Melbourne Museum is turning 21!

These are just some of the items and exhibitions that visitors have come to expect to see at Melbourne Museum’s Carlton Garden complex, which celebrates its 21st birthday this month.

To celebrate, we reached out to some of our long-time members who were gracious enough to share with us some of their favourite memories from the past twenty-one years and what they’re looking forward to for the next twenty-one.

Carraline Hulley, who’s been a member for twenty-one years, remembers overhearing the stories of visitors to the Luna Park Big Dipper carriage in The Melbourne Story who actually rode the real rollercoaster in the 1920s! She also describes a photo she took of two visitors on the cable tram that used to greet visitors as they entered what is now known as the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery: ‘there was a three-year-old boy sitting on one end’ and, on the other, an elderly visitor, which perfectly encapsulates the history of Melbourne Museum and, indeed, Melbourne itself.

Carraline’s recollections prove that the history is not just in the artefacts but in the stories people tell about them. And the people themselves.

Melbourne Museum’s general manager Gordon White is a firm believer of this.

‘The people really make the museum,’ he says. ‘We want to be a museum that tells the story of south-eastern Australia and to do that we really need to recognise Indigenous habitation of the land and bring not just stories of the past but current and future stories of Victoria’s Indigenous populations. That’s something that we’re really looking to embrace and improve upon; to have First Peoples from this region telling their own stories.’

For fellow twenty-one year member Margaret Finch, ‘some of the exhibits feel like “old friends”.’

A retired kindergarten teacher, Margaret’s visits to the former Swanston Street site of Melbourne Museum (now the State Library of Victoria) as a child inspired her lifelong interest in nature and environmental education.

‘Some of my happiest childhood memories are from family excursions to the museum,’ she says. ‘As a child in the 1950s it was a school holiday treat to get all dressed up and come to ‘town’ to visit the museum. The museum provided a connection with the stories, objects and animals of other places and the past.’

Gordon, too, recalls his mum taking him into the city—’we’d have spaghetti,’ he says—to visit the old museum, a building he coincidentally worked in prior to his time in museums.

‘There is a connection for a lot of Melburnians to the old museum and having that establishment to the Carlton Gardens site has taken time,’ Gordon says, noting the initial controversy about moving Melbourne Museum to the then-new Carlton Gardens location.

‘There was some criticism about the building being stolid and a little bit stark and perhaps not as “museum-y” as the old museum,’ Gordon says. ‘The museum team worked really hard to overcome those perceptions, to make it more interactive and incorporate more of the favourite objects and the favourite exhibitions from the previous Swanston Street space.’

With the activation of the Melbourne Museum plaza as an event space hosting such festivals and installations as White Night, Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival and RISING in recent years, ‘we’re trying to move the heart of arts and culture to the north of Melbourne’s CBD as opposed to having most of the arts precinct down by the river,’ Gordon says. ‘That’s been a strong focus over the last eight years of my tenure, making sure we’re working with the festivals and organisations that can enliven the space and bring colour and movement to Melbourne Museum.’

For her part, museum member Renee Wong says that the architecture of Melbourne Museum is actually her favourite thing about it.

‘I love how the museum is so light-filled, ensuring the whole place is really well lit-up. Everything is so accessible and there’s so much open space for children and adults alike to run around and families to enjoy,’ she exclaims.

Renee attends Melbourne Museum with her family, who live nearby.

‘I like museums because every time you go to one you always learn something new that you didn’t know before,’ says Renee’s son Charlie.

‘I was going to say the same thing,’ says Charlie’s sister Ariana, both 11. ‘I think Charlie reads my mind!’

‘Well you are twins!’

The Wong family agrees that they’re looking forward to seeing Museums Victoria’s acquisition of the world’s most complete Triceratops fossil when it goes on display, as well as some old favourites, such as Forest Secrets and Millari Garden, sentiments shared by Carraline and Margaret. The Wong's second set of twins, Coco and Emme, 8, concur that the interactive volcanic 3D theatre in Dynamic Earth will be a must-visit upon their return to Melbourne Museum.

What else can museum members expect from the next twenty-one years of Melbourne Museum? Museums Victoria received funding for Gondwana Garden, which will be situated where the old amphitheatre, an area Carraline looks back on fondly which is currently not in use.

‘We’re creating an incredible interactive garden that also tells the story of paleontological and geological time in this region of Australia,’ Gordon says. ‘[That and Triceratops] are some things that our members can look forward to over the next two to three years, at least.’

‘The museum is a place of wonder,’ adds Margaret.

We look forward to welcoming you back soon to experience all the wonders Melbourne Museum has to offer.