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Small and wonderful Melbourne MuseumOct 11 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line This small museum is definitely worth a visit. Its exhibits are unique to Melboune and Australia. The Melbourne Museum is a great place to visit for a couple of hours. Located in Carlton Park, next to an impressive Victorian Era Exhibition Hall, it’s the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The museum is small compared to counterparts in New York City, London, and even Los Angeles. There are five sections: the Science and Life Gallery, a hall celebrating Australia’s Aboriginal heritage, Australia Gallery, Mind and Body, and an area that hosts temporary exhibits. The science hall was my favourite. It has a small but informative section on the history of life and a great exhibit on the history of evolutionary thought. But what packs the most weight is the space dedicated to the flora and fauna of Australia. To the right of the entrance, a mob of preserved kangaroos greets you, lined up in a display that continues far into the room. The huge kangaroos are just part of an awesome exhibit of molluscs and birds and insects and mammals and reptiles: all sorts of animals in lifelike poses lined up in a parade as if waiting to be checked and counted before hoping, crawling, and flying onto Noah’s ark. Glass cabinets behind this menagerie display additional stuffed and preserved specimens in a classical Victorian manner: in boxes and jars and posed on branches, etc. It’s incredible to see the vast diversity of specimens that represent Australia’s fauna in such a small space. It’s a stunning testament to the unique fauna of Australia. Behind the glass cases are more exhibits. These are organised by habitat to show assemblages of plants and animals as they might appear in a swamp or in a tropical reef or the desert. The Southern Diversity exhibit is nothing short of fantastic! Then there’s the Forest Gallery, a tract of temperate rain forest transplanted in a huge room with ceilings and walls that allow the outside air and weather in. You walk through the forest on paths that wind past cross-section views of the river life above you, native birds like the big-mouthed frogmouth and metallic blue fairy wren who live in the forest, and an impressive—if small—stand of mountain ash. There’s also an explanation of the calendar used by the Aboriginals who lived here before European conquest. Rather than trace the movements of the earth around the sun, the calendar kept time to the habits of plants and animals. The explanation is a little dense, but interesting, nevertheless. Also in the Hall of Science is a mediocre palaeontology display with the obligatory therapod fossils chasing down a sauropod and a colourful wall of minerals. The rest of the museum is good but pale in comparison to the Southern Diversity section. The hall honouring Aboriginal cultures is very small and doesn’t really give you a sense of who the people were before Europeans arrived to enslave and kill them en masse. Artefacts are haphazardly displayed here and there with no real…through line to tie it all together. The human body exhibit is interesting—especially for kids—but due to the touchy-feely nature of the exhibit, traffic gets really bottlenecked, here. I honestly didn’t spend too much time in this wing because the screaming kids got on my nerves. The exhibit on Melbourne history and culture in the Australia Gallery was interesting. It showed how immigrants from all over the world contributed to the modern face of the city and focused on one of the only uniquely Melbournian inventions: Australian Rules Football, or footy. There’s a recreation of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the main games are played and vintage memorabilia for you to look at. There’s also a re-creation of the set of Neighbours, a local nighttime soap opera that introduced Kylie Mynogue to the world. The small wings of movie props implied a booming movie industry in Melbourne, but I wasn’t impressed. Ok. It probably sounds like I loved the wildlife exhibit and hated everything else. But this isn’t true. I had a great 3-hour tour of the museum—all of it! In three hours, I looked at everything without getting bored or antsy. The smaller size of the complex prevented the exhibits from becoming overwhelming, and I really enjoyed myself—even in the Neighbours exhibit. Plus, much of the displays are unique to Melbourne and Australia. They focus on local heritage rather than on broad topics that larger museums tends to do. So spend three hours strolling around the small museum. Afterwards, check out the great gift shop. Their selection of books on Melbourne and Australia can’t be beat. There’s also an IMAX theatre down stairs where you can watch documentaries on impossibly big screens for a visceral movie-going experience. Outside, in Carlton Park, there are nice grounds perfect for picnics or a tan. If you stay around until the early evening, you’ll see the cute possums that live in the trees. For dinner I’d suggest walking east from Carlton Garden to Brunswick Street just one city block away. This is Melbourne’s East Village, filled with all sorts of eclectic restaurants, pubs, and shops. Southern Diversity (in the Life Gallery) – 5 stars Forest Gallery – 4 stars Overall – 4 stars Day trip Under $20 (USD)  |
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by artemis8
by knotheadusc
