News

Here at the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre we are inundated with a wide variety of interesting enquiries. We recently received this stunning photograph from a keen bird enthusiast in Camberwell, wondering what was being fed to the young chicks. Single image include . .   Interestingly, the parent wattlebird pictured is not actually feeding this   …Continue Reading

Bonnie Gambhir is a Computer Science student with interests in scientific exploration. Rashika Premchandralal is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology. Both are studying at the University of Melbourne. This is the second post of an MV Blog mini-series celebrating the past, present and future of exploration on planet Earth and commemorating the adventures of   …Continue Reading

Can you imagine zipping around your city – or even between cities – via vacuum tubes? The idea of using air to push or pull people through tubes is familiar from sci-fi shows like Futurama , but could we really travel by tube from Melbourne to Perth, say? Single image include . .   For   …Continue Reading

Chenae Neilson is a Master of Science in Human Geography student at the University of Melbourne. This is the first post of an MV Blog mini-series celebrating the past, present and future of exploration on planet Earth and commemorating the adventures of Alfred Russel Wallace who died 100 years ago today. Over the last 250   …Continue Reading

Matilda swapped a life working as an engineer for a life curating the museum’s historical Engineering collection. She’s very curious about how stuff works, how it’s made and why. If a machine’s got a switch, she’ll definitely flick it. What do you do when a significant part of our local transport history would make a   …Continue Reading

Back in 2010, we blogged a game of 'then and now' on a road trip to Benalla using historical photographs of the town from  Collections Online . Single image include . .   We thought we'd identified the location of this 'hotel' that was surrounded by floodwaters in 1921, but a few knowledgeable commenters pointed   …Continue Reading

The da Vinci robotic surgery system was first used at the Epworth ten years ago. Now superseded, this first da Vinci has been donated to MV by Epworth Heathcare for Think Ahead at Scienceworks, an upcoming permanent exhibition about the future. This robot is a great example of how technology is shaping our lives… and,   …Continue Reading

Excellent news for urban stickybeaks – we've just released the first three walking tours for the new MV TOURS app. If you’re the kind of person who likes to look up at the older bits of Melbourne, download these free, self-guided tours to your smartphone or device: Spotswood Industrial Heritage, Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton   …Continue Reading

World Space Week is a celebration of curiosity and determination. It’s about what can happen when we dream big, and use cutting-edge science and technology to realise those dreams. Currently NASA has over 20 spacecraft exploring our Solar System and beyond. Here are just three of my favourites. Voyager 1 : What is there not   …Continue Reading

Working at a museum can extend the joys of ‘show and tell’ far beyond its usual primary school lifespan. Recently I brought in a photograph of a cluster of pupal cases for the entomologists to identify. I’m used to seeing the Saunders' Case Moth with its portable log-cabin shelter hanging from fences and walls, but   …Continue Reading