A painting of a large amphibian poking its head out of water that is covered in petal
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Victoria's new state fossil emblem: Koolasuchus cleelandi

After 11,563 votes, the 125-million-year-old monster amphibian has been confirmed as Victoria’s fossil emblem.

an eight legged sea creature
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Jurassic relict: a new family of Brittle Stars

Long-armed and bristling with teeth, this Brittle Star is a marine relict.

a closeup of a cute mouse
Read

Resurrected: native Australian mouse back from extinction

Once lost, now found. 

Craig's hut- wooden cabin in the mountians
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Climate change and the environment program

Be a part of something bigger in 2021. Generating conversations about climate change, the environment, science and our society.

Read

Letter from a Tasmanian Tiger

Ever wonder about the life of a museum specimen?

A bat flying low over water
Read

Bats: the flying mammals in dire need of a PR manager

Separating fact from folklore 

A woman sketches a plant cutting while sitting on a grass tree.
Read

The trials and triumphs of a trailblazing scientist

Hope Macpherson was a woman who broke barriers. 

a platypus perched on a log
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The platypus: a unique and vulnerable Australian

What can we do to help the platypus?

a closeup of a small orange coloured spider with big eyes pointing of its legs
Read

Nemo found: new species of dancing peacock spider named

Meet the newest dancing peacock spider, Maratus nemo.

Lightning strike behind trees
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Catching Lightning

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

A large research ship sits at a dock in Darwin
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Investigating the IOT: deep-sea science

A journey into Australia's unexplored deep-sea Indian Ocean Territories. 

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 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.

A black and white image of a toadlet.
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Under fire: The animals threatened by Australia’s bushfire crisis

If there’s one place in the world that knows about extinction, it’s a natural history museum.

A young man holds a fossil.
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The puzzle of Melbourne’s small and ancient seals

‘Landmark’ study rewrites the history of seals in southern Australia thanks to fragmentary fossils washed up on a Melbourne beach. 

A large, smooth surfaced black rock.
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Eleven incredible meteorites

The Murchison is just one of many strange and storied space rocks held by Museums Victoria. Here are 10 others—as well as one which disappeared.

A group of young men in an alleyway holding a satellite.
Read

Backyard ballistics: Australia's first DIY satellite

A DIY guide to reaching outer space.

Wedderburn meteorite
Museums Victoria Collections

Wedderburn meteorite

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

Visit Scienceworks

Skynotes

Our monthly newsletter on where to find the brightest planets in Melbourne.

Close up of a dinosaur claw
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Unboxing the museum: Deinocheirus claws

The racks and collections in the museum stores contain many objects and memories. This is Collection Manager at Museums Victoria, Tim Ziegler's personal story of just one.

A fearsome, two-legged dinosaur with strong, grasping arms.
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Who wielded the Otway Claw?

Meet Victoria’s top Cretaceous predator—a dinosaur that would have eaten Velociraptor for breakfast.

Two people stand before a white sheet in an arid forest at twilight.
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Who are the moth hunters?

Meet the citizen scientists who are, literally, discovering new species in their backyards.

A male Maratus volans peacock spider. Image made available through generous donation of its original author.
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What good are spiders?

Apart from their intrinsic right to be here, spiders do humans a power of good as well.

Strap-snouted Brown Snake, Pseudonaja aspidorhyncha.
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Eight myths about snakes

Some common misconceptions, and what you can do to keep snakes out of your yard.

Snake specimen in jar of ethanol.
Museums Victoria Collections

The first taipan to be milked for venom

An illustrated dragon's head seen from two angles.
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When is a creature extinct?

And does this dragon still exist?

Bird perched on a branch
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Listening for Nature

Researchers are using advanced digital tools to listen in on animal sounds and map who is where from croaks and calls.

H.L. White egg collection, tray of Magpie eggs.
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The colour of birds' eggs

The aesthetic qualities of a bird egg can tell you a lot about the species that laid it.

External site

A.J. Campbell on Google Arts & Culture

Passionate ornithologist, naturalist and photographer.

