Events and Programs

Adrienne creates and presents public programs at Melbourne Museum.

Most of our holiday activities for kids include a make-and-take aspect, where visitors go home with a memento of their own creation, such as an Egyptian pendant. Last holidays, we took a different approach, designing a communal and collaborative program to build a mini-Melbourne within The Melbourne Story exhibition.

We weren't sure if visitors would be happy to work on something that they couldn't take home, but we needn't have worried. Each day the mini-city grew and grew and grew, so much so that Whelan the Wrecker had to come in a few times to make room for the city's growth. (Ah, how art mirrors life!) By the end of the holidays, the entrance to the Melbourne Gallery was completely full.

Urban sprawl of the cardboard variety at mini-Melbourne.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

Each participant received a cardboard square, two rectangles, a triangle, a person and three connectors to put the set together. From these simple components grew a huge array of city features. Memorable were the churches, art galleries, museums, dance studio, aquarium, South Vermont Primary School and about ten Herald Sun buildings. More personalised were the homes with family names (in English and Vietnamese) and street numbers. There were lots of boats, trains and trams but surprisingly no cars – however there was a submarine!

Buildings and residents of mini-Melbourne.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

The city was populated too, with little people sitting on or hanging off the buildings. The population explosion was very evident as the holidays progressed – the little people everywhere really made the whole scene come alive.

Mini-Melburnians in their cardboard city.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

Participants were aged from about 18 months to grown-ups and of course not everyone approached the project the same way. Younger kids wanted to decorate and construct their own buildings, while older, kids, teenagers and adults banded together to make bigger and more ambitious group projects. The cardboard pieces were decorated with coloured textas and then constructed to individual designs. So much concentration and so many conversations!

Sadly, we couldn't keep the city but we did keep the little people, all 5,000 of them. We are now seeking an artist who might like to use them in an art work or installation so the people of our mini-Melbourne live on. If you have a new home for the mini-Melburnians, email me at Melbourne Museum.

Museum staff preparing the cardboard components of mini-Melbourne.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

The autumn holiday team included Lisa Nink, Bernard Caleo, David Perkins, Jen Brook, Alexandra Johnstone, Lauren Ellis and 46 wonderful volunteers.

Sweet talker Elise Murphy is working with Emily Kocaj to organise the Sweets festival and exhibition. Elise is responsible for community festivals at the Immigration Museum and has a very sweet tooth.

The power of sweets to bring people together was affirmed on Sunday 18 March at the Immigration Museum, as over 2,255 visitors flocked to the Sweets festival and launch of the Sweets: tastes and traditions from many cultures exhibition. Six months in the making, the festival and exhibition showcased the satisfying results of collaboration between the Museum and the Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mauritian and Turkish communities in Victoria.

Sweets for the Gods, Tara Rajkumar’s Natya Sudha Dance Company
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Heidi Victoria, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier and Assisting the Premier with the Arts, opened the sugar-fuelled occasion. Luscious treats made by community groups and local business owners showcased our rich cultural heritage alongside commissioned dance and music performances, cooking demonstrations from community members and stories, objects and films in the exhibition. By the end of the day, there wasn't a single sweet left in the Museum.

Heidi Victoria (second from left) viewing the Sweets exhibition with community members and MV staff.
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Left: Visitor sampling Turkish sherbet | Right: Italian sweets stall
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

It was a delight to see intercultural and intergenerational exchanges sparked by simple acts of sharing sweets and memories. "Energising, uplifting and reassuring," as Patricia Kimtia, President of the Cultural Historical Association of Rodriguans & Mauritians, suggests, "such richness and positive interaction restores hope that the fabric of our society is stronger than one may think and the sense of community prevails."

Japanese tea ceremony demonstration with wagashi sweets
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Although the festival was a special one-day event, the exhibition will run until 7 April 2013 with opportunities for all to visit and share stories and recipes. The sweetest taste, the enriching experience of collaborating with community members and colleagues on this intercultural project, is one that will linger much longer.

Visitors enjoying sweets at the festival
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Your Question: What’s on in the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre these school holidays?

The April School holidays are here and it’s time to come into the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre to celebrate our great city Melbourne!

Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

Central Railway Station, Flinders Street, Melbourne, Victoria, circa 1910
Image: Unknown, Norm De Pomeroy Collection
Source: Museum Victoria  

A meeting between John Batman and a group of Aboriginal men in 1835 is regarded as Melbourne’s foundation point. Batman claimed to have signed a 'treaty' with Aboriginal leaders, giving him ownership of almost 250,000 hectares of land. Three months later a group, led by John Pascoe Fawkner, established the first permanent settlement. Governor Bourke in 1837 named the City Melbourne after the British Prime Minister of the day.

The discovery of gold brought wealth and an estimated half a million people to Victoria between 1850 and 1860, and the infant city struggled to absorb this influx.  By 1880 Melbourne was a city larger than most European capitals; money was poured into the lavish decoration of the city. By 1891 the economy crashed leading to Victoria’s worst depression. Banks collapsed, unemployment bit hard, and families were evicted from their homes.

Southwest View From Parliament House, Melbourne, Victoria, circa 1885
Image: Unknown, C. Nettleton Studio
Source: Museum Victoria  

In the decades following World War One, Melbourne was transformed by new opportunities and challenges. The “war to end all wars” was over, and few could yet see the shadow it cast into the future. It was time to enjoy life.

The post-war years brought enormous changes to Melbourne. The arrival of a million immigrants over a twenty year period ensured both a cultural and a physical transformation in the life of the city.

Immigrants from continental Europe brought their distinctive cultures to the city. New flavours were added to the arts. European-style cafes gave the city pockets of sophistication; the blueprint of today's Melbourne was in place.

