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Melbourne, Australia, is home to a large number of cultural institutions, museums and historic sites, some of which are known worldwide:
Name | Type | Summary |
---|---|---|
ANZ Banking Museum | Numismatic | website, banknotes and coins, moneyboxes, office machines, firearms, gold-mining equipment and uniforms |
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art | Art | Contemporary art gallery |
Australian Centre for the Moving Image | Media | Film, television, digital media |
Australian National Aviation Museum | Aviation | Australia's aviation heritage |
Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM) | Art | website Supporting wellbeing of Australia's veteran community through the Arts |
Australian Music Vault | Music | Australian music, part of Arts Centre Melbourne |
Australian Racing Museum | Sports | Horse racing, part of the National Sports Museum |
Backwoods Gallery | Art | Urban Contemporary, Street Art |
Centre for Contemporary Photography | Art | Contemporary photo-based arts |
Chinese Museum, Melbourne | Ethnic | Heritage and culture of Australia's Chinese community |
City Gallery, Melbourne | Art | website, exhibits from the city's art and history collections |
Cooks' Cottage | Historic house | Mid 18th century cottage of Captain James Cook's parents in England that was transported to Melbourne |
Dax Centre | Art | website, promotes mental health and wellbeing by fostering a greater understanding of the mind, mental illness and trauma through art and creativity |
Fairhall (House Museum) | Art | Georgian townhouse that houses The Johnston Collection of fine and decorative art |
Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery | Art | website, traditional and contemporary concepts of Eastern philosophy through painting, sculptures, calligraphy, embroidery, pottery, decorative arts and antiques |
Grainger Museum | Biographical | Documents the life, career and music of composer and pianist Percy Grainger |
Hellenic Museum, Melbourne | Ethnic | Cultural traditions of ancient and contemporary Greece |
Ian Potter Centre | Art | Houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, includes paintings, sculpture, prints, photography, fashion and textiles |
Ian Potter Museum of Art | Art | Part of the University of Melbourne, includes Australian art in all media from the early nineteenth century to the present, European art, International indigenous art, classics and archaeology |
Immigration Museum, Melbourne | History | Operated by Museum Victoria, history of immigration in Australia |
Islamic Museum of Australia | Ethnic | Islamic art and culture |
Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre | Holocaust | |
Jewish Museum of Australia | Jewish | Only Jewish community museum in Australia |
The Johnston Collection | Art | Located in Fairhall, includes Georgian, Regency and Louis XV furniture, 18th and 19th century porcelain, and paintings from the 16th - 19th centuries |
Koorie Heritage Trust | Ethnic | website, Koorie art, culture and heritage |
La Trobe's Cottage | Historic house | Original mid 19th century home of Victoria's first Lt. Governor, Charles Joseph La Trobe, operated by the National Trust of Australia |
Living Museum of the West | Ecomuseum | Documents social history of Melbourne's western suburbs |
Mary Glowrey Museum | Biographical | website Documents the life and legacy of Melbourne doctor and medical missionary Mary Glowrey |
Melbourne Maritime Museum | Maritime | Includes the museum ship Polly Woodside, 3-masted 19th century barque. Operated by the National Trust of Australia |
Melbourne Museum | Multiple | Largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, operated by Museum Victoria, exhibits include natural history, science, art, culture |
Melbourne Museum of Printing | Industrial | website, Working and teaching museum of typography and printing |
Melbourne Tram Museum | Transportation | Large collection of Melbourne's trams, housed in the former Hawthorn tram depot |
National Gallery of Victoria | Art | Includes the Ian Potter Centre, encompasses Indigenous (Australian Aboriginal) art, Australian colonial painting, Australian Impressionist painting, 20th century, modern and contemporary Australian art |
National Steam Centre | Engineering | website Operated by Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club Inc, working examples of mechanical heritage |
National Sports Museum | Sports | Includes the Australian Racing Museum, Australian rules football, cricket, Olympic Games, tennis, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, basketball, boxing and netball |
Newport Railway Museum | Transportation | Steam, electric and diesel locomotives, carriages, signalling and other historic railway equipment and artefacts |
Old Melbourne Gaol | Prison | History of the 19th century prison used until 1924 |
Old Treasury Building, Melbourne | History | Museum of Melbourne history from the 1830s, |
Portable Iron Houses | Historic house | website, operated by the National Trust of Australia, prefabricated iron buildings from the gold rush era |
RAAF Museum | Aviation | Military aircraft, official museum of the Royal Australian Air Force |
Salvation Army Heritage Centre | History, cinema | website, Operated by the Salvation Army, includes original Limelight Department film studio |
Scienceworks | Science | Operated by Museum Victoria, hands-on science exhibits |
Shot Tower Museum | Military | Located in Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, shows the production of shot balls by freefall of molten lead |
TAA Museum | Aviation | website, Operated by TAA Australian Airlines 25 year club volunteers, exhibits of Trans Australia Airlines history |
Victoria Police Museum | Law enforcement | website, social history of policing and crime in Victoria including uniforms, equipment, weapons |
Victorian Telecommunications Museum | Technology | Telephones and telecommunications equipment |
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as The 'G, is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the 11th largest globally, and the second-largest cricket ground by capacity, after the Narendra Modi Stadium. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, as well as the route 70, route 75, and route 48 trams. It is adjacent to Melbourne Park and is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct.
