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Victoria's bushfire history preserved in online memorial map

Take a virtual visit to some of the state's bushfire memorials to reflect and commemorate.

Exterior of a 1950s office building at night
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Kodak Snapshots

A snapshot into the 120 year history of Kodak manufacturing in Australia, told through Museum Victoria's collection.

Black and white image of a woman wearing a lab coat in a science lab
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Anne Bermingham, a scientific pioneer of radiocarbon dating

Meet the woman who started Australia’s first radiocarbon dating lab.

Black and White portrait of a woman
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Sylvia Whincup, a prolific collector and groundbreaking mineralogist

Sylvia amassed a collection of thousands of specimens and 167 new species.

Woman holding a small vial
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One Year On

One Year On – Stories of COVID-19 in Melbourne's Suburbs is a digital display that brings together a snapshot of stories collected across the suburbs of Melbourne in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Wartime stories from the Royal Exhibition Building

During World War II, the Royal Exhibition Building was occupied by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

A young couple who look happy and in love.
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An underground affair

An anti-Vietnam war love story.

Group photograph of 21 men in uniform
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Uncovering the Exhibition Building's secret WWII stories

Untold war stories revealed.

A smiling woman
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Burlesque dancing and basket weaving: the incredible life of Aunty Veronica Barnett

Step into the adventurous past of one of the Melbourne Museum's public faces.

A woman sketches a plant cutting while sitting on a grass tree.
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The trials and triumphs of a trailblazing scientist

Hope Macpherson was a woman who broke barriers. 

External site

Origins

What are your origins? Where have Victorians come from? Why did they come? This website presents government census information on Victorian communities from 85 countries of origin.

Black and white photo of a man in a suit operating a very old computer which is several cabinets in a row with many wires, switches and dials.
External site

CSIRAC - the world's oldest intact first-generation electronic computer

When it was built CSIRAC was at the cutting edge of the new field of computing.

Mansard towers from Douglas Parade, Spotswood Pumping Station, circa 1982.
Visit Scienceworks

Pumping Station

The fascinating story of one of Australia's most important industrial heritage sites.

A group of young men in an alleyway holding a satellite.
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Backyard ballistics: Australia's first DIY satellite

A DIY guide to reaching outer space.

Black and white image of a man standing next to a telescope
External site

Great Melbourne Telescope

Great Melbourne Telescope project website. The goal is to restore the telescope to working order so that it may be used for educational and public viewing.

Cable Tram
Visit Melbourne Museum

Marvellous Melbourne

Melbourne is a young city by world standards, but it has layers of history. Discover how each era shaped the city we see today.

Five women participating in a ceremony
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A Wurundjeri First Peoples coming of age ceremony revived

Meet the Djirri Djirri Wurundjeri Women's Dance Group, who are reconnecting to their cultural heritage and bringing the younger generations with them.

Portrait of a woman in a carpark wrapped in a possum skin cloak.
Read

The timeless and living art of possum skin cloaks

The First Peoples of south-eastern Australia have been making possum skin cloaks since time immemorial—today the practice is flourishing.  

Exhibition entry with visitors looking at language map
Visit Bunjilaka

First Peoples

First Peoples tells the story of Aboriginal Victoria from the time of Creation to today. Explore the galleries within Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre.

Museums Victoria Collections

Indigenous Protest, Australian Bicentenary, 1988

 In 1988, the year of Australia's bicentenary, Indigenous peoples from across the nation converged on Sydney to protest the so-called "celebration of a nation". 

An apprehensive young woman is about to eat a mouthful of food.
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Fusion, feminism and food

Flavours that flipped Australian kitchens.

an amalgamation of different types of colourful plastic
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Our addiction to plastic

Lifting the lid on plastic: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Black and white family portrait
Visit Immigration Museum

Immigrant Stories

Everyone who immigrates has their own unique story to tell. Explore these stories – why they came, where they settled and how they made Victoria their new home.

Immigration Museum from Flinders Street in afternoon
Visit Immigration Museum

Customs House

Home of the Immigration Museum, explore the rich history of one of Melbourne's most important 19th century public buildings. 

garden
Visit Bunjilaka

The Plants of Milarri Garden

Milarri Garden, located within Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, is planted with native flora significant to the Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia.

Visit Immigration Museum

Journeys to Australia

Immigration is a vital feature of Australia's history and national identity. Celebrate the journeys that changed Australia forever.

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Vaccines: saving millions one dose at a time

How the history of vaccine development shaped our ability to respond to worldwide pandemics.