Three Little Pied Cormorant specimens mounted on a board.
Museums Victoria Collections

The first donation to the Museum

 Mounted specimen of the Little Pied Cormorant

Mounted male Cheetah specimen (Acinonyx jubatus: Felidae, Carnivora, Mammalia, Chordata). Specimen was a captive inhabitant of Werribee Open Range Zoo called Haraku, who died in captivity on 13 November 2008.
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Discover Documentary: Taxidermy

Museums Victoria owns some of the world's most iconic taxidermy specimens from the famous Phar Lap to the infamous Sad Otter. There are over 16 million items in our collection and over 6 thousand of these are taxidermy. But why do scientists still use physical specimens?

Worker bees with pollen stored in beehive cells.
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Discover Documentary: Bees

In this episode of Discover, Dr. Ken Walker takes us into Museums Victoria's Entomology Collection. As an expert in native bees, he explains how these tiny creatures have a major global impact.

Hog nosed rat
Watch

Discover Documentary: Rats

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to a unique mix of Australian and Asian animals found nowhere else on Earth, including a number of rat species that are one of a kind. Find out how research being conducted by Dr Kevin Rowe and his colleagues into these rats is helping us to understand the evolution of life on our planet.

Watch

Discover Documentary: Deep Sea

Scientists are only just starting to uncover what lives in the deepest parts of the world's ocean. Find out about some of the weirdest and most wonderful with Dr Martin Gomon, Curator of Ichthyology and Melanie MacKenzie, Collection Manager of Marine Invertebrates.

whale preying on fish
Watch

Discover Documentary: Prehistoric marine mammals

What creatures swam in Australia's oceans millions of years ago? In this episode of Discover, palaeontologists Dr Erich Fitzgerald and Tim Ziegler explain how they find and prepare the fossils which are revealing the secrets of Victoria's prehistoric marine mammals.

Specimen box storage for the liquid nitrogen cryofacility freezing tank, Ian Potter Bio-Bank.
Watch

Discover Documentary: Biobank

Discover the Ian Potter Australian Wildlife Biobank: a state-of-the-art liquid nitrogen storage facility containing tissue, venom, and even live cells. 

River at sunset
Watch

Discover Documentary: The Murray Explored Bioscan

Following in the footsteps of William Blandowski, the Museum's first curator.

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!

A spider sits atop a pencil.
Read

Why the 2010s were the decade of the peacock spider

How disruptors and digital technology led to a frenzy of scientific discovery.

Read

Vaccines: saving millions one dose at a time

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

Wombat, as depicted in 'An account of the English colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788 to August 1801'.
Visit Melbourne Museum

The Art of Science

Museum Victoria's archive of artworks, working drawings and rare books traces the development of scientific art and provides a glimpse into a world of uncommon beauty.

Trees in Toolangi State Forest
Visit Melbourne Museum

Forest Secrets

At the heart of the museum is a piece of Victoria's mountain landscape with tall eucalypts, ferns, rare plants and wildlife. Delve in to the secrets of our Forest Galley.

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?

Dinosaur skull cast
Visit Melbourne Museum

Dinosaur Walk

The Dinosaur Walk exhibition brings dinosaurs, pterosaurs and megafauna to life. Learn about the 17 skeletons of prehistoric animals on display!

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.

Pluto
Read

Planet or dwarf planet?

A group of astronomers are trying to reclassify Pluto as full 'planet'.

Newly-moulted Giant Spider Crab
Read

Melbourne's annual congregation of Giant Spider Crabs

Every year, thousands of Giant Spider Crabs congregate in Port Phillip Bay ahead of their annual winter moult.

Finished reconstruction of extinct Australian megafauna, Palorchestes.
Read

Australia's megafauna

Australia’s megafauna were unique, and included giant marsupials, huge flightless birds and giant reptiles.

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?

Southern Blue-ringed Octopus
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Blue-ringed Octopus

Small but deadly, this animal runs rings around the competition.

Worm on a black background
Read

Creature of the deep

Its evocative appearance is not the only thing that makes this deep sea creature fascinating and important.

Black and orange beetle on a flower
Read

What are these swarming beetles in my garden?

Each January, the Museum receives many enquiries about swarms of beetles in suburban gardens in and around Melbourne

Black wasp
Read

Predator vs predator

Wasps give huntsman spiders a taste of their own medicine.

