Description of the attraction
The National Museum of Australia is located in the country's capital, Canberra, in the suburb of Acton. Here are collected items related to the 50 thousand-year history and culture of the Aboriginal people of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands, the history of Australia itself after 1788 and the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. The museum houses the world's largest collection of Aboriginal bark drawings and stone tools, the heart of the champion racing horse Far Lap, and the prototype of the first Australian car.
The museum has five permanent exhibits: Gallery of the First Australians, Fates Intertwined, The Settlement of Australia, Symbols of Australia and Eternity: Stories from the Heart of Australia.
The National Museum building was inaugurated on 11 March 2001 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Australian Federation. But the very idea of creating a museum appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, but its implementation was hampered by two world wars and financial crises. It was only in 1980 that the Australian Parliament issued a special decree establishing the museum, and work began to collect the collections.
The total area of the postmodern museum building is 6,600 m2. It consists of several separate rooms that are interconnected and form a semicircle around the so-called "Garden of Australian Dreams". This is a sculptural composition in the form of a map on the water, with a small cover of grass and several trees, which depicts the central part of the country with road marks, the names of the Australian Aboriginal tribes and the boundaries of the distribution of indigenous languages. Outside, the building is painted in bright colors - orange, crimson, bronze, gold, black and silver, which sharply distinguishes it from the cityscape. An interesting detail - on the walls of the building in Braille (for the blind) are written phrases such as "friend", "sorry", "excuse us for the genocide" (apparently addressed to the Australian aborigines), "God knows", "time will tell" and "love is blind". Some of the phrases that caused a great public outcry were covered with silver plaques. At the entrance to the museum there is an orange sculpture "Uluru Line", made in the form of a loop, unfolding along the Acton Peninsula. In general, the architecture of the building encourages people not to forget that the history of Australia is the history of many millions of destinies intertwined with each other.
In 2005 and 2006, the National Museum was named Australia's premier tourist attraction.
