Museum sights in Sydney
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Powerhouse Museum
A short walk from Darling Harbour, Sydney’s hippest and most kid-focused museum whirrs away inside the former power station for Sydney’s defunct tram network. High-voltage interactive demonstrations wow school groups with the low-down on how lightning strikes, magnets grab and engines growl. Look out for the Strasburg Clock replica located on level four and a guitar once owned by AC/DC’s Angus Young on level two. Grab a map of the museum once you’re inside (you’ll need it), and a free copy of the Sydney Morning Herald on your way out. Disabled access is good.
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Museum of Contemporary Art
A slice of Gotham City on Circular Quay West, the stately art-deco MCA has been raising even the most open-minded Sydney eyebrows since 1991. Constantly changing controversial exhibitions from Australia and overseas range from the incredibly hip to in-your-face, sexually explicit and profoundly disturbing. Impressive. There’s a cool cafe and a museum shop here, too.
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Sydney Observatory
Built in the 1850s, Sydney’s copper-domed, Italianate observatory squats atop Observatory Hill, overlooking Millers Point and the harbour. Studded with huge Moreton Bay fig trees, the grassy hilltop buzzes with sweaty hill-climbing joggers, lunchtime CBD escapees and travellers taking time out from The Rocks below. The hill was the site of the colony’s first windmill (1796), which ground wheat until someone stole its canvas sails and the structure collapsed. Inside is a collection of vintage apparatus, including Australia’s oldest working telescope (1874). Also on offer are AV displays, an interactive Australian Astronomy exhibition of Aboriginal sky stories and modern …
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Australian National Maritime Museum
Beneath an Utzon-like roof (a low-rent Opera House?), the Maritime Museum sails through Australia’s inextricable relationship with the sea. Exhibitions range from Aboriginal canoes to surf culture and the Navy. You can almost taste the salt. Free tours happen half-hourly from 10am to 2.30pm; kids’ activities happen on Sundays between 11am and 3pm. Outside, the austere 100m-long Welcome Wall honours Sydney’s migrants, allowing families to inscribe names and register their history on the database. Entry to the permanent indoor collection is free; the cost of touring the vessels moored outside varies, with the ‘big ticket’ (adult/child/family $30/16/65) covering the subm…
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Sydney Jewish Museum
Created as a living memorial to the Holocaust, the Sydney Jewish Museum examines Australian Jewish history, culture and tradition from the time of the First Fleet (which included 16 known Jews) to the present day, along with the history of Judaism in general. Video testimony and touch-screen computers are used to good effect. There’s a sobering Holocaust section, which includes the moving Children’s Memorial. Allow at least two hours to take it all in. Free 45-minute tours leave at noon on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
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Museum of Sydney
Built on the site of Sydney’s first (and infamously pungent) Government House, the MOS is a fragmented, story-telling museum using state-of-the-art installations to explore the city’s people, places, cultures and evolution. Indigenous origins are highlighted, evoking a poetic sense of place. Be sure to open some of the many stainless steel and glass drawers (they close themselves). In the forecourt, check out the disarming Edge of Trees sculpture by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley. There’s a cool cafe here, too.
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Pylon Lookout Museum
The best way to experience Sydney Harbour Bridge is on foot – staircases access the bridge from both shores; a footpath runs along its eastern side. If this view doesn’t sate you, scale the southeast pylon to the Pylon Lookout Museum; enter via the bridge stairs on Cumberland St. The views from the top are awesome, and museum exhibits explain how the bridge was built. The pylons may look as though they’re shouldering all the weight, but they’re largely decorative – right down to their granite facing.
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Hyde Park Barracks Museum
Francis Greenway designed this squarish, decorously Georgian structure (1819) as convict quarters. It later became an immigration depot, a women’s asylum and a law court. These days it’s a fascinating (if not entirely cheerful) museum, focusing on the barracks’ history and the archaeological efforts that helped uncover it. You can read about the offences for which convicts were transported to Australia, some of which are astoundingly petty. There’s a ritzy cafe, too.