Doll's house interior 21 room fully furnished doll' house representing a typical English country house of the Georgian period that would have been built around 1740, but is now shown with some interiors that have been remodelled to the taste of the 'owners' up to about 1860.
Watch

Discover Documentary: Pendle Hall

Join Michael Reason, Curator of History and Technology as he takes us on a tour of a piece of prime real estate in miniature, Pendle Hall.

Conservation at Museums Victoria.
Watch

Discover Documentary: Conservation

From wedding dresses to meteorites, our Conservation team protect and preserve over 15 million objects in Museums Victoria's collection. This episode of Discover takes a look at how they do it!

Woman standing in front of a chicken coop, holding two chickens in her arms as other chickens graze on the ground
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Invisible Farmer

The largest ever study of Australian women on the land is revealing the hidden stories of women farmers.

Group of women holding a protest banner
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History starts today

A new collection of banners from the 2017 Women's March on Melbourne has important historical links.

detail if a decorated boomerang
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Rare scene of first European contact

Provenance of carved boomerang uncovered.

children in a museum gallery
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The art of the diorama

An overview of a classic type of museum display.

Man with a crate in a museum store
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HV McKay crate

Lid lifted on mystery artefact.

Shipping line postcard
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The Lloyd Triestino Trio

What was the Lloyd Triestino Trio?  

Museum exhibition display
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Australia Day

What is the history of our national holiday?

The tower which formed the centre of an octagonal glasshouse in The System Garden.
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Our first Director's vision for a University Botanical Garden

How Melbourne University's System Garden came to be.

Barramundi
Read

A treasure trove of freshwater fish biodiversity

The Kimberley region in Australia’s northwest is one our last great pristine unspoilt places, and a hotspot for species discovery.

Sione Napi Francis showing Princess Saloe items from the Museum’s collection, including a Rotuman Fine mat, during her visit to Melbourne Museum, 2018.
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A pathway for First Nations identity and meaning in the GLAM sector

In April this year the Honourable Princess Salote Maumautaimi Tuku’aho of Tonga visited Melbourne Museum's First Peoples and Te Pasifika exhibitions.

Cover of a motion film box
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Audio-Visual Material in the Kodak Heritage Collection at Museums Victoria

This audio-visual material in the Kodak collection is evocative and valuable in the study of Kodak’s history.

Two people in a museum collection store looking at clothing
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Fashion Redux at Melbourne Museum

Major fashion names used the Museums State Collection, in collaboration with Melbourne Fashion Festival, to create a completely unique look.

Sepia portrait of a young man
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The sting of the final letter

Transcribing George Lyell's final documents.

Extended family standing around suitcase on Station Pier, under a large roofed structure. Two men, two women, two boys and two infant children. There is a large suitcase in the foreground with rugs strapped to the side. Cars are parked in the background.
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The journey to Station Pier

Melbourne’s heritage-listed Station Pier was Victoria’s most important arrival point for migrants. Find out why it plays such an important part in Melbourne’s migration history.

People wearing high vis working on a beach
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The 700

More than 700 individuals whose combined efforts, starting in 1984, have brought to light fossils in what has been dubbed by one of them “The Dinosaur Dreaming Project”.

A crowd of people on top of a wall with a gate of stone columns behind them.
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Fall of the Berlin Wall

Dr Rolf Schmidt on witnessing history unfold.

Professor Deirdre Coleman, Nik McGrath and Simon Hinkley in the ABC Radio Melbourne Studio, 19 November 2019.
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On the wing

Professor Deirdre Coleman, Nik McGrath and Simon Hinkley join Richelle Hunt in the ABC Radio Melbourne Studio.

Black and white image of three men dressed as pigs standing on the back of a truck.
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10 peculiar and splendid masks

Masks might come to symbolise 2020. But they have a rich and often strange history. 

A football made of possum skins.
Read

10 treasures of Aussie Rules

And what they say about us.

A black and white photograph of a smiling young woman atop a horse.
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The hidden history of Aboriginal stockwoman

As told by a Koa stockwoman, mother and doctor of philosophy.

Two women in a vineyard holding a black and white photo.
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The Pizzini women and their ‘souls of steel’

How three generations of strong women helped build a wine and tourism dynasty

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The resilience of Sallie Jones

The Victorian dairy farmer overcoming family tragedy, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A farmer nurses her toddler amid a paddock of chickens and pigs.
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Bright spots in dark times

Pork farm prospers amid COVID-19 lockdowns.

View of the Wild Amazing Animals exhibition, worldwide environments.
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Wild goodbyes

We've been blown away by the number of people who have reached out to us about Wild—here are some answers to your most often asked questions. 

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Fusipala: a Tongan princess, a costume and a community that keeps her memory alive

Who was the princess behind the costume? 

Fire damaged vintage Holden car.
Read

Learning from Australia's bushfire past

Take a closer look at the Victorian Bushfires Collection.

a closeup of a cute mouse
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Resurrected: native Australian mouse back from extinction

Once lost, now found. 

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The doyenne of dinosaur discovery

Melissa Lowery has a rare talent for finding dinosaurs.

a painting of five women sitting around a round table stitching while a man sits at a piano to the left
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A discovery of stitches: needlework and 19th century girlhood

What can needlework samplers tell us about often forgotten figures from history?

3D imagery of an eye shaped caldera
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A Lord of the Rings-like marine landscape revealed in Australia’s Christmas Island Territory

Take a dive into a Lord of the Rings-inspired seascape.

An auburn-haired woman works on a cork model of a Roman Colosseum
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Not what they seem: museum models made from unusual materials

Mini mega creations that need some special care.

dinosaur skeletons on display in a museum
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10 really big things in the Museums Victoria State Collection

With millions of objects to choose from, what are the some of the biggest things?

A photo of the front of the Melbourne Museum
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Birthday honours: 21 of our favourite things about the Melbourne Museum

Fascinating facts about Melbourne’s favourite museum.

Group of four men looking into a box with a carving in it.
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Baradine Repatriation of Carved Tree (Dendroglyph)

Carved burial tree returned to traditional owners.

an elegant white bird wading in water
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Flight of fashion: when feathers were worth twice their weight in gold

The high price of feathered hats in the 1800s.

two slabs of stone, side by side, with orange streaks in the shape of a reedy plant
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The chance discovery of one of Victoria’s oldest fossil plants, 400 million years in the making

A series of unlikely events that led to the discovery of a 400-million-year-old fossil, shedding new light on the evolution of Australian plants. 

four brightly coloured books stacked on top of each others
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If books could kill: poison, heavy metal and literature

Poisonous books are a legacy of fashion and industrial practices that prioritised beauty above all else. And the heavy metals left behind are still causing headaches for libraries and museums to this day.

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Unboxing the museum: Mirka Mora Collection

Mirka Mora was all about being herself, her fashion style, her artistic practice, her friendships and creative circles, and her food culture.

pages of a 19th century book
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Unboxing the museum: Ye Olde Xmas Program

Have you every wondered what Christmas in Melbourne was like in the 19th century.

an underwater photo of a diver swimming alongside a fish
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Jan Watson: diving into the unknown

One of Australia’s first scientific divers, Dr Jan Watson used her tenacity, skill, and passion to realise her underwater ambitions.

a black and white photo of a woman wearing glasses and a white coat, looking into a microscope
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Isabel Cookson: one tough ‘Cookie’

One of Australia’s first professional female scientists, Isabel Cookson was a ground-breaking palaeobotanist.

a green reptile extends its tongue to catch an insect. a woman smiles in the background
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Forbidden objects in the museum's collection

What do a doll, religious text, gun, and surprised-looking cat have in common? 

a photograph of a silver haired woman wearing an apron in front of a large drawer filled with black and white artistic prints
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Rhyll Plant: sowing the seeds of scientific art

Half a century as a scientific artist has taken Rhyll Plant to some unexpected places, but where did it all begin?

a circular building covered with colourful illustrations and the word Scienceworks
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Scienceworks is 30!

Jump on board for a look back at Scienceworks’ past, and some secrets, as we celebrate its 30th birthday.

a colourful illustration of several carriages, carrying extravagantly dressed people, billowing clouds of steam
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Steam power is not just a relic of the past

Considered by some to be an old and outdated technology, steam is still used widely in the 21st century.

A white cake with flowers and small figurines of a suited man and woman wearing a white dress
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A piece of Neighbours history that really takes the cake

Not just a legacy of Neighbours’ most famous episode, Scott and Charlene’s wedding cake has many layers of history.

A speckled rock featuring a hand written label
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This small rock holds the story of Antarctic exploration before the Heroic Age

Discover the rock that unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of Antarctica and the incredible story of Carsten Borchgrevink, the explorer determined to get there first.

a photo of a white van with red and blue stripes across the side
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The electric vehicle future was promised decades ago, what happened?

Once lost from history, the electric vehicle's time has come again.

a hand drawn map of Melbourne city grid
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How poo shapes a city (and other scatalogical stories)

What do Melbourne’s laneways, the Spotswood Pumping Station at Scienceworks, and termite mounds all have in common?

a composite image of three drawings: a kangaroo, snake, and cassowary
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A glimpse into the past, to enlighten the future of biodiversity on Earth

What can we learn from the first scientific descriptions of animals and the Earth’s biodiversity, written hundreds of years ago?

a sepia image of a man riding a bicycle
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How much has cycling changed over the last 100 years?

Does the cycling equipment and advice of an Australian champion, like Hubert Opperman, stand the test of time? 

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Significant Mi'kmaq regalia crosses oceans and time to return home after 150 years in Melbourne

A unique regalia from Canada has finally returned home, in a major international repatriation from Museums Victoria’s collection.

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This briefcase holds tiny art with big meaning

An artistic collaboration with refugees and asylum seekers, Attaché Case challenges Australia’s controversial migration policy.

an image of a share one penny coin next to a vial of yellow powder
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Deaccessioning: Why do museums remove objects from collections?

The public collections found in museums across the world are a historic record. But that does not mean everything stays there forever.

An image of a fiery mushroom cloud next to a piece of green-tinged glass
Read

These pieces of atomic glass are the remnants of the first nuclear bombs

Forged in the fury of nuclear explosions, like Oppenheimer’s Trinity test and British bombs at Maralinga, atomic glass is more than a curio in museum collections.  

An elderly man smiling while sitting next to a motorcycle
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A man and his rare Indian motorcycle, reunited

91-year-old Don Parkinson revisits the 1923 Indian Scout motorcycle he restored more than 40 years ago.

the head of a Chinese dragon resting on a plinth
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Unravelling the tale of Melbourne's mystery Chinese dragon

Solving the mystery of Melbourne’s forgotten Chinese dragon with a dusty 120-year-old head, a rare photograph, and a determined historian.

the head of a Chinese dragon resting on a plinth
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神秘传说:墨尔本的中国龙

一位锲而不舍的历史学家,靠一个积满灰尘,120之久的龙头和一张罕见的照片,解开了墨尔本尘封已久的“联邦龙”之谜。

the head of a Chinese dragon resting on a plinth
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Tìm lời giải cho câu chuyện về con rồng Trung Hoa bí ẩn của Melbourne

Với cái đầu rồng phủ bụi và bức ảnh hiếm, nhà sử học quyết tâm giải đáp bí ẩn về con rồng Liên bang bị lãng quên của Melbourne.

a black and white image of a Chinese parade dragon
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The surprisingly Australian history of Chinese dragon parades

Some of Australia’s Federation-era dragons are among the oldest surviving imperial dragons in the world.

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Celebrating 170 years of Museums Victoria

Explore significant collection objects over the last 170 years of the museum’s history.

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Could this tinderbox really have belonged to explorers Burke and Wills?

How do you verify an object that was discarded 160 years ago?

A composite image of a woman pointing to an old book on top of an image of a coastline
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A new chapter for Mary Anning’s ‘lost’ book

A rare book, that once belonged to Mary Anning, has returned to its rightful home in England.

Basket, Binak, Healesville, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia
Museums Victoria Collections

Basket, Binak, Healesville, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia

Coiled basket, or binak, with oval base, possibly purchased from Coranderrk Aboriginal Station circa 1870s-1880s.

A black, red and white footy guernsey.
Museums Victoria Collections

Football jumper - Nicky Winmar, St Kilda, 1993

St Kilda Football Club jumper worn by Nicky Winmar during his celebrated stand against racism in sport in 1993.

Melbourne's Biggest Family Album collection
Museums Victoria Collections

Melbourne's Biggest Family Album collection

In 2006 over 1000 favourite photographs of Melbourne were collected from Melburnians' private albums.

Phar Lap collection
Museums Victoria Collections

Phar Lap collection

Over 350 items of racing equipment and memorabilia relating to champion racehorse Phar Lap.

Woven rectangle with two blue sections and central black section. Colourful figures, animals and text adorn pi
Museums Victoria Collections

The Federation Tapestry

Almost 41m long and 20,000 hours in the making, the tapestry marks the centenary of Australia's Federation.

Brass instrument in glazed wooden case.
Museums Victoria Collections

Melbourne Observatory collection

Over 400 objects and images relating to the operation of Melbourne Observatory from 1863 to 1944.

Stool, Papua New Guinea
Museums Victoria Collections

Stool, Papua New Guinea

A stool made from a single piece of wood with a standing figure forming the back. 

Maori Feather cloak
Museums Victoria Collections

Maori Feather cloak

Kahuhuruhuru is the name for this type of cloak made of fine fibres made from flax or whitau.

Extinct mammal incisor with scratches.
Museums Victoria Collections

Diprotodon tooth

A tooth fossil showing markings which appear to be man-made.

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