2018 Round Up
2018 was a massive year! January 2018 saw not one, but two blue moons, Meghan Markle married Prince Harry, West Coast won the AFL Grand Final and Kendrick Lamar’s song Humble scooped the number one spot in Triple J’s Hottest 100.
But despite all that, we think it was an even bigger year for Museums Victoria. Take a look at our ten most memorable moments!
10. Great Melbourne Telescope
Every Wednesday since 2008, a dozen volunteers have gathered at Museums Victoria’s off-site collection store in Moreland, to painstakingly restore one of 19th century Melbourne’s most remarkable scientific instruments – the Great Melbourne Telescope. New funding will enable the team to continue their important work including the appointment of a project manager and completing mechanical repairs; significant steps forward in fully restoring this incredible object to working order.
9. Immigration Museum turned 20!
A true staple in the cultural fabric of Melbourne, the Immigration Museum celebrated its 20th birthday in 2018. The CBD museum has a bright year ahead following critical and audience acclaim for their heart-warming and provocative new Love exhibition.
8. IMAX Turns 20
IMAX Melbourne celebrated 20 years of immersive giant screen movies in May, with re-release of MacGillivray Freeman’s Everest (1998) on IMAX 1570 film. Two massive special event screenings (and one hell of a party) marked the milestone. Everest was one of the films IMAX Melbourne originally opened with on May 22, 1998, and remains the theatre’s highest grossing film ever!
7. Vikings Visited Melbourne Museum
Travelling all the way from the Swedish History Museum, Vikings: Beyond the Legend made a big splash at Melbourne Museum’s Touring Hall earlier this year. The myth busting exhibition debunked the infamous legend about who Vikings really were (as it turns out, their helmets did not have horns) and attracted over 126 thousand visitors.
6. The first 3D Model of the Tasmanian Tiger
World first 3D digital models revealed the development of the Tasmanian tiger from joey to adulthood (without the teenage angst). Dr Christy Hipsley, Research Associate at Museums Victoria and the University of Melbourne said that after sequencing the Tasmanian tiger genome in 2017, this research fills one more piece of the puzzle on why they have evolved to look so similar to dogs.
5. Sun Loong
Museums Victoria celebrated the Lunar New Year and welcomed the Year of the Dog with nightly projections on the Royal Exhibition Building, while thousands of visitors lined the Melbourne Museum plaza to catch a glimpse of Sun Loong, Australia’s longest Imperial Dragon! Plans are well underway for 2019’s Lunar New Year festivities.
4. Beyond Perception at Scienceworks
A beautiful brand new permanent gallery opened at Scienceworks this year, exploring the imperceptible worlds of science and technology. Aimed at turning teens on to the remarkable world of STEM, the stellar large-scale experiences explore the invisible fields and forces that surround us, and delivers plenty of “wow!” moments.
3. What the Fulgurite?!
Petrified lightning – it’s a thing! Sounds like something from Harry Potter but we assure you, it’s not! This exceptionally rare natural phenomena that occurs when lightning strikes sand with enough energy to generate temperatures of over 2000˚C and convert it into silica glass. And MV staff put this crazy puzzle back together.
2. Ancient Mega-Shark
A massive (or mega) find for citizen scientist, Philip Mullaly found the incredible set of shark teeth. Generously shared with our palaeontology team, the teeth provide evidence of the existence that a shark nearly twice the size of a Great White Shark once stalked Australia’s ancient oceans.
1. Solar Panels installed across MV
As part of Museums Victoria’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our museums, we partnered with Siemens Ltd to install 1350 solar panels over the next few months. The result will be a 533kW solar array: the biggest solar array in metropolitan Melbourne!