The museum comprises the house built in the 1840s by early settler William Butler,[3] an earlier Church Missionary Society house from the Waimate Mission moved to the site by Butler, both fitted with original furniture, and a recently built whaling museum, with a restored fully equipped whaling boat, tryworks, a collection of harpoons, models, scrimshaw and artefacts from the whalers who called into Doubtless Bay, including Charles W. Morgan. There are also substantial gardens and grounds surrounding the museum, including a 10.9 metre circumference pōhutukawa tree, claimed to be the world's largest. The owners and curators, a retired ophthalmologist and his wife, live in the grounds.
