The Australian Museum - Cool Things to See
Are you into nature, science and environment? The Australian Museum is for you.
Visit it to discover unique animals in Australia, endangered or extinct species, minerals.
Get to watch or play with all the cool things available: films, videos, interactive tables, reconstruction of environment.
You will get to know more about the geological aspect of the country with its minerals, gemstones and fossils.
You will learn about the giant Australian dinosaurs that used to populate it, the dangerous creatures that are still there and the unique and diverse wildlife that is nowhere else.
The galleries include exhibits and information about:
- Indigenous Australians
- Surviving Australia
- Dinosaurs
- Birds and Insects
- Skeletons
- Minerals
Australian Museum - Indigenous Australians
An important part of the exhibits in the museum demonstrate the spirituality and cultural traditions of the populations inhabiting Australia. You will see numerous objects: bark paintings, woven baskets, pipes, shields. They may have the same function but vary in design and meaning from one region to the other. The colours change from browns and dark reds to vivid greens, blues or yellows.
The interactive screens at the Australian Museum bring up stories of Aboriginal people and walk you through the meaning of various artefacts.
There is even a life size reconstruction of a bush chapel. You can also see a beautiful collection of Indigenous art which includes oil paintings, acrylic on canvas, ochre on bark, water colours.
For more about the Indigenous Australians in Sydney, visit the Museum of Sydney.
Surviving Australia
Here is some of the interesting stuff:
- Some species went extinct, others have to fight for survival because of human intervention or climate change in places like the Macquarie, Lord Howe, Kangaroo and Christmas Islands.
- Macquarie Island is the only place in the world where rocks from the Earth mantle are above the sea levels, lying along the shores.
- Mangrove swamps provide food and shelter to various aquatic animals.
- We share our beaches with animals and plants that we don't even notice. Get more information about them.
- Danger lurks in the water - there are 140 species of sharks. The exhibits question whether they are predators or prey.
- But there's even more danger around in the form of venomous fish, molluscs and snakes.
- We share our backyards with beautiful blue tongue lizards, cute possums who like eating our flowers and fruit and taking shelter in roofs, and other nocturnal mammals, with spiders, insects, frogs.
The gallery has even a cool interactive table. Walk your fingers along its surface and get very, very close to these creatures...actually, their virtual representation.
Australian Museum - Dinosaurs
The dinosaurs section is jam-packed with interesting facts, images, media, displays, models.
Get a feel of what Australia looked like and where it was on the map in the Mesozoic when everything in the southern hemisphere was just the one Gondwana continent. See the huge skeleton of a vegetarian giant. Read the theories about what happened 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs disappeared.
See why they are not here anymore while other animals made it through. And turn the wheel of misfortune to see which were the survivors.
Birds and Insects
After you have seen the world from the perspective of a dinosaur, check the smaller beings that inhabit the planet.
Skeletons
Learn about bones, their structure and the way they work together to move beings. See how different they are from species to species.
Minerals
This is an amazing world with beautiful gemstones, crystals and rocks coming from various spots of the Earth.
This is the section where geological past comes to life.
There are many more exhibitions that can keep you in the Australian Museum for the whole day. It is a family friendly place with a kids area and cool activities to keep them engaged.
Address of the Australian Museum
The museum is located at 6 College street at the corner with William street. The entrance fee is 12 $ and children pay half price.
Continue reading here: Australian Scientists - Nobel Prize Winners
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