This year marks the 250th anniversary of English novelist Jane Austen's birth and her legacy remains an integral part of popular culture. 

In tribute, Beleura House — a heritage building on the Mornington Peninsula — is showcasing historically accurate pieces from the Regency period. 

The National Trust property was built in 1864 and home to composer John Tallis. 

Its visually stunning grounds, complete with lush gardens and ancestral home, make it an ideal location to simulate the past. 

The pieces have been brought from England by Austen's fifth great niece, Caroline Jane Knight. They have been on display for the public since April. 

The showcase of artefacts contains period-accurate clothing, books and watercolours, all inspired by Austen's arguably most-popular novel, Pride and Prejudice. 

Knight grew up in Chawton House, the ancestral home of the Austen family and where the famous novels were written.

She has held talks discussing her ancestry and personal connection to the famous novelist. 

Lyn Johnson, the collection's curator, said those who attended the talks felt as though they had met Austen by encountering Knight. 

To further simulate the regency period, the house has hosted flower arranging and watercolour painting workshops, as well as grounds tours. 

Johnson says tour bookings have doubled in the past 12 months. She attributes this to the exhibition.

“There's an audience out there that love Jane no matter what ... This is another way of sort of showing what the life was like at the time,” she said. 

The pieces are not directly descended from Austen but exhibit the everyday objects that surrounded individuals of her time. 

Historical dramas and biopics focused on the novelist, such as "Miss Austen", continue to be produced by the BBC. 

Netflix has an upcoming six-part series of Pride and Prejudice starring Emma Corrin, Jack Lowden and Olivia Coleman.

Dr Sascha Morrell, lecturer in literary studies at Monash University, attributes Austen's enduring popularity to the complexity of her work. 

“In her anniversary year she's never been more popular,” Morrell said.

She said that Austen’s examination of interpersonal relations and human psychology rewards constant rereading. 

Morrell said that, to the surprise of many readers, Austen’s work “is surprisingly thin on descriptions of material culture; she doesn't describe lavish costumes, she’s not particularly interested in what her characters look like and leaves a lot to the reader's imagination”. 

So exhibitions that present the physical objects of the Regency period legitimise Austen’s work and her time. 

Morrell reminds us that these objects are the equivalent to the ordinary objects we are surrounded by today. 

“That sense of the reality of which she was writing, which was her contemporary world. It was by no means period fiction; she was writing as if I was writing a novel about 2025,” she said. 

Morrell said that these exhibitions allow people to see the everyday modern objects around them as future historical artefacts. 

“In appreciating our own moment and the concrete things around us as historical in a sense, you actually feel closer to not more removed from the everyday of a past period."

To accommodate avid Austen fans, the house has extended the exhibition till October.