The Queensland Museum is the state museum of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, dedicated to natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement. The museum currently operates from its headquarters and general museum in South Brisbane with specialist museums located in North Ipswich in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

East Toowoomba East Toowoomba is a residential locality in Toowoomba in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , East Toowoomba had a population of 5,244 people. Geography East Toowoomba is by road from the Toowoomba central business district ...

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

, and in

Townsville City The City of Townsville is a local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock ...

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

. The museum is funded by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

History

The Old Windmill, Brisbane, Queensland, April 2020, 01

The Queensland Museum was founded by the

Queensland Philosophical Society The Royal Society of Queensland was formed in Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Austr ...

on 20 January 1862,''"A Time for a Museum — The History of the Queensland Museum — 1862 to 1986"'', — Patricia Mather, published by the Queensland Museum,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, Queensland, Australia, 2001 (originally published as ''"Volume 24"'' of ''"The Memoirs of the Queensland Museum"'') one of the principal founders being Charles Coxen, and had several temporary homes in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The temporary homes included: The Old Windmill (1862–1869), Parliament House (1869–1873) and the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

(1873–1879). The

built a home for the museum in William Street (later called the John Oxley State Library), with Queensland Museum moving there in 1879. The museum occupied the William Street location for 20 years. In 1899, the Queensland Museum moved into the Exhibition Hall (now called the Old Museum), on Gregory Terrace in the

suburb of

Bowen Hills Bowen Hills is an inner north-eastern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the Bowen Hills had a population of 3,226 people. Geography Bowen Hills is by road from the Brisbane CBD. Mayne is a neighbourhood within the s ...

, remaining there for 86 years. In 1986, the Queensland Museum moved to the Queensland Cultural Centre at

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

, where the museum is adjacent to the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...

. Both a tunnel and

pedestrian bridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

connect the Museum and Art Gallery buildings with the

Queensland Performing Arts Centre The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (also known as QPAC) is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre and is located on the corner of Melbourne Street and Grey Street in Brisbane's South Bank, Queensland, South Bank precinct. Opened in 1985, it ...

. Three lifts were added to the bridge in 2004 to provide access to the platforms of the Cultural Centre busway station. There is a large sculpture of a

Cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

in front of the centre lift.

Curators and directors

* 1872 –

Karl Theodor Staiger Karl Theodor Staiger (died 5 October 1888) was a German chemical analyst, naturalist and museum curator. Karl Theodor Staiger worked as a chemist for the Queensland Government 1873–80 and worked with Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay. He was secretary t ...

(first professional curator) * 1910 – Ronald Hamlyn-Harris (former science teacher at

Toowoomba Grammar School , motto_translation = Faithful in All Things , city = Toowoomba , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Independent, day & boarding , denomination = Non-denominational , established = 1 ...

) * 1918–1945 — Albert Heber Longman * 19??–1969 – Jack Tunstall Woods * 1969 – c. 1989 – Dr

Alan Bartholomai Alan Bartholomai AM (1938-2015) was a geologist and palaeontologist, and Director of the Queensland Museum from 1969-1999. Alan Bartholomai was born on 31 December 1938 in Boonah, Queensland. He attended Boonah State School and after his parent ...

, AM

Museum Network

The Queensland Museum Network now operates at a number of locations.

Queensland Museum

Queensland Museum is located at South Brisbane in the Queensland Cultural Centre alongside the

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contain ...

, the

, the Gallery of Modern Art and the

. Queensland Museum connects visitors to Queensland, its people and their stories of the past, present and future. Popular exhibitions include travelling shows from Australia and around the world as well as fascinating exhibitions revealing the story of Queensland, including its incredible prehistoric past, the cultures of Queensland's Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders and exhibitions revealing Queensland's unique biodiversity. The museum is also a world-class research facility in the fields of biodiversity, geoscience and cultural history. Queensland Museum is home to SparkLab, which offers hands-on, interactive activities for kids and grown-ups alike that reveal the science behind our everyday lives.

Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying

The Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying opened in 1982 and is at 317 Edward Street,

Workshops Rail Museum

The

Workshops Rail Museum The Workshops Rail Museum is a railway museum in Ipswich, Queensland, located within the former North Ipswich Railway Workshops. The museum Opening in September 2002 as part of the Queensland Museum Network, The Workshops Rail Museum tells th ...

opened in August 2002 and is housed in the North Ipswich Railway Workshops. The collection includes 15 items of

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

and thousands of smaller items. Some operational

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s from the

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

Heritage Fleet are often placed on display within the museum when not required for main line use.

Cobb & Co Museum

In 1987, when the Queensland Museum required more room to display its horse-drawn coaches and carriages, the museum opened its Cobb & Co Museum campus in

, Queensland. Cobb+Co Museum is home to the National Carriage Collection. The museum's collection includes examples of a vast range of vehicles from the horse-drawn era, from farm wagons and delivery carts to the Rolls-Royce of Carriages, the landau. Cobb+Co Museum run a heritage workshops program. Workshops include blacksmithing, silversmithing, leadlighting and leatherwork.