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Susannah Place Museum
Welcome to 19th-century working class life. Visits to this row of tiny 1844 terrace houses start with a video in the dilapidated parlour of the first home before heading through the neighbouring two. In the backyard see where generations of Rocks women cooked and laundered their clothes in a wood-fired copper (near the dunny). The curators wear period dress and run the cuter-than-cute corner shop that sells wares from the period.
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Australian Museum
This natural-history museum, established just 40 years after the First Fleet dropped anchor, has an excellent Australian wildlife collection (including some cool skeletons) and a gallery tracing Aboriginal history and the Dreamtime. There’s a half-hour indigenous performance at noon and 2pm every Sunday, and a heap of fun programs for kids. Free tours run at 11am and 2pm daily. It’s also wheelchair accessible.
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Outback Centre
A mixture of kitsch and cultural, this is a combination of souvenir store, performance space and art gallery. You'll find woomeras (spear-throwers), kalis (jumbo-sized boomerangs), musical clap sticks and bullroarers (ceremonial musical instruments). The highlight, hidden out back, is Australia's Outback Gallery. A free 'Sounds of the Outback' didgeridoo performance takes place at 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00 daily.
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Nicholson Museum
Nor far from the University of Sydney’s quadrangle, this brilliant museum is a must-see for ancient history geeks. Inside is an amazing accumulation of Greek, Roman, Cypriot, Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities, including Padiashaikhet the mummy. It was founded in 1860 by orphan-made-good Sir Charles Nicholson, a key figure in the establishment of both the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum.
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May Gibbs’ Nutcote
Spanish Mission–style Nutcote (1925) is the former home of much-loved Australian children’s author May Gibbs, who wrote Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. It’s now a museum, restored to its 1930s glory, with exhibits on her life and work. Cheery volunteer guides can show you around, and there are beautiful gardens, a tearoom and a gift shop. It’s a five-minute walk from the wharf.
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La Perouse Museum & Visitors Centre
La Perouse, named after a French explorer, also features a monument to him, built in 1828 by French sailors. You can also visit the fabulous La Perouse Museum & Visitors Centre housed inside the old cable station (1882). The centre has relics from La Perouse’s many expeditions, an interesting Aboriginal gallery and changing exhibitions on local history and environment.
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Rail Heritage Centre, Central Station
Sydney’s main railway station was built in 1906 on top of an old convent and cemetery (any ghosts?). The 75m Gothic clock tower was added 15 years later. It houses the geeky Rail Heritage Centre. As you’re pulling into Central from the south, look for the ornate disused Mortuary Station (1869) on your left.
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Justice & Police Museum
In the old Water Police Station (1858), this mildly unnerving museum mimics a late-19th-century police station and court. Focusing on disreputable activities, exhibits include weapons, butt-ugly mugshots, forensic evidence from Sydney’s most heinous crimes and at least two stuffed dogs. Wheelchair access to the ground floor only.
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Mary Mackillop Place
This hushed museum tells the life story of Australia’s saint, a dedicated and outspoken educator and pioneer who prevailed over conservative Catholic hierarchical ideals despite being excommunicated for six months. The building was blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1995. You’ll find Mary’s tomb inside the chapel.
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The Rocks Discovery Museum
Divided into four chronological displays – pre-1788, 1788 to 1820, 1820 to 1900, and 1900 to the present – this excellent new museum digs deep into The Rocks’ history and leads you on an artefact-rich tour. Sensitive attention is given to The Rocks’ original inhabitants, the Cadigal people.
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Hambledon Cottage
Not far from Elizabeth Farm, surrounded by 200-year-old camphor laurels and English oaks, Hambledon Cottage, built in 1824 for the Macarthurs’ daughter’s governess, was later used as weekend lodgings and almost became a car park in the ’80s.
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Victoria Barracks
A manicured malarial vision from the peak of the British Empire (1848), these Georgian buildings have been called the finest in the colonies. Thursday tours take in a flag-raising ceremony, a marching band and the paraphernalia-packed war museum. Good disabled access.
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Manly Art Gallery & Museum
A short stroll from Manly Wharf is this passionately managed community gallery, maintaining a local focus with exhibits of surfcraft, swimwear and beachy bits-and-pieces. There’s also a ceramics gallery, and lots of old Manly photos to peer at.
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