Burke Museum

Top choice in Victorian High Country


Dating from 1857, when it was the Beechworth Athenaeum, this is one of Australia's oldest museums. It was renamed in 1861 in tribute to the famous explorer Robert O’Hara Burke – police superintendent at Beechworth from 1854 to 1858 – following the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. It shows gold-rush relics and an arcade of shopfronts preserved as they were around 150 years ago. Highlights include a taxidermied thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), Charles Dickens' writing desk, Burke's pistol and 'trench art' bullets from WWI.