Wombat poo
Read

The science of poo

Poo is truly fascinating stuff.

Centipede
Read

Do centipedes really have 100 legs?

Counting the feet on these ancient invertebrates.

sea slug
Read

Victoria's nudibranchs

The butterflies of the sea.

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.

Image taken by a microscope of a bees head
Read

Buzz off!

How do you study a bee so small it can barely be seen? 

skull
Read

Small(er) is beautiful

Megafaunal giants…in miniature

book cover
Read

Cephalopod Catalogue

Third and final volume by MV scientists now available

man with taxidermied koala
Read

Outreach koala

Preparing a specimen for education programs.

Cockroach
Read

Bountiful Mallee

Close encounters with Mallee insects.

Shark tooth and whale bone
Read

Whale vs shark

Evidence of shark bite 24 million years ago.

sea anemone and shrimp
Read

Sea anemone feast

Ever bitten off more than you can chew?

The tower which formed the centre of an octagonal glasshouse in The System Garden.
Read

Our first Director's vision for a University Botanical Garden

How Melbourne University's System Garden came to be.

Read

Ancient whales had more bite than today’s gentle giants

The cutting edge of whale evolution.

A view of a whale at the surface from above
Read

Northern exposure: fossils of a southern whale found for the first time in the north

A totally unexpected discovery.

DeepDream by Kit Webster, LightTime art installation on display in Scienceworks
Read

Dream Deep

The story behind Joe Meldrum's improvised dance piece in the infinity room of Scienceworks' LightTime exhibition.

Tasmanian tigers in captivity.
Read

Secrets from beyond extinction: the Tasmanian tiger

The entire thylacine genome has now been sequenced, revealing the apex marsupial predator was in poor genetic health and may have struggled to fight disease had it survived.

Gymnobelideus leadbeateri, Leadbeater's Possum, mount.
Read

A good possum is hard to find

The story of Leadbeater's Possum is a remarkable one. 

The RRS James Clark Ross
Read

The Larsen-C Benthos expedition

What lurks beneath the Antarctic ice? Museums Victoria's Mel Mackenzie is one of the lucky scientists on a voyage south to find out.

Preparing fish specimens
Read

Putting names to faceless fishes from the abyss

Understanding which fish species occur where, and discovering new fish species, is the starting point to managing marine biodiversity.

Specimens in glass jars
Read

Extinct Tasmanian Tiger now back in 3D

Using 3D scanning, researchers are peeking under the preserved skin of Tasmanian tiger specimens to reconstruct its growth and development.

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.

skull with testing equipment attached
Read

Augmented Humans

Melbourne is home to exciting new innovations combining medicine, design and technology. Many of these have the power to augment human abilities.

Read

Eulogy for a seastar, Australia’s first recorded marine extinction

Today, I am writing a eulogy to the Derwent River Seastar (or starfish), that formerly inhabited the shores near the Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania.

Moth specimens in a museum collection
Read

Butterflies of the night

The aim of the "George Lyell Collection: Australian entomology past and present" project is to examine the George Lyell collection scientifically and culturally, and to share discoveries with the wider community.

A pressed orchid specimen.
Read

Pressed Orchids

Unlike their Asian counterparts, Australian orchids like the rosy spider orchid, pictured below, are beautifully understated. Delicate and beautiful, they are not flashy like the orchids available at your local nursery.

Sepia portrait of a young man
Read

The sting of the final letter

Transcribing George Lyell's final documents.

Mirabilis (female) from the George Lyell Collection at Melbourne Museum.
Read

Light sheets

Peter Marriott talks moth bioscans in the Otways for National Science Week at Melbourne Museum.

Portrait of Dr G.A. Waterhouse arranging specimens in his collection at the Australian Museum, 2 February 1931.
Read

Kindred spirits

Between 1891 and 1947, George Lyell and Gustavus Athol Waterhouse's regular correspondence shared a passion for moths and butterflies.

People wearing high vis working on a beach
Read

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”.

