The National Museum of Australia (NMA) is a national public museum in Canberra, Capital Territory, Australia. It is operated and funded by the federal government of Australia. It was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980.
The museum profiles 50,000 years of Indigenous heritage, settlement since 1788, and key events including Federation and the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It holds the world's largest collection of Aboriginal bark paintings and stone tools, the heart of champion racehorse Phar Lap and the Holden prototype No. 1 car. The museum also develops and travels exhibitions on subjects ranging from bushrangers to surf lifesaving. The National Museum of Australia Press publishes a wide range of books, catalogues and journals. The museum's Research Centre takes a cross-disciplinary approach to history, ensuring the museum is a lively forum for ideas and debate about Australia's past, present and future.
The museum's innovative use of new technologies has been central to its growing international reputation in outreach programming, particularly with regional communities. From 2003 to 2008, the museum hosted Talkback Classroom, a student political forum.
The museum did not have a permanent home until 11 March 2001, when a purpose-built museum building was officially opened. It is located on Acton Peninsula in the suburb of Acton, next to the Australian National University. The peninsula on Lake Burley Griffin was previously the home of the Royal Canberra Hospital, which was demolished in tragic circumstances on 13 July 1997.
Contents
Architecture
As designed by architect Howard Raggatt (design architect and design director for the project), the museum building is based on a theme of knotted ropes, symbolically bringing together the stories of Australians. The architects stated: "We liked to think that the story of Australia was not one, but many tangled together. Not an authorized version but a puzzling confluence; not merely the resolution of difference but its wholehearted embrace." The building is intended to be the centre of a knot, with trailing ropes or strips extending from the building. The most obvious of these extensions forms a large loop before becoming a walkway which extends past the neighbouring AIATSIS building ending in a large curl, as if a huge ribbon has haphazardly unrolled itself along the ground. Known as the "Uluru Axis" because it aligns with the central Australian natural landmark, the ribbon symbolically integrates the site with the Canberra city plan by Walter Burley Griffin and the spiritual heart of indigenous Australia.
The shape of the main entrance hall continues this theme: it is as though the otherwise rectangular building has been built encasing a complex knot which does not quite fit inside the building, and then the knot taken away. The entirely non-symmetrical complex is designed to not look like a museum, with startling colours and angles, unusual spaces and unpredictable projections and textures.
Though hard to precisely categorise, the building can be seen as an example of Charles Jencks' "new paradigm". Some characteristics of Deconstructivism can also be identified.
The organising concept of the scheme using the idea of a "tangled vision" incorporates a variety of references including:
Bea Maddock's Philosophy Tape
Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles
Boolean string, a knot, and Ariadne's thread
The Aboriginal Dreamtime story of the Rainbow Serpent making the land.
The building's architecture is thus intended to imply that the story of Australia is not one story, but many stories tangled together. The building also refers to or quotes other buildings:
Hail storm damage
A severe thunderstorm hit Canberra on the afternoon of 29 December 2006 and caused roof damage to the administration section of the museum. The ceiling collapsed under the weight of hail. The damage exposed power cables and left two centimetres of water on the floor. The water also damaged several paintings by a Sydney artist which were associated with an exhibition about Australian lifesavers. However, the main part of the building was unaffected and nothing from the museum's collection was damaged. The building was re-opened to the public a day later. The damage was expected to cost at least A$500,001 to repair.
Building works 2012/13
In 2012, building works commenced on a new cafe and administration wing.
The new cafe opened in late 2012. It overlooks Lake Burley Griffin and offers both indoor and outdoor dining. The relocation of the museum's cafe freed up the vast entry Hall for the display of large objects from the museum's collection, including vehicles.
The new administration wing, which links the main building with the existing administration building, was completed in mid-2013. The new building is clad in brightly coloured tiles arranged in a QR code pattern.
Collection
The museum's collection, known as the National Historical Collection, includes over 210,000 objects. The collection focuses on three themes: the culture and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australian history and culture since European settlement in 1788, and interactions between people and the Australian environment. Notable objects (as identified by the museum on their website) include:
Various items relating to the death of Azaria Chamberlain, including a yellow Holden Torana (later sold to the museum by Michael Chamberlain)
Bicycles owned by Australian cyclist and winner of the 2011 Tour de France, Cadel Evans
Navigational instruments used by Captain James Cook
The Sir Douglas Mawson collection, including four items relating to the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (aka BANZARE) in 1931, including three proclamations relating to claiming land in Antarctica, and a food canister.
Medical equipment used by ophthalmologist Fred Hollows
A holey dollar, the first currency minted in Australia
Netball memorabilia of Liz Ellis, who played in the Australia national netball team
Olympic medals won by John Konrads at the 1960 Rome Olympics
Props from children's television show Play School
An Australian flag found in the ruins of World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks
The fleece of Chris the sheep, a merino ram that became internationally famous in 2015 after being found wandering, and later shorn of a record amount of wool fleece
Past exhibitions
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters
On 15 September 2017, the exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, referencing the creation myth of the Seven Sisters that is common to many groups in the Western and Central Deserts, was launched at the NMA. It was instigated by aṉangu people, and was a collaboration with Aboriginal elders who are custodians of the Dreamtime story. The exhibition included a huge painting called Yarrkalpa — Hunting Ground, which symbolically depicts the area around Parnngurr in Western Australia, showing the seasons, cultural burning practices and Indigenous management of the land and natural resources. In June 2022, the work was projected onto the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Sydney festival.
The exhibition ran until February 2018, and travelled to Berlin, Germany, in 2022 and is due to be shown in Paris, France, in 2023.
Other past exhibitions
Other past exhibitions include:
Nation: Symbols of Australia: from the Hills Hoist clothes line to the legend of ANZAC, this exhibition approached Australian history through Australian symbols (March 2001 – January 2010)
Horizons: The Peopling of Australia since 1788: traced stories of human relocation and looked at how immigration to Australia has shaped Australia (March 2001 – October 2007)
Paipa: explored Torres Strait Islander migration and the continuing strong cultural connections between mainland communities and the Torres Strait (July 2002 – July 2006)
Outlawed! The World's Rebels, Revolutionaries and Bushrangers: examined outlaw legends from nine countries and featured two bronze replicas of Joe Byrne’s Kelly Gang armour produced by Cameron McFarlane (Carus Imago) in collaboration with Sydney sculptor Jody Pawley (28 November 2003 – 26 April 2004).
Royal Romance: examined Australia's passionate response to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Australia in 1954, and whether the nation has fallen out of love since (February–October 2004)
Behind the Lines: The Year's Best Cartoons 2003: brought together a selection of the best works entered in the National Museum of Australia's 2003 Political Cartooning Competition (May–June 2004)
Extremes: Survival in the Great Deserts of the Southern Hemisphere: explored some of the world's great southern deserts, tracing the history, culture and commonalities of Southern Africa's Namib and Kalahari deserts, South America's Atacama, and Australia's Red Centre (December 2004 – August 2005)
In Search of the Birdsville Track: An Artist in the Outback: featured sketches and writings donated to the museum's collection by Noelle Sandwith that capture the unique environment, characters and lifestyles of the Birdsville Track (June–October 2005)
Tourism awards
In the annual Australian Tourism Awards, the National Museum was named Australia's Major Tourist Attraction in both 2005 and 2006. The museum was named winner of the Canberra and Capital Region's Tourism Award for Major Tourist Attraction five years running from 2003 to 2007.