image by AFAR
The Sydney Museum is a place that you should visit if you are in the city of Sydney. It has exhibits on natural history, Indigenous culture, and art & design. There are over 500,000 objects within its walls that include fossils, skeletons, and other rare items. You can even take part in programs to learn more about these exhibits through workshops or lectures! It is located on the corner of College Street and William Street in downtown Sydney NSW 2000.
This Museum is a great way to learn about Australia through its history and culture. Whether you want to learn about the beginnings of human life on Earth or you need the inspiration to make your own art piece, it is a place for everyone to enjoy.
History
Sydney Museum was founded in 1857 by naturalist Sir Alfred Richard Wallace. When he was traveling through the region, he discovered that there were no museums to tell people about the past and future of life on Earth.
The location in which the museum is located used to be a shipyard where ships for Australia’s first fleet would have been built if they had not been used for transportation to the colonies by England.
There are two buildings on site, one is from 1857 and the other was built in 1988. The older building has been renovated to include a new foyer with an information desk and shop as well as more space downstairs to display items not currently being shown upstairs.
The newer building houses the Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, the new temporary exhibition space, and two more galleries of changing exhibitions.
Exhibits
The museum has over 500,000 objects on display including fossils from animals that roamed Australia’s surface millions of years ago. There are also skeletons from creatures like a Diprotodon (a giant wombat-like marsupial) or a thylacine (a carnivorous marsupial). You can learn all about the history of Australia and its culture.
The museum is full of things to do, whether you want to take part in workshops on different subjects like art or natural science; catch one of their lectures; watch an interactive film; go to one of their school holiday programs, or just read about the different exhibits.
Anti-Poverty Program
The museum is a supporter of Australia’s Anti-Poverty program and has set up small interactive stations around its exhibitions that inform visitors about poverty in other parts of the world. One station, for example, features an image of the slums of Mumbai, India. It includes a description of what life is like for people living there and also information about water scarcity in parts of Africa.
There are interactive stations on other topics as well such that you can learn more about poverty across the world through this one small museum!
