Museum sights in Victoria
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Johnston Collection
The collection of sharp-eyed antique dealer William Johnston is on show in this characteristic East Melbourne mansion. Rooms are decorated in an English country-house style, and also highlight specific interior-decorating fashions from last century – almost as fascinating as the pieces themselves. Visits come with a sense of mystique; for privacy reasons, you need to book a tour and be picked up from the nearby Hilton on the Park rather than just rocking up to the door. Tours depart three times daily; phone to reserve a place.
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Melbourne Museum
This confident postmodern exhibition space mixes old-style object displays with themed interactive display areas. The museum's reach is almost too broad to be cohesive, but it provides a grand sweep of Victoria's natural and cultural histories. Walk through the reconstructed laneway lives of the 1800s or become immersed in the legend of champion racehorse Phar Lap. Bunjilaka, on the ground floor, presents Indigenous stories and history told through objects and Aboriginal voices. There's also an open-air forest atrium featuring Victorian plants and animals and an Imax cinema next door.
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Old Post Office
The Old Post Office built in 1870, was the childhood home of Henry Handel Richardson. She (yes, she!) writes about it in her autobiography, Myself When Young (1950).
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National Holden Museum
One for the rev-heads, this museum is devoted to Australia’s four-wheeled icon. There’s over 40 vehicles, from FJ to Monaro, as well as racing footage and photos.
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Living Museum
This charming museum focuses on the unique history of the area, home to a high proportion of migrants and traditionally working class. The museum promotes local participation in its programme of documenting and interpreting the area's social, industrial and environmental history. It keeps 400 oral histories on various topics, such as migration, the role of women, and the meat industry. Old-school exhibits of photographs, maps, drawings and text thumbtacked to a display board are highly accessible. It's set in the grounds of Pipemakers Park, featuring a Discovery Park, wetlands area and indigenous gardens, which re-create the landscape of the basalt plains and valley as it…
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Golden Dragon Museum & Chinese Gardens
Bendigo’s proud Chinese heritage can be explored at the wonderful Golden Dragon Museum & Chinese Gardens. Two enormous processional dragons, Old Loong (the world’s oldest) and Sun Loong (the world’s longest), reside here. Old Loong arrived in 1892 for the annual Bendigo Easter Festival, and Sun Loong took over in 1970 when Old Loong retired. The museum traces the involvement of the Chinese community in the development of Bendigo. Across the road are the pretty ornamental Chinese gardens and there’s a tearoom serving light meals and yum cha.
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Pioneer Settlement
Swan Hill’s major attraction, the Pioneer Settlement is an enjoyable re-creation of a paddle-steamer riverside port town. The dusty old-time streets feature shops, an old school and church, vintage car rides, Aboriginal keeping place and the fascinating Kaiser Stereoscope. PS Gem, one of the largest river boats to have served on the Murray, was being renovated at the time of research.
The paddle steamer PS Pyap makes one hour cruises along the Murray. Every night at dusk a 45-minute sound-and-light show brings the historic old town to life.
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National Sports Museum
The new National Sports Museum features five permanent exhibitions focusing on Australia’s favourite sports and celebrating historic sporting moments. There are some choice sports fetish objects on display: the handwritten notes used to define the rules of Australian Rules Football in 1859; Bradman’s baggy green cap; olive branches awarded to Edwin Flack, Australia’s first Olympian in 1886; and our Cathy’s infamous Sydney Olympics swift suit. There’s also an interactive area that gets kids trying out their skills.
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Immigration Museum
The Immigration Museum uses personal and community voices, images and memorabilia to tell the many stories of immigration. It's symbolically housed in the old Customs House (1858–70).
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Australian Racing Museum
Not November? Never mind; trackgoers can sample some Spring Racing fervour at this museum dedicated to thoroughbred horses, jockeys and trainers. Exhibits cover the history of racing and reverently trumpet the social and cultural importance of the sport in Australia. The line up of Melbourne Cups is a fascinating look at changing tastes.
reviewed
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Langtree Hall Museum
Dating from 1889, the Langtree Hall Museum was the region's first public hall and is an important link in Mildura's Heritage. A hodge-podge of memorabilia is on display here including an impressive collection of dolls, an assortment of toys, old christening gowns and musical instruments.
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Captain Cook’s Cottage
Captain Cook’s Cottage is the former Yorkshire home of the distinguished English navigator’s parents (although the jury is still out on whether or not he ever slept there). It was dismantled, shipped to Melbourne and reconstructed stone by stone in 1934.
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Chinese Museum
The interesting Chinese Museum documents the long history of Chinese people in Australia over five levels. The entrance of the museum is guarded by the 218kg Millennium Dragon, which snakes its way through the city streets during Chinese New Year.
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MB Historic Cellars
Old brewery paraphernalia is on display at MB Historic Cellars, a former brewery that now produces traditional cordials like ginger beer. In the same premises is the Carriage Museum, displaying gorgeous old horse-drawn carriages.
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Old Treasury
The Old Treasury is an elegant edifice built in 1862 with basement vaults to store much of the £200 million worth of gold mined from the Victorian goldfields. The City Museum, housed within, has three permanent exhibitions.
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Historical Society Museum
Dunkeld was established in the 1860s, but much of it was destroyed by bushfires in 1944. The bright Historical Society Museum in an old bluestone church has a local history collection, including Aboriginal artefacts and old photographs.
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Rushworth Historical Museum
Rushworth’s High St, classified an historic precinct, is divided by a central plantation and a Victorian band rotunda. You hardly need to visit the Historical Museum in the old Mechanics Institute to get a feel for the past.
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Goldfields Historical Museum
The world’s largest alluvial nugget, the 72kg Welcome Stranger, was found in Moliagul in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates, who hid it for two days before concealing it in a wagon and taking it to DunollyGoldfields Historical Museum.
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Burke Museum
Burke Museum is named after the explorer Robert O’Hara Burke, who was the police superintendent at Beechworth from 1854 to 1858. It shows gold-rush relics and an arcade of shopfronts preserved as they were over 140 years ago.
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Ford Discovery Centre
Ford Discovery Centre looks at the Ford motor industry then and now, using interactive displays and exhibits. Rev-heads love the ‘cars of the future’ display, Bathurst-winning Falcons, a Model T Ford and crash-test dummies.
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Army Museum Bandiana
The Army Museum Bandiana displays a variety of war weaponry, items from missions, and documents. The old cars are magnificent. There’s Buick and Holden staff cars, Chevrolet and Dodge trucks, carriages, motorbikes.
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Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum
The famous Catalina flying boat A24-30 is on display, outside a secret communications bunker, just 16km away at Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum. Flying boats were repaired at Lake Boga during WWII.
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Great Aussie Beer Shed
The Great Aussie Beer Shed is a wall-to-wall shrine to beer cans – mostly Australian – in a huge shed; it’s the result of 30 years of collecting and one dates back to Federation.
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Old Castlemaine Gaol
The last prisoners moved out of the imposing Old Castlemaine Gaol in 1990. Today you can take a guided tour of the old cells, gallows and watchtowers, and there’s a small cafe.
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Tyntyndyer Homestead
Tyntyndyer Homestead, 16km north of town, has a small museum and many reminders of the hardships of colonial life, such as the wine cellar! Visit at other times by appointment.
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