Phar Lap was a champion Australasian Thoroughbred racehorse. Achieving incredible success during his distinguished career, his initial underdog status gave people hope during the early years of the Great Depression. He won the Melbourne Cup, two Cox Plates, the Australian Derby, and 19 other weight-for-age races.
The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb north of Melbourne's central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria.
The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the globe. The building sits on approximately 26 hectares, is 150 metres (490 ft) long and is surrounded by four city streets. It is at 9 Nicholson Street in the Carlton Gardens, flanked by Victoria, Carlton and Rathdowne Streets, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81, and then hosted the even larger Centennial International Exhibition in 1888, and the formal opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901. The building is representative of the money and pride Victoria had in the 1870s. Throughout the 20th century smaller sections and wings of the building were subject to demolition and fire; however, the main building, known as the Great Hall, survived.
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It is also Australia's busiest public library and, as of 2023, the third busiest library globally.
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is an art gallery that houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
The Old Treasury Building on Spring Street in Melbourne is a grand Renaissance Revival public building, built in 1858-62, terminating the vista up Collins Street. It was built to house the Treasury Department, various government officials, the Governor In Council, and basement vaults intended to house gold from the Victorian gold rush. It now houses a range of functions, including a museum of Melbourne history, known as Old Treasury Building Museum.
Chinatown is an ethnic enclave in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Centred at the eastern end of Little Bourke Street, it extends between the corners of Swanston and Spring streets, and consists of numerous laneways, alleys and arcades. Established in the 1850s during the Victorian gold rush, it is notable for being the longest continuous ethnic Chinese settlement in the Western World and the oldest Chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere.
The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.
Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facility in Melbourne's City of Merri-bek.
The Australian Sports Museum is a museum dedicated to Australian sport and is located within the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. There are exhibits for sports such as cricket, Australian rules football, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, tennis, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, basketball, boxing and netball. The Australian Sports Hall of Fame is also located within the museum along with the Australian Racing Museum and the Melbourne Cricket Club Museum.
The Southern Aurora was an overnight express passenger train that operated between Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. First-class throughout, including the dining facilities, the Southern Aurora featured all-sleeper accommodation. The train first ran on 13 April 1962 after the opening of the North East standard gauge line from Melbourne to Albury, eliminating the break-of-gauge between the capital cities.
Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia, although the most populous by contiguous urban area. Its name generally refers to a 9,993 km2 (3,858 sq mi) metropolitan area known as Greater Melbourne, comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities, although the name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area.
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM) was founded in Elsternwick, Melbourne, Australia, in 1984 by Holocaust survivors. It is currently Australia’s largest institution dedicated to Holocaust education, research & remembrance. Its mission is to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945, and amplify the voices of Holocaust survivors, to inspire a better future free from antisemitism, racism and prejudice.
The Greek Precinct, Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, is a Greek cultural area centred on the eastern end of Lonsdale Street in the Melbourne city centre. The area runs adjacent to Melbourne Chinatown on Little Bourke Street.
The Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia was established in 1972. It houses the art collection of the University of Melbourne. Current director, Kelly Gellatly, was appointed in 2013. It is not to be confused with the Ian Potter Centre, another art gallery in Melbourne, run by the National Gallery of Victoria.
The Chinese Museum or Museum of Chinese Australian History is an Australian history museum located in Melbourne's Chinatown, which is dedicated to documenting, preserving and displaying the history, heritage and culture of Australia's Chinese community. The museum was established in 1985 with a charter to present the history of Australians of Chinese ancestry. An extensive refurbishment funded by the Victorian Government was completed in 2010. Since then, the museum has also acted as a Chinatown Visitor Centre.
Hawthorn tram depot was built in April 1916 by the Hawthorn Tramways Trust (HTT). It was built on the corner of Power Street and Wallen Road, Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is also known as the Melbourne Tram Museum. The depot was close to the junction of the HTT's two main lines. It was taken over by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) in 1920. In 1925, the depot was used as a school to teach tram drivers and tram conductors. In 1940, the building was also used to make uniforms for MMTB staff.
The Hellenic Museum is an art and history museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia promoting Hellenic culture, both ancient and contemporary, through programs, exhibitions and events.