“Butterflies of Australia” (1914) proofs from the Museums Victoria Archives
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Moths are beautiful too

At October's Nocturnal event, a multidisciplinary team of Museum workers and a guest speaker from University of Melbourne got together to present items from the George Lyell Collection to visitors.

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

On the wing

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

Portrait of a young man
Read

George Lyell's letters

In addition to the development of his moth and butterfly collection, George Lyell’s letters reveal much about his personal relationships.

<em>Lithoconus leopardus</em>, Leopard cone.
Read

What is the most venomous animal in the world?

And how its deadly venom could save lives.

The fossilised seal tooth, which is 3 million years old.
Read

Rare fossil tooth find sheds a light on Australia’s distant past

Read

Who’s digging in my lawn?

Learn about land crayfish and their burrows.

Female Badge Huntsman Spider underside
Read

Is my spider a boy or a girl?

At some times in a spider’s life it is easy to tell, but at other times it can be impossible.

Black Rock Scorpion
Read

Scorpion facts and fallacies

Are all scorpions dangerous? Answers to this and other common scorpion questions. 

A White-plumed Honeyeater aperch on a wire
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Birds and birdwatching

Birds are highly visible and vocal, spectacularly diverse and fascinating to watch and study.

Read

Your eight-legged housemates

At Museums Victoria we are often asked: “What kind of spider is this? It was in my house! Is it dangerous?”

A cute and furry little creature is held to camera.
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Nowhere to hide?

Searching for the elusive Tooarrana in the wake of the fires.

A white Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Read

Colour Variations: It doesn't look like that in the book

If an animal looks different to what you see in the field guides, there are many possible explanations - some more surprising than others.

Two celestial orbs crossing paths.
Read

Astronomy and the art of scientific storytelling

Capturing the awesome story of the universe.  

Taxidermy training model of a Princess Parrot
Read

Museums, Specimens and Taxidermy

Bringing the dead to life - sort of!

A scientist holding a wolf skull
Read

Tasmanian Tiger: lessons from the last of its kind

Museum specimens are enabling new discoveries about extinct species, long after they are gone. 

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

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. 

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
Read

Sylvia Whincup, a prolific collector and groundbreaking mineralogist

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

Read

The doyenne of dinosaur discovery

Melissa Lowery has a rare talent for finding dinosaurs.

an elegant white bird wading in water
Read

Flight of fashion: when feathers were worth twice their weight in gold

The high price of feathered hats in the 1800s.

a fish with no eyes on a black background
Read

Faceless Fish and the deep-sea voyages that found it

Take a dive into the deep sea with the Faceless Fish. 

Face-on view of a Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus)
Read

Native and introduced rats: some quick and dirty facts

Can you tell a native rat from a pest species?

a small scorpion glowing green under uv light
Read

Glowing animals: understanding bioluminescence and biofluorescence

What do a Platypus, a Dragonfish and a Scorpion all have in common?

two scientists look over a giant devil ray
Read

A Japanese Devilray, far from home

Collecting the first Victorian record of the Japanese Devilray.

dinosaur skeletons on display in a museum
Read

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?

Close up of a dinosaur claw
Read

Unboxing the museum: Deinocheirus claws

The racks and collections in Museum stores contain many objects and memories this is Tim's personal story of just one.

An image of a large whale skeleton on display in a hall
Read

Why are there so many whale skeletons in museums?

Whales grace the halls of many a natural history museum, but they are there for more than just show.  

A picture of three squat lobsters from above
Read

New species of squat lobster helping to revive an Aboriginal language

How the naming of a new species of squat lobster has helped an Aboriginal community reconnect to its ‘sleeping’ language.

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.

a scary looking fish with big teeth
Read

How do deep-sea creatures survive in the crushing dark?

Meet some of the weird and wonderful animals that have adapted to life in the deep sea.

a spider looking straight at the viewer
Read

Top spider myths

A myth for each leg: from the deadly Daddy Long-legs to swallowing spiders in your sleep.

waves lap against the body of a large whale on a sandy beach
Read

Recovering a rarity: what happens when a dead Fin Whale washes ashore?

