Australian Museum
The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum and Sydney Museum, is a state public museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is operated and funded as a cultural institution by the state government of New South Wales.
With its predecessor originated in 1827, the museum is the oldest natural history museum in Australia and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the world. It was first conceived and developed along the contemporary European model of an encyclopedic warehouse of cultural and natural history, and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology and anthropology. The scientific stature of the museum was established under the curatorship of scientist Gerard Krefft in the 1860s.
Apart from permanent displays in its galleries, permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum also undertakes research and is involved in community programs. Since 1973 it has operated the Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef, studying the ecology of coral reefs and the effects of climate change. The Australian Museum Research Institute, established in 2013, is the central hub for its researchers in Sydney. the CEO and executive director is Kim McKay, who was the first woman to be appointed to the position in 2014.
History
Establishment
The establishment of a museum had first been planned in 1821 by the Philosophical Society of Australasia, and although specimens were collected, the Society folded in 1822. An entomologist and fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Alexander Macleay, arrived in 1826. After being appointed New South Wales Colonial Secretary, he began lobbying for a museum.The museum was founded in 1827 by Earl Bathurst, then the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who wrote to the governor of New South Wales of his intention to found a public museum and who provided yearly towards its upkeep. Its foundation in 1827 makes the museum the oldest natural history museum in the country, the fifth oldest in the world.
It was first conceived and developed along the contemporary European model of an encyclopedic warehouse of cultural and natural history, and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology and anthropology. In the museum's early years, collecting was its main priority, and specimens were commonly traded with British and other European institutions.
In 1832 George Bennett, curator of the Australian Museum, explained the role of the museum:
From a "beautiful Collection of Australian curiosities", the Museum has grown to an internationally recognised collection of over 21 million cultural and scientific objects. The Museum plays a leading role in taxonomic and systematic research, and at its research station at Lizard Island conducts significant research on coral reef ecology. Through exhibitions and other public programs the Australian Museum continues to inform and amaze generations of visitors about the unique flora, fauna and cultures of Australia and the Pacific.
Administration
The first custodian of the museum was William Holmes, appointed on 16 June 1829 and holding the position until 1835. In August 1831, Holmes accidentally shot himself while collecting specimens at Moreton Bay.The museum was originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. It was administered directly by the colonial government until June 1836, until the establishment of a Committee of Superintendence of the Australian Museum and Botanical Garden. Sub-committees were established for each institution. Members of these committees were generally the leading members of the political and scientific classes of Sydney; and scions of the Macleay served until 1853, at which point the committee was abolished. In that year, the government enacted the Australian Museum Act, thereby incorporating it and establishing a board of trustees consisting of 24 members. William Sharp Macleay, the former committee chairman, continued to serve as the chairman of this committee. The museum was renamed in June 1836 by a sub-committee meeting, when it was resolved during an argument that it should be renamed the "Australian Museum".
The scientific stature of the museum was established under the curatorship of Gerard Krefft, himself a published scientist.
20th century
After a run of field collecting activities by the scientific staff in the 1880s and 1890s, field work ceased until after the First World War. In the 1920s, new expeditions were launched to New Guinea, the Kermadec Islands and Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands, as well as to many parts of Australia, including the Capricorn Islands off the coast of Queensland.During the 19th century, galleries had mainly included large display cases overly filled with specimens and artefacts. During the 1920s, museum displays grew to include dioramas showing habitat groups, but otherwise the Museum was largely unchanged during the period beginning with the curatorship of Robert Etheridge Jr, until the appointment of John Evans in 1954, when under his direction, additional buildings were built, several galleries were overhauled, and a new Exhibitions department was created. The size of the education staff was also radically increased. By the end of the 1950s, all of the galleries had been completely overhauled.
The museum's growth in the field of scientific research continued with a new department of environmental studies, created in 1968 by director Frank Talbot. Research on the Great Barrier Reef began in 1965, with the One Tree Island Research Station established at the southern end. was formed in 1972, and in 1973 the Lizard Island Research Station, was established near Cairns, both under the leadership of Talbot.
The Australian Museum Train, an early outreach project, was officially launched on 8 March 1978. The train was described as "a wonderful new concept of the travelling circus! The only difference is that the travelling Museum Train will bring school children and the people of NSW into contact with the wonders of nature, evolution and Wildlife." The two-carriage train was renovated and refurbished at Eveleigh Carriage Workshops, and fitted out with exhibits by the Australian Museum at a cost of about $100,000. One carriage displayed the evolution of the earth, animals and man. The second carriage was a lecture and visual display area. The train ceased operations in December 1988 but the museum's outreach work in regional communities continues.
In 1991, the museum established a commercial consulting and project management group, the Australian Museum Business Services, now known as Australian Museum Consulting. In 1995, the museum established new research centres in conservation, biodiversity, evolutionary research, geodiversity and "People and Places". These research centres have now been incorporated into the museum's natural science collection programs. In 1998, the djamu gallery opened at Customs House, Circular Quay, the first major new venue for the museum beyond College Street site. A series of exhibitions on Indigenous culture were displayed until the gallery closed at the end of 2000.
21st century
In 2001, two rural associate museums were established, The Age of Fishes Museum in Canowindra and the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst which includes the mineral and dinosaur Somerville Collection donated by Warren Somerville.In 2002, ICAC launched Operation Savoy to investigate thefts of the zoological collections by a museum employee.
In 2011, the museum launched its first Mobile App – "DangerOZ" – about Australia's most dangerous animals.
In 2014, Kim McKay was appointed the CEO and executive director, a position she still holds as of 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position
In 2017, museum researchers reassigned a Tasmanian species of semi-slug from the genus Helicarion to Attenborougharion, named after the museum's Lifetime Patron David Attenborough, hence known as Attenborougharion rubicundus.
In December 2023, the Museum became the subject of criticism for its decision to reword an exhibition panel by World Heritage Exhibitions replacing its word "Palestine" with "what is today known as Libya and Palestine", after the Australian Jewish Association had accused the museum of "inaccurate use of the word 'Palestine' in an exhibit on Ancient Egypt". The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network and the Australian Friends of Palestine Association issued strong criticism of "the ideological expunging of cultural identity from history". On 3 January 2024, the World Heritage Exhibitions announced that it had no plans to change the text, as there was no intention "to convey any political assertions".
Building
Move to current site
The first location of the museum in 1827 was probably a room in the offices of the Colonial Secretary, although over the following thirty years it had several other locations in Sydney, until it moved into its current home in 1849. Its location is at the corner of William Street and College Street in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney LGA.The heritage-listed building has evolved to encompass a range of different architectural styles and when its building expanded, it was often in conjunction with an expansion of the collections.
The Long Gallery is part of the wing designed by New South Wales Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, and the earliest building on the site,. This is a handsome building of Sydney sandstone in the Greek Revival style on the corner of College and William Streets, opposite Hyde Park, designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, and it was first opened to the public in May 1857.
In order to accommodate the expanding collections of the museum, Barnet was responsible for the construction of the neoclassical west wing along William Street in 1868. A third storey was added to the north Lewis wing in 1890, bringing cohesion to the building design.