historical Society's collection includes objects, artefacts, treasures, ephemera, photographs and documents on display in the Port Macquarie Historical Museum, in its archives and in storage. The collection is significant historically in regional NSW and Australia. It interprets important themes in local, State and Australian political and social history, including Aboriginal culture, European settlement, the penal colony, free settlement, local trades, services and industries, farming, the timber industry, domestic life, travel etc. It represents the people and culture that have shaped the history of Port Macquarie and Australia from settlement in 1821 through to the 1950s. It also provides representative examples of a number of themes, such as its upstairs house museum c1840 and arcade of shops and trade galleries.