Righto, if you’ve got your sunnies on, look straight ahead and you’ll spot a big ol’ sandstone building with a dramatic, glassy entrance that juts out like a glimmering jewel box on William Street - that’s the Australian Museum, mate!
Now, let your imagination run wild, because you’re standin’ out front of the oldest natural history museum in all of Australia and one of the oldest in the world! Picture this: It’s the 1820s. Old Sydney town’s full of dirt roads and rickety wooden buildings, and the local bigwigs are dreamin’ about a place to stash and show off all sorts of weird and wonderful critters collected from this bonza continent. Fast forward to 1827, and with a bit of a push from a bloke called Earl Bathurst-and some cold hard cash from the Brits-the Colonial Museum was born.
Back in the day, the museum bounced around town, crammed in odd rooms, until it landed right here in its current home in 1849. Its earliest wings, built from classic Sydney sandstone, give the place a proper old-school vibe - just soak in those tall columns and the regal air! But don’t let the old bones fool ya: this place has kept growing and modernising, hence you can’t miss that flash ‘Crystal Hall’ entryway, all angles and shining glass, opened in 2015. That’s where you walk in these days, suspended above College Street like you’re on a catwalk for science.
This joint was never just for fun, though - from the very beginning it was about collecting all the curiosities, live or fossilised, wriggling or ancient, and showing them off like nobody’s business. Back in the early years, swapping stuff with British and European museums was the go. Gerard Krefft, one legend of a scientist, ran the joint in the 1860s and really put the Aussie Museum on the global map - he was the go-to bloke for all things that slither, swim, or stomp.
Even today, the museum is buzzing with research. If you’ve ever fancied yourself a Steve Irwin wannabe, get this: since ’73, the museum has a cracking research station on Lizard Island up on the Great Barrier Reef, where scientists study corals, critters, and climate change - talk about livin’ the dream! In the city, their flash Australian Museum Research Institute is crawling with boffins, exploring everything from biodiversity disasters to backyard frogs. Speaking of, their FrogID project turned Aussies into citizen scientists, recording frog croaks in the wild to help save our slippery little mates.
Over the years, this place survived wars, renovations, and the odd bit of drama. They once had a train - yep, a full-on Aussie Museum Train - chugging around New South Wales in the ’70s and ’80s, bringing the magic of the museum to country kids. The museum’s always been a battler, sometimes getting mixed up in politics, like the time a single word in an Ancient Egypt exhibit sparked a full-blown stoush. But that’s Sydney - never dull, eh?
Oh, and don’t reckon this place is just a museum! On some nights, you can rock up for ‘Night at the Museum’, explore the dark corners after hours, meet live animals, or catch one of their flash talks about how the world’s changing. And in the exhibition halls? You’ll find everything from mummies and dinosaur bones to Pacific treasures and Aboriginal artefacts, like a real sled from Mawson’s Antarctic adventure, and a feathered cape gifted to Captain Cook.
The building itself is a living timeline - walk along the outside and you’ll spot stately Greek Revival bones from the 1840s right next to cool modern wings from the 1960s and 2010s. It’s a treasure chest built by generations of passionate curators, scientists, and even a few unfortunate souls, like its first custodian William Holmes, who accidentally shot himself collecting specimens (unlucky, mate). Through fires, floods, and fads, the museum's always been Sydney's home for wild, weird, and wonderful discovery.
So have a squiz through those glass doors. You’re about to step into two centuries of adventure - from ancient fossils to cutting-edge climate science. Not bad for a place that started with just a handful of curiosities and the wildest dreams in the colony!
Exploring the realm of the building, research or the other activities? Feel free to consult the chat section for additional information.
