Melbourne Museum

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The Melbourne Museum is located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. It shares these gardens with the Royal Exhibition Building. It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere.

The museum has seven main galleries, a Children's Gallery and a temporary exhibit gallery on three levels, Upper, Ground and Lower Level and was constructed by Baulderstone Hornibrook.

The Touring Hall is where temporary exhibits are displayed. Past exhibits include mummies from Egypt and dinosaurs from China. The Big Box is part of the Children's Gallery.

In addition, the museum has other facilities such as the Sidney Myer Amphitheatre and The Age Theatre. The Discovery Centre, on the Lower Level, is a free public research centre. The museum also has a cafe and a souvenir shop.

IMAX Theatre, which is situated on the Lower Level is also part of the museum complex. It shows movies, usually documentary films, in 3-D format.

Contents 1 Main Permanent Exhibits 2 History 3 Festival Melbourne 2006 4 Gallery 5 External links / References

[edit] Main Permanent Exhibits

The main permanent exhibits include:

1. Evolution Gallery - including a skeleton of a diprotodon (a giant wombat-like creature), and skeletons of dinosaurs such as:
   • Tarbosaurus (Giant meat eater, Tyrannosauridae)
   • Mamenchisaurus (Giant Sauropod)
   • Tsintaosaurus
   • Hadrosaurid
   • Pteranodon
   • Gallimimus
   • Hypsilophodon
   • and many other prehistoric animals.
2. Australia Gallery - where the body of Phar Lap, a race horse that won the Melbourne Cup during the depression era, is exhibited.
3. Big skeleton of a Pygmy Blue Whale
4. CSIRAC - an early computer built in Australia by the forerunner organisation to the CSIRO
5. Mind and Body Gallery - a gallery regarding the human body. It also features a world first exhibition about the mind (called The Mind: enter the labyrinth).
6. Science and Life Gallery including the Virtual Room, Bugz Alive! exhibition and Marine Life.
7. Forest Gallery - a temperate Victorian forest environment, complete with birds, reptiles, and other fauna
8. Bunjilaka - a gallery with exhibitions concerning the Aborigines of Victoria
9. Te Pasifika Gallery - an exhibition which highlights the history and watercrafts of Pacific Islanders

[edit] History

The museum had its earliest beginnings in the Government Assay Office which on 9 March 1854, opened some displays in La Trobe Street. In 1858, Frederick McCoy who was Professor of Natural History at the University of Melbourne was appointed Director of the National Museum.[1]

The Melbourne Museum was originally located (along with the State Library and the old state gallery) in the city block between La Trobe, Swanston, Little Lonsdale and Russell Streets - the nearby Museum underground railway station was originally named after it, although following the move it station has been renamed Melbourne Central. The State Library now uses all the space in that building, the gallery also having moved to the NGV site.

[edit] Festival Melbourne 2006

Melbourne Museum was one of the venues of Festival Melbourne 2006, a city-wide art festival held in conjunction of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which was held in Melbourne. Among the exhibitions held in the museum were 'Common Goods:Cultures Meet Through Craft', which featured crafts made by artists from various Commonwealth countries and 'CARVE:Indigenous carving practices', a series of demonstrations of traditional indigenous carving practices and techniques from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Besides that, there was a producers' market, 'Victorian Producers' Market', where the best produces from regional Victoria such as wine, cheese and others were sold. A cooking competition, 'Culinary Pro Am of the Commonwealth' was also held between top Melbourne chefs, each representing a Commonwealth country.

Another crowd drawer was the large screen on museum grounds where live actions of the Games were shown.

[edit] Gallery

thumb|center|Melbourne Museum

right|thumb|center|Museum hall

|left|thumb|Melbourne Museum (Modern Architecture)

[edit] External links / References

• Melbourne Museum
• Disability information
• Melbourne Food and Wine during the 2006 Commonwealth Games
• [2] Reference of Museum items

• Melbourne Museum is at coordinates 37°48′12″S 144°58′17″E / -37.803337, 144.971445 (Melbourne Museum)Coordinates: 37°48′12″S 144°58′17″E / -37.803337, 144.971445 (Melbourne Museum)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

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