30 January 2009

Australian Journeys opens at the National Museum.

| johnboy
Join the conversation
1

The National Museum has announced the opening of a new “Australian Journeys” gallery, sorry, make that “a major new permanent gallery”.

    Australian Journeys explores Indigenous trade and connections of exchange and ceremony sustained across the Australian continent and into the Pacific for thousands of years, the voyages of European explorers, including Captain James Cook, and details the experiences of people who flooded to the Australian colonies in search of gold in the 19th century. It features exhibits about migrants, tourists and travellers who journeyed to and from Australia in the twentieth century, as well as the stories of sportsmen and women, artists and scientists working on the world stage in the twenty-first century.

    The gallery includes significant purchases made by the National Museum including the First Fleet table, made of beefwood collected near Port Jackson for the First Fleet Surgeon General John White in the early 1790s, and a rich collection associated with Captain James Cook including Cook’s plane table surveying frame, a striking marble bust and copy of Banks’ Florilegium. Other highlights from the Museum’s collection include a motion picture camera used by Frank Hurley in Antarctica, a Little Red Riding Hood wall hanging given to an Australian aid worker in a German Displaced Persons camp in the aftermath of World War II, and tokens left behind in Britain by convicts transported to the Australian colonies.

It actually sounds interesting to me.

Join the conversation

1
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
plausibly_deniable1:07 pm 30 Jan 09

I was at the opening and can confirm that Australian Journeys is indeed interesting. The standard over-55 arts + diplomatic crowd was at the opening, with the highlight being Brendan Smyth fawning over the new Australian of the Year Mick Dodson. The Minister for the Arts and the Bits of the Environment Penny Doesn’t Want gave a good speech where it was revealed that his great-times-whatever-grandfather was in the first Aussie Test Cricket team. As he was being introduced the speaker noted that it would be a pleasure for Mr Garrett to be opening a project that everyone would actually be happy about. The tiny roast beef rolls were tasty, the beer cold and the acoustics in the mainhall were as usual appalling. Good times!

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.