Museum of Tropical Queensland

The

Museum of Tropical Queensland The Museum of Tropical Queensland (abbreviated MTQ) is a museum of natural history, archaeology and history located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is located in the same complex as the Reef HQ Aquarium. MTQ is a member of the Queens ...

is located in

. The star attraction is the

HMS Pandora Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Pandora'' after the mythological Pandora. Another was planned, but the name was reassigned to another ship: * , a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1779. She was sent to capture the ''Bounty'' mutin ...

gallery. Sent to catch the famous

HMS Bounty HMS ''Bounty'', also known as HM Armed Vessel ''Bounty'', was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquir ...

and her mutinous crew, the Pandora sank off the coast of Cape York in 1791. Hundreds of artefacts have been recovered from the wreck and are on display. The most popular area for kids is the MindZone, an interactive science centre. Other galleries celebrate the rainforest, corals and marine creatures from the deep sea and fossil past.

World Science Festival Brisbane

The Queensland Museum Network holds exclusive licence to host the World Science Festival in the

Asia Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

region. The inaugural World Science Festival Brisbane was held in 2016. The festival runs in March each year, based in Brisbane, with regional satellite events taking place in

and

Chinchilla, Queensland Chinchilla is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Chinchilla had a population of 6,612 people. Chinchilla is known as the 'Melon Capital of Australia', and plays host to a Melo ...

Recent and Future Exhibitions

* Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul was a major touring exhibition held 5 September 2013 - 27 January 2014, which showcased 230 priceless objects from between 2200 BC and AD 200. The exhibition provided a glimpse into the world of the ancient

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

and some of the most remarkable archaeological finds in all of Central Asia. Included in the exhibition were jewellery, sculpture and gold work. * Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb was a major exhibition of four Egyptian mummies and over 100 pieces from the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, held from 19 April - 21 October 2012.

Queensland Museum Medal

The first Queensland Museum

Medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

was awarded in 1987. Recipients of the Queensland Museum Medal for research include: * 1987 — Professor Mike Archer * 1988 — Mr Jack Woods, ISO — Mr F.S. Colliver, OBE — Emeritus Prof. Syd Prentice — Mr Jack Woods, ISO — Mr Terry Tebble — Mr Don Vernon — Dr Valerie Davis * 1989 — Mr Leonard J. Taylor * 1990 — Mr J.C.H. Gill, AM MBE — Mr I.G. Morris CMG * 1991 — Dr Patricia Mather AO * 1992 — Mr R.I. (Sam) Harrison MBE — Mr Doug Traves OBE — Professor Colin Dobson * 1993 — Dr Robert Paterson * 1995 — Dr Elwyn Hegarty — Professor Don Nicklin * 1996 — Dr Mary Wade * 1997 — Mr John Lyons * 1999 — Mr Ian Venables * 2000 — Keith McDonald — Dr

* 2003 — Ms Jeanette Covacevich AM — Mr Steve Irwin * 2004 — Dr Lester Cannon — Dr Dan Robinson — Dr Robert Anderson OAM * 2005 — Mrs Nerolie Withnall — Mrs Rae Sheridan — Mr Bruce Campbell * 2006 — The Elliott Family — Mr Bill O’Brien OBE OAM * 2007 — Mr Bill Kitson — Dr Geoff Monteith * 2008 — Dr Steve Van Dyck — Mr Vince O’Rourke AM * 2009 — Ms Anne Jones — Dr Carden Wallace — Mr Michael Quinnell * 2010 — Sir David Attenborough — Dr John Hooper * 2011 — Professor Peter Andrews AO — Dr John Stanisic * 2012 — Professor Ronald J. Quinn, AM

Repatriation of human remains and objects

The Museum's program of returning and reburying ancestral remains and cultural property belonging to

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

, which had been collected by the museum between 1870 and 1970, has been under way since the 1970s. As of November 2018, the museum had the remains of 660 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people stored in their "secret sacred room" on the fifth floor.

References

Bibliography

External links

Queensland MuseumQueensland Museum — Find Out AboutQueensland Museum — Popular PublicationsQueensland Museum South Bank
- Queensland Museum campus in

(South East Queensland)
The Workshops Rail Museum
- Queensland Museum campus in

(South East Queensland)
Cobb+Co Museum
- Queensland Museum campus in

(South East Queensland)
Museum of Tropical Queensland
— a Queensland Museum campus in

(North Queensland) {{authority control Museums in Brisbane Local museums in Australia Natural history museums in Australia Railway museums in Queensland Museums established in 1862 Museums in Queensland Dinosaur sculptures Landmarks in Brisbane South Brisbane, Queensland Tourist attractions in Brisbane Modernist architecture in Australia 1862 establishments in Australia Queensland Cultural Centre