Jo

Your Question: I noticed that the On their own exhibition about Britain's child migrants exhibition is closing, where is it off to?

On their own, the story of Britain's child migrants will be moving on from the Immigration Museum in Melbourne to the Western Australian Museum - Maritime in Fremantle, due to open on Saturday May 19th.

On their own exhibition at the Immigration Museum.
Image: Kate Brereton
Source: Museum Victoria  

The exhibition was very popular with visitors to the Immigration Museum, many of whom commented about the moving nature of the content. Sadly, it is a story that has gone unnoticed for many years, but we were glad to be able to host the exhibition and provide visitors with a rich understanding and experience.

On their own exhibition at the Immigration Museum.
Image: Kate Brereton
Source: Museum Victoria  

Lisa snapped some pictures today of the Museum Victoria Collection Management and Conservation team and the Australian National Maritime Museum Collection Management and Conservation team working on de-installing the exhibition, getting it ready for its move across the country.

De-installing the On their own exhibition at the Immigration Museum.
Image: Lisa Collins
Source: Museum Victoria  

De-installing the On their own exhibition at the Immigration Museum.
Image: Lisa Collins
Source: Museum Victoria  

Although the exhibition is leaving Melbourne, we still do have plenty of information for visitors in the Immigration Discovery Centre, and online. The exhibition website will remain active until November 2013, so there is still an opportunity for you to learn more about Britain's child migrants.

Got a question? Ask us!

Links

MV Blog post - On their own opens

On their own: Britain's child migrants

Your Question: What exactly is the role of the Discovery Centre within Museum Victoria?

We play a very important role in making sure that you can access your state collection and this happens with requests made in person over the desk in the Discovery Centre, via the telephone, by snail mail and of course by email, and sometimes even by fax!

Visitors using the resources in the Discovery Centre
Image: Jo Philo
Source: Museum Victoria  

Every day when we come into the Discovery Centre we don’t know what the day will hold. Our inbox is jam packed with enquiries sent to us via our online enquiry form sent from many different people, with many different requests. The Discovery Centre is also responsible for responding to the various questions and comments that are posted on the different sections of the Museum Victoria website, the information sheets, the blog posts and the Collections Online webpages.

Visitors meeting Murray, the Murray Darling Carpet Python, in the Discovery Centre
Image: Jo Philo
Source: Museum Victoria  

We are responsible for handling and responding to your research based enquiries for access to Museum Victoria collections and experts. This could be anything from an identification request along the lines of 'what is this spider?' or 'what type of bird made this nest?', or I’d like to find out more about dinosaurs, or CSIRAC - we handle them all. We can also help you with accessing the collection; perhaps your grandfather donated a camera to the collection and you would like to see it. Well, we can help. And of course, we can help with the donation process if you have a significant item that you would like the museum to consider acquiring.

Jo and a visitor checking out the frogs in the Discovery Centre
Image: Kate Brereton
Source: Museum Victoria  

The Discovery Centre also assists academic researchers with access to the collection for study and learning. We can also help you with getting copies of images from the collection, maybe to add to a family album or your family history research. Of course, there are also the requests we receive from publishers for copyright requests, or other state museums for object loans and historical societies for conservation advice. 

If you would like to know more about the Discovery Centre Team, we are all blog authors so you can read a few lines about us, and of course see a happy snap too!

Got a question? Ask us!

Links:

Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre

Immigration Discovery Centre

Your Question: What are these swarming beetles in my garden?

The Discovery Centre has received many enquiries over the last few weeks about swarms of beetles in suburban gardens in and around Melbourne; they are Plague Soldier Beetles, Chauliognathus lugubris.

Plague Soldier Beetles
Image: Peter Saunders
Source: Peter Saunders  

This flattened, elongated, soft-bodied beetle has a thin yellow-orange stripe across the back of the pronotum. It has metallic olive green elytra (hardened forewings), covering most of a yellow-orange abdomen. The legs, head, antennae and rest of the pronotum are black and the beetle is usually about 15mm in length. This native species has earned its common name of the Plague Soldier Beetle not as a result of bringing or spreading any dangerous plagues, rather due to its habit of forming huge mating swarms.

Plague Soldier Beetles
Image: Peter Saunders
Source: Peter Saunders  

The larvae of this species live in the soil and feed on soft bodied invertebrates, while the adults feed on pollen and nectar. The species is found across large parts of the country including urban areas and adults can be seen from spring through to autumn. During their mating periods they can appear in such large numbers that it is not uncommon for them to weigh down the limbs of weaker plants.

Their bright colour warns off predators as they are capable of releasing distasteful chemicals and would not make a good meal. For homeowners who may be hosting huge numbers of this colourful species, don't be too concerned, following the mating swarm the beetles tend to disperse.

Got a question? Ask us!

After four years, and hundreds of questions, the Discovery Centre's online Question of the Week and Your Questions articles are moving house to the MV Blog.

Horse team moving a house from Creswick through Allendale, Victoria, circa 1909. (MM 001930)
Source: Museum Victoria  

We will still be answering all of your curious and quirky questions, but you will now have the chance to get to know us a little better. The weekly blog posts by the folks of the Melbourne Museum and Immigration Museums Discovery Centres will appear as Your Questions here on the MV Blog. This is the place to go to read about interesting facts, see curious objects, and become the person everyone wants on their pub trivia team. Read all the weird and wonderful questions the museum staff are asked, and even better, find out the answers!

Links:

Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre Question of the Week archive

Immigration Discovery Centre Your Questions archive

Jo is one of the friendly staff at MV's Discovery Centres. Despite protestations that she does not blog, she couldn't resist writing about this recent coincidence...

Weekends in the Immigration Discovery Centre are normally filled with lots of folks looking for their names, or the names of ancestors, on the various websites we can easily access. But this weekend proved a little more interesting...

I was helping a lady who was here on holidays from Florida find some information about her long-lost ancestors whom she believed arrived at Melbourne in the 1870s. This in itself is not out of the ordinary, but the woman’s maiden name was: it was Leggo. She had heard that her ancestors had come to Australia and started a food business. I asked her if she had made it into a supermarket yet and wandered down the pasta aisle, since their little food business was considerably bigger than she realised. (Leggo's is now a major brand of pasta and sauces. According to the company history on the Leggo's website, Henry Leggo began selling his mother's bottled sauces and pickles to Bendigo goldminers in the 1880s).

While she and I were chatting about this, another woman came up to the desk and excused herself for interrupting. She asked if we were talking about the the name Leggo, because that that was her name, too – and yes, it was spelt the same. She was on holidays from Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The two women exchanged the details of their respective family history as they each knew it and it seems that they are distantly related. They have since exchanged email addresses and will say in contact when they return home to Florida and Cornwall.

Joyce Taylor (left) and Elizabeth Leggo in the Immigration Discovery Centre.
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

Immigration Discovery Centre

Researching Italian Migration