Wedderburn meteorite
Museums Victoria Collections

Wedderburn meteorite

A meteorite from the core of another planet contains one of the rarest minerals on earth.

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!

Illustration showing animals that lived from 635 million years–2.6 million years ago
Visit Melbourne Museum

600 Million Years: Victoria Evolves

How did life on Earth come to be the way it is and what happened in our part of the world?

A woman and 2 children pointing at a large screen
Visit Melbourne Museum

Dynamic Earth

Uncover the story of our planet. Dynamic Earth is a stunning exhibition that uses thousands of minerals to tell the story of our ever-changing planet.

two rock fragments
Read

The Murchison meteorite

The story behind one of the most studied meteorites, which fell to earth near Victoria in 1969. 

pink diamond
Read

How do diamonds get their colours?

And what's so special about the pink ones?

moon rock in an museum exhibition
Read

Moon rock on display

Museums make it possible to see specimens from faraway places that you won't get the chance to visit yourself.

Lightning strike behind trees
Read

Catching Lightning

A fulgurite that took microseconds to form, a moment to break and over 50 years to reassemble.

Black and white image of a woman wearing a lab coat in a science lab
Read

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
Read

Sylvia Whincup, a prolific collector and groundbreaking mineralogist

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

A map of the locations of meteorite falls in the Australian state of Victoria
Read

The Victorian meteorites revealing secrets of the universe

17 meteorites have been identified in Victoria, and some of them have changed the way we look at our universe.

a black and white photo of a woman wearing glasses and a white coat, looking into a microscope
Read

Isabel Cookson: one tough ‘Cookie’

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

A man and two boys looking up at a skeleton of a three-horned dinosaur fossil illuminated in blue and green light
Read

Know your bones: what is a ‘real’ fossil?

Fossils are the only means we have to study and display ancient animals, but what makes a fossil ‘real’?

A speckled rock featuring a hand written label
Read

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.

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 imprint of the three toed foot in rock, next to a ruler
Read

125-million-year-old footprints rewrite the history of birds in Australia

Ancient bird tracks found on Australia’s southeast coast, could be the oldest evidence for avian dinosaurs in the Southern Hemisphere.    

Read

What could have been: a rare mineral from the Cranbourne meteorites

A chance discovery has led to a new mineral for Victoria, muonionalustaite, found on some of the famous Cranbourne meteorites.

White mineral crystals
External site

Minerals and Gemstones of Victoria

See some of Museums Victoria's collection on Google Arts & Culture.

Join the mailing list and get the latest from our Museums direct to your inbox.

Share your thoughts to WIN

We'd love to hear about your experience with our website. Our survey takes less than 10 minutes and entries go in a draw to win a $100 gift voucher at our online store!