Queensland Museum

The Queensland Museum is a museum at South Bank in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.

Two affiliate museums are in regional centres Toowoomba and Townsville.

History

The Windmill in Wickham Terrace
(Queensland Museum's first home)
[

cnr. William Street and Elizabeth Street, Brisbane — (opposite Queens Gardens)]

The Queensland Museum was founded by the Queensland Philosophical Society 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, Queensland, Australia, 2001 (originally published as "Volume 24" of "The Memoirs of the Queensland Museum")] , and had several temporary homes in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The temporary homes included: The Windmill (1862–1869), Parliament House (1869–1873) and the General Post Office (1873–1879).

The Queensland Government 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 Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills, remaining there for 86 years.

In 1986, the Queensland Museum moved to the Queensland Cultural Centre at South Bank, where the museum is adjacent to the Queensland Art Gallery.

Exhibits

One of the outdoor features of the Museum is the "Dinosaur Garden", with its life-size dinosaur models of a "Tyrannosaurus rex" and a "Triceratops". There is also "Mephisto", a German A7V Tank which was captured by Australian troops during World War I ("Mephisto" is the only remaining German tank from the First World War [ [http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/ Queensland Museum website] ] ). These were all features at the Old Museum Building, and were moved to the Queensland Cultural Centre when the museum was relocated there during 1986.

A mould of a dinosaur stampede in the museum, and skeleton casts of a Muttaburrasaurus and a Diprotodon are also major exhibits within the museum itself. The Muttaburrasaurus was an Australian plant-eating dinosaur living in Queensland, and its fossilised remains were originally found in Muttaburra in Queensland. The Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur was named after the location of its discovery. The Diprotodon was one of Australia's megafauna (giant animals), and its closest living relatives are the Wombat and the Koala.

Affiliate Museums

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 Toowoomba, Queensland.

The Museum of Tropical Queensland, is another branch of the Queensland Museum in Townsville, Queensland. The Museum of Tropical Queensland is "Home of the "Pandora" and "Centre for Maritime Archaeology". [ [http://www.mtq.qld.gov.au Museum of Tropical Queensland official website] ]

The Sciencentre, a project of the Queensland Museum, was relocated from the former Government Printing Office building on George Street to a South Bank site in 2004.

Links to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Busway

Both a tunnel and pedestrian bridge connect the Museum and Art Gallery buildings with the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. 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 in front of the centre lift, possibly because the Cultural Centre Busway Station is the bus stop for the museum.

Opening Hours

The Queensland Museum and Sciencentre are open to the public seven days a week.

Museum display photographs

ee also

*Steve Van Dyck, Senior Curator of vertebrates
*Scott Hocknull, Vertebrate palaeontologist and Assistant Curator in Geology
*North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum

References

External links

* [http://www.qm.qld.gov.au Queensland Museum]
* [http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/organisation/geoscience.asp Queensland Museum — Geoscience]
* [http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/organisation/publications/guides/outback.asp Queensland Museum — Publications]
* [http://www.southbank.qm.qld.gov.au/ Queensland Museum South Bank] - Queensland Government website
* [http://www.mtq.qld.gov.au Museum of Tropical Queensland] — a Queensland Museum campus in Townsville (North Queensland) —: the Museum is home of the Pandora and Centre for Maritime Archaeology
* [http://www.natureworks.com.au/natural/zoos/index.htm Nature Works — Zoos and Animals — including Queensland Museum]
* [http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/PubTrans.nsf/files/culturalcentrestation.pdf/$file/culturalcentrestation.pdf Cultural Centre Busway Station map] — includes showing position of the Queensland Museum — PDF
* [http://www.ourbrisbane.com/directory/atdw/listings/9062240.html Queensland Museum] - OurBrisbane website