While you’re in Sydney there are more things to do and places to visit than you could possibly fit into any holiday visit. So you will have to make some choices about what sort of things you enjoy the most. If you have come to Australia from overseas, chances are you may want to find out something about Australia’s Indigenous culture and history.
If that’s the case then you can’t go past a visit to the Australian Museum. The Australian Museum is Australia’s oldest museum, having been first established in 1827, only 39 years after the first Europeans settled in the city. For it’s first 30 years it was housed in various Sydney locations, then it settled into its own purpose built home. Situated on the corner of William Street and College Street in the centre of the city the original building has been added to many times because the work of the museum and its vast collection have continuously outgrown the space.
The Australian Museum on College Street across from Hyde Park
The history, art, culture, traditions , medicine and foods, dreamings, political struggles and almost anything else you would like to know about Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is thoughtfully, comprehensively and expertly displayed and explained in the Australian Museum’s cultural exhibitions. As well as collections of many specimens of indigenous tools, artifacts, paintings and carvings there are displays and multimedia exhibits and demonstrations to entertain and educate.
Aboriginal paintings in the Australian Museum
There is also a very large section of the museum dedicated to the Australian environment and the types of plants and animals that have evolved there and survive in it. And also the plants and animals which have not survived and have become extinct, like the Australian megafauna. The different types of habitat found in Australia and all the weird and wonderful Australian animals that exist there and nowhere else in the world are showcased, especially all the deadly and dangerous animals that intrigue overseas visitors so much!
Life size model of a diprotodon, an extinct hippo sized wombat, at the Australian Museum
But that’s not all you get at the Australian Museum. Spread over three levels in it’s huge sandstone edifice are exhibitions on minerals, dinosaurs, Australian insects and birds, skeletons and amour. There’s a space for hands on investigations and an opportunity to see what sort of research the many scientists working at and for the museum do. There’s a shop to buy literature relevant to the museum’s collections and other souvenirs . at Museum these days doesn’t have a cafe, and the Australian Museum’s is a nice one!
So while you’re in Sydney, if Museums are your cup of tea, the Australian Museum is a good choice.