The stranding of a dead whale offers scientists a rare opportunity to study these elusive giants.

two slabs of stone, side by side, with orange streaks in the shape of a reedy plant
Read

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. 

a bat hanging upside down
Read

More Australian species added to the endangered list

Without action, museum collections may be the only evidence some of these endangered species existed.

four brightly coloured books stacked on top of each others
Read

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.

A striped Tasmanian Tiger looking off into the distance
Read

Lunar New Year: 10 Australian tigers

Think you know tigers? What about those found in Australia? 

an underwater photo of a diver swimming alongside a fish
Read

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
Read

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
Read

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
Read

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 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 computer generated, multi-coloured image of an underwater mountain
Read

The mighty Muirfield Seamount

From ship slayer to protected wonderland, the Muirfield Seamount has a long history of surprising seafarers.

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.

12 cartoon animals of the Chinese Zodiac
Read

Lunar New Year

This Lunar New Year, come for a tour of the Chinese Zodiac through the Museums Victoria collection.

a hand drawn map of Melbourne city grid
Read

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
Read

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 wombat running with all four legs off the ground
Read

How do we know wombats can run at 40km/h? Turns out we don't

We hate to be the bearers of bad news but your favourite fact about wombats doesn’t stack up (unlike the cubed poo). 

an upside down praying mantis posing
Read

Live bugs, in a museum?

What does the thought of picking up a bug do to you? It’s just a day in the life for our Live Exhibits keepers. 

A fish standing on the ocean floor, with three elongated fins
Read

Reproduction can be a lonely task for a deep sea fish

What does it take to reproduce in the cold, dark and lonely world of the deep sea?

an image of a share one penny coin next to a vial of yellow powder
Read

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.  

Read

What’s in a name? An animal’s can be misleading

When is a tiger not a cat, a fox not a canine, and a jelly fish not a fish? Unfortunately, more often than you might think.

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.    

two men holding yellow coloured fossil bones in a laboratory
Read

19-million-year-old fossil jaw bone hints the biggest whales first evolved somewhere unexpected

A newly described fossil from South Australia is making waves in our understanding of where and when whales evolved titanic body sizes.

Dinosaur claw specimen with handwritten registration number.
Museums Victoria Collections

The Cape Paterson Claw Theropoda

This claw - the first dinosaur bone found in Victoria - is commonly known as "the Cape Paterson Claw".

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.

Venoms & antivenoms at Museum Victoria
Museums Victoria Collections

Venoms & antivenoms at Museum Victoria

Through necessity, Australia is a world leader in venom and antivenom research.

Five girls looking for marine life on a boat.
Museums Victoria Collections

Help us document biodiversity – record your own sightings

Front view of brown spider showing two rows of eyes.
Museums Victoria Collections

Wolf spiders

Some Wolf Spiders shelter in permanent burrows, others wander during the day.

Pinned butterfly in box with paper label.
Museums Victoria Collections

Australia's oldest insect specimen

A Common Evening Brown collected in China in 1742.

Green and brown mottled toad huddled on brown ground.
Museums Victoria Collections

Sudell's Frog

A burrowing species that usually come to the surface only after summer rains to breed.

Black, white and yellow spiny spider on web.
Museums Victoria Collections

Spiny Spider

Also known as the Christmas spider or jewel spider.

Orange and brown frog on orange-brown soil surface.
Museums Victoria Collections

Eastern Banjo Frog

Burrows in the soil and are sometimes found when people dig in their backyard.

Black spider with red markings with eggs.
Museums Victoria Collections

Redback Spider

Bright green frog on partially submerged rock.
Museums Victoria Collections

Leaf Green River Tree Frog

These frogs frequent fast-flowing rivers and are excellent swimmers and jumpers. 

Extinct mammal incisor with scratches.
Museums Victoria Collections

Diprotodon tooth

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

A Spotted Grass Frog with yellow stripe along its back.
Museums Victoria Collections

Spotted Grass Frog

A medium-sized frog with distinctive large regular-shaped brown or olive green blotches along its back.

Deep sea creatures
Museums Victoria Collections

Sampling the Abyss

The Sampling the Abyss voyage, 15 May–16 June 2017

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.

White mineral crystals
External site

Minerals and Gemstones of Victoria

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

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.

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