Australian Museum features engaging displays, artful cultural history

The venerable Australian Museum is centrally located in Sydney, Australia, a treasure trove of art, nature inspired history, intriguing indigenous people displays and much more.

SPLENDID SCIENCE, CULTURE,  NATURE AWAIT IN THE HEART OF SYDNEY 

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS

PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER

AN ENRICHING, ENLIGHTENING museum awaits visitors to Sydney.  The place is a gathering spot for tourists and locals. Here, we observe wonders from around the world, explore native culture, visit other countries and travel through the centuries to see what life was like in an Australia of long ago.  It's all right in the heart of this fascinating museum, a show piece in this varied and fast growing city.

Australia's original people are celebrated in a beautifully curated exhibition on their culture

THE MUSEUM is known worldwide for its expansive permanent collection and its thorough and imaginative exploration of history and Aboriginal culture.  It has won worldwide acclaim for its Australian fossils and local animal displays. The weekday morning we visited, we were in the company of dozens of awe struck school children, there for both fun and learning.  The museum prides itself on offering educational events for kids.

School groups clustered around the popular dinosaurs exhibition which features ten complete skeletons, including a 228-million-year-old Eoraptor.

Visitors can expect high tech as well as time honored art and exhibitions. Here, visitors "traveled" to Machu Pichu.

WE LINGERED over fascinating displays of dangerous Australian animals such as funnel-web spiders and tiger snakes.  We learned that Australia has the world’s most menacing animals, including venomous snakes, deadly spiders, and savage and powerful marine creatures. On the museum's upper ground floor, we also found friendlier creatures including stuffed kangaroos and koalas, and other representative of Australia's unique fauna, including the Tasmanian tiger.

An artful taxidermy space shows visitors some of Australia's extinct animals, here's a grunge.

EXHIBITS WALK the visitor through habitats -- arid deserts, lush rainforests, coastal regions,  cities. 

An impressive exhibition, "Dauma and Garom," was commissioned for the museum by indigenous artists and is on on display in the large permanent Indigenous Australians exhibition space. The six-meter-tall sculptural installation reflects an effort by the Erub people to combat the damage caused by ghost nets. It depicts a touching love story between a crab (Dauma) and a fish (Garom), characters from an important local story and song. Mesmerizing.

The Australian Museum is a wonderland of discovery, with dazzling permanent collection, and an ovrview of the country's vast natural world. The focal point here is "Aboriginal Art Ghost Net," by a UK artist. On exhibit are various works celebrating indigenous people who were the country's first people. The museum has won acclaim for this and its award winning anthropological exhibition area, all free!

A SLENDID virtual reality exhibit on Machu Pichu -- gone now -- is typical of the museum's erudite yet user friendly approach to culture.  It is replaced by another imaginative exhibition -- "The Birds of Australia." Like Machu Pichu, it is a unique digital experience, presented on a 3D storytelling cube. Bird lovers know the inspiration --  the work of noted ornithologists and artists John and Elizabeth Gould. Wish we could fly over again to discover Australia's birdlife in this new immersive exhibition.

Amazingly, the museum and its grand permanent collection are free. Fees apply to special exhibitions. Tickets are required for school programs, workshops and talks. Click on: What's On calendar of events.

Click here for more on the museum

New York's beloved Central Park is a treat for locals and tourists alike.  Colorful carriages await customers, and a stroll through the park is sure to revive and relax.

UP NEXT: A fresh new look, with no ads and improved user experience is coming to our website. The "redo" introduces a new, cleaner, more contemporary look with a visit to New York. No  tourist should miss a stroll through Central Park, a restful and yet lively oasis in the middle of one of the world's busiest and noisiest cities.  We take readers inside the park to  look at its charms -- its restaurants, lake, gaming area, food carts and beautiful appointments such as John Lennon memorial designed by his widow, Yoko Ono, "Strawberry Fields."  Tavern on the green and a horse drawn hansom cab await. Or grab your bicycle and join us.  We see why the park garners thousands of visitors in a day, and explore it with a local. Remember to explore, learn and live and catch us weekly for a fresh spin on travel, nature, performance and more: