Description of the attraction
The Museum of Western Australia is the heart of the Perth Cultural Center, with about 4.5 million exhibits! The museum was founded in 1891, and today its expositions acquaint visitors with the history of Western Australia, its nature, aboriginal culture and, oddly enough, space - a meteorite weighing 11 tons is stored here! Another interesting exhibit of the museum is the skeleton of a blue whale. The museum's archaeological collection is considered one of the largest in the southern hemisphere. In addition to two buildings in Perth, the museum complex includes branches in Geraldton, Albany and Calgoorley Boulder, as well as the Maritime Museum and Shipwreck Gallery in Fremantle.
For almost a hundred years - until 1971 - the museum was located in the building of the old prison of Perth and was known as the Geological Museum. In 1892, ethnological and biological collections were added to the geological collections, and in 1897 the museum was officially renamed the Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia. In the second half of the 20th century, the botanical collections were moved to the new Herbarium, and the museum and art gallery were separated. The museum has focused its efforts on collecting items from anthropology, archeology, history and natural sciences. In the 1960s and 70s, exhibits related to Aboriginal history and culture began to appear here, as well as the remains of ships that sank off the coast of the state. The old Perth prison building is also part of the museum complex today as one of the oldest surviving buildings in Western Australia.
Among the museum's permanent exhibits is the Land and People of Western Australia, which traces the history of this land from the days of the dinosaurs and early aborigines to the environmental problems of today. You can learn more about the history of dinosaurs at the thematic exhibition, where parts of the skeletons of prehistoric lizards, as well as stones from the Moon and Mars, are presented. The exhibition "Katta Jinung" tells about the history and culture of the Aboriginal people of Western Australia. And in the Dampier Maritime Gallery, you can get information about the biodiversity of the waters of the Dampier archipelago. Finally, the galleries of Mammals, Birds and Butterflies house exhibits of the state's amazing nature. For children and adults, the Museum has a Discovery Center that introduces the museum's collections in an interactive manner.
A little about the branches of the museum in other cities of the state. The Albany division is located on the site of the first European settlement in Western Australia. The museum tells about the biological diversity of these territories, about the culture of the Nungar tribe and about the ancient ecosystems of these places. The exposition of the museum in Kalgoorlie Boulder introduces the history of the gold rush and the development of the mining industry. And in Geraldton, you can learn about the development of agriculture in the region, about the life of the Yamaji tribe aborigines and about the wrecks of Dutch ships. Not far from these places in the 17th century the famous Dutch ship "Batavia" sank, the portico of which is now kept in the museum.
The Museum of Western Australia also conducts a number of research programs in the fields of archeology, anthropology, marine zoology, history, conservation, and more.
