Australian Museum, Sydney

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We went to this museum to look at native birds and art. I was particularly interested in the masks and I had a good time shopping in the museum shop. I did have to push my grandmother in a wheelchair, and some of the spaces (especially around the stuffed birds) there were a lot of crowds and I had a hard time getting her through. There were elevators

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We got off at the Australian Museum stop about 3:30.

I had not really intended to visit this museum but we had ridden the Hop On Hop Off bus most of the afternoon and I thought we could stop here and then get back on the bus and get back to the hotel and finish up the next day. I also thought my granddaughter would be interested in the aboriginal art, since she is an art student.

Open 9.30am to 5.00pm every day except Christmas Day.
Adult $12
Concessions $8
Concession categories
Seniors Card-holders (all states)
International seniors
International Student Idenitification Card-holders
Student card-holders
Child (5 -15 years) $6

They charge an extra percentage if you use a credit card instead of cash.

I had a coupon for 20% off out of a book I got at the airport. We didn't pay extra to see the Deep Ocean Exhibit. We got a wheelchair and my granddaughter pushed. We saw the native birds and some minerals (looked at the various opals) and the Aboriginal art. It wasn't as good as some natural history museums I have seen, but it was OK and we did get a look at some birds and animals.

After we shopped in the bookstore there we turned in the wheelchair and got back on the Sydney bus.Here I made a BIG mistake. I got on the bus at the wrong stop. So instead of getting on at stop 5 which would have taken us around to the hotel at 11, we got on at 14 and had to go all the way around to stop 1 and then go to 11.

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Being an island nation the sea has always been important to Australia, in fact until the 1960’s nearly all of our population arrived in this country by sea - and all that migration started with the First Fleet in 1788. Our trade with other counties is by sea, some 90% of our population lives within 100 kilometres of the coast line, so the seas (or oceans) are deeply etched in our past, present and future.

What better way to acknowledge the importance of the sea than a trip to the Australian National Maritime Museum located beside the spectacular Darling Harbour, which abuts the city of Sydney?

The really good news is that entry to the museum is free, although there is fees payable for entry to HMB Endeavour replica, destroyer HMAS Vampire, submarine HMAS Onslow and the tall ship James Craig.

The museum has a fascinating collection of maritime exhibits ranging from models of ships - and when we visited a modeller actually hand building a timber model boat, to real boats of all descriptions ranging from a quirky entry to the Darwin beer can boat race (see photo), to the worlds fastest boat and the yacht Blackmores First Lady, which was sailed by Kay Cottee, who single handed sailed around the world without stopping. Plenty of other exhibits to keep visitors enthralled for many hours - depending on interest (sadly Lady Gaw dragged me out).

There’s a well-stocked gift shop containing many nautical books etc and outside Yots café and bar, although for food there are cheaper options at the nearby shopping centre, which includes a large and competitively priced food court.

See separate tip HM Bark Endeavour.

If you are tired of partying and sightseeing and you want to soak in some culture this a good place for you. The museum offers a great exhibit about Australia's natural history and indigenous cultures. The time that we visited this museum they also have an exhinit called " From the Tomb and Beyond" (?).

I find the exhibit about the indigenous culture the most interesting part of the museum

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The Australia Museum was high on my list of places to visit in Sydney since I am a Natural History Geek. The Museum is a good size with some nice exhibits of Indigenous AUstralian Artifacts, Skeletons, Rocka & Minerals, dinosaur displays, animals displays and Aboriginal exhibits.

Some of my favorite exhibits were of the rocks and minerals. Ilove Earth Science and this exhibit was heaven for me. The skeleton exhibit had a nice collection of skeletons from various animals. They even had some funny exhiits such as the "Bone Ranger" which was a human skeleton riding upon a horse skeleton cowboy style.

It was a fun time exploring the museum and even Chris enjoyed it.

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This Museum of Anthropology and natural history is one of Sydney's best. Sydney is not particulary known for its aboriginal culture but this is one place to get to know more about of Australia's first inhabitants.

This museum has some interesting displays on native Australians, an interesting skeleton collection of various animals, displays of native birds and insects, as well as a lot of different rocks and minerals, nice for geologists I suppose.

Would have expected something a bit better from a museum with such a name, but it was worth visiting anyway.

An extensive and enlightening look at the aboriginal history in Australia as well as other key items. Apparantly it is rated as one of the best Natural history Museums in the world. It was a very moving experience.

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One key to travelling to an international city such as Sydney, is to find a few things that do not cost alot. This will help you balance out how much you spend on the more expensive things!

One of these inexpensive visits should definitely include a stroll through the Australian Maritime Museum, which is located in the heart of Darling Harbour. If you have trouble spotting it, just look for the large military ship out in front on the water.

The maritime museum frequently holds exhibits of maritime genre pieces, and currently the "Vikings" have invaded!

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Open daily 9:30am to 5pm except Christmas (open until 6pm in January).

Entry is FREE. But, an entry fee applies to the large ships at our wharves and occasional special events - check web site for prices.

My parents and I decided to just look at the free stuff and then decide if we wanted to pay for anything and the exhibitions kept us so busy we didn't do anything else! Although, it did look like it would be fun to explore some of the ships. One of the traveling exhibitions was one about art on French ships of the past and it was really interesting. They had lots of examples (see the picture)! The other exhibits in the museum were pretty interesting, too, and we definitely got our money's worth! :D

If you're in Darling Harbour and enjoy museums, I would recommend the Maritime Museum!