The Discovery Centre has lots of great books on the history, architecture, laneways and culture of Melbourne. There research tables and a reading room with comfy bean bags to relax in.

Discovery Centre Reading Room
Image: Kate Brereton
Source: Museum Victoria  

We have a ‘name the toy’ activity for the kids from the Childhood and Youth collection, and some fabulous posters of historical Melbourne.

Discovery Centre Activity Table
Image: Kate Brereton
Source: Museum Victoria  

So come on in to the Discovery Centre these April School Holidays!

Got a question? Ask us!

Links 

Melbourne Story

Melbourne Story - Biggest Family Album

Marvellous Melbourne

Picture Australia 

Adrienne creates and presents public programs at Melbourne Museum.

What do you eat when you are having bugs for brunch?

Well, scorpions for starters, followed by BBQ-flavoured mealworms. Or perhaps you prefer your mealworms simply roasted with a dipping sauce? And would you like crunchy crickets with that?

A plate of roasted mealworms and crickets.
Image: Tom Pietkiewicz
Source: Umkafoto  

More than 3,000 ethnic groups in 113 countries eat insects and other invertebrates, and in many places they are preferred over beef, pork and lamb. Producing insects generates fewer greenhouse emissions than for other forms of meat production and you get more for the same effort: less feed produces more protein. This means a high-protein and low-fat food source that leaves a smaller environmental footprint. While eating insects makes environmental sense, it's pretty confronting to many of us.

Developed as a children's program for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the Bugs for Brunch events ran over four days and tickets sold out fast. Surprisingly, there were just as many young adults as children (with their parents) who came along learn about – and taste - edible bugs. They wanted to do something different, something fun, something with their friends and family. But were they ready to eat bugs?

Most declared they were slightly squeamish and only a few had ever eaten a bug. After being shown how many bugs are already in our food, they were even more grossed out.

But with tastes of bug vomit (delicious honeycomb from Mount Dandenong) to sweeten them up, and up close and personal viewings of all kinds of edible bugs from Bogong Moths and bardy grubs to scorpions, grasshoppers and Chilean Rose tarantulas (Grammostola rosea), people's opinions shifted.

A bardy grub (beetle larva) at Bugs for Brunch.
Image: Tom Pietkiewicz
Source: Umkafoto  

After seeing lots of images of people eating bugs, looking through bug recipe books and watching a Pad Thai being made with mealworms, they were ready to eat! Lollypops with bugs in them and mealworm chocolate chip cookies gave them a soft approach to the "whole bug in mouth" experience. But by the end, those roasted toasted whole bug snacks were being scoffed. They couldn't get enough and every plate was empty by the end.

Pad Thai with mealworms.
Image: Tom Pietkiewicz
Source: Umkafoto  

The Bugs for Brunch program was developed and delivered by Patrick Honan and Rowena Flynn from the museum's Live Exhibits team and Adrienne Leith from Education and Community Programs. The insects at the Bugs for Brunch event came from one of the country's few consumable insect producers and were bred under hygienic conditions that comply with Australian Food Standards.

Links:

Edible Forest Insects, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

On Thursday 1 March, hundreds of people gathered outside Melbourne Museum from 5pm, apparently as curious as we were to see what would happen at the adults-only SmartBar event.

Crowd waiting outside Melbourne Museum for SmartBar to open.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

The idea of adults-only museum events is not a new one, but it's new to Museum Victoria. All over the world, history and science museums like us witness the same pattern: young people in their twenties don't visit much. Many museums have started holding special events to cater for the interests of this group. The Australian Museum launched their Jurassic Lounge three summers ago and it's a hit in Sydney. Closer to home, NGV and ACMI have launched successful adult programs, but would such a thing work for us?

Mark Norman talking about strange sex in the deep blue sea. Here he shows the SmartBar crowd a female argonaut or paper nautilus.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

David Perkins works in the museum's Public Programs department and helped organise SmartBar. "The whole point was to find if people were interested in coming to this type of event," says David, "And they were, more so that we ever expected." Online tickets sold out days in advance and people waited patiently to grab the last remaining door tickets. Over 1,000 people attended SmartBar and we were delighted that 83% of the audience were between 18 and 34 years old.

Erich Fitzgerald addressing the age-old question: just how accurate was Jurassic Park?
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

"The presentations were the most popular thing," says David. The talks covered the bizarre sex lives of deep-water animals, spotlights on specimens and chats with preparators, curators and animal keepers. They all had a blast giving visitors direct access to the museum's research activity and to talk about their work. The Science and Life Galleries became a social space and all kinds of enthusiasts came out of the woodwork, many of them commenting that they liked being in the museum with no kids around.

Bird's eye view of the crowd watching Wayne's demonstration in the Science and Life Gallery.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

The phenomenal success of SmartBar is encouraging and the museum is exploring how we can hold it regularly. Because we weren't sure what to expect, there were a lot of surprises – mostly good, but there were some aspects that we didn't get right. The queues at the door were too long and it was difficult to get the sound right in the Science and Life Gallery with so much going on. A survey, a comment board and feedback on Twitter, provides us with lots of information about what to improve next time, and what was spot-on. We'd like to thank everyone who gave us feedback as it will help us get things right in the future. At this stage we are planning to have four a year to follow the seasons – so watch out for our winter SmartBar.

Nearly a quarter of the attendees had never been to Melbourne Museum before. What was it about this event that attracted them? And what has stopped them in the past? David thinks the focus was just right for this crowd. "Adult education is a dirty phrase. If you asked a bunch of people to sit in a class after work, it would be a hard sell. But if it's easy and casual you can take it at your own pace. You have a nice night and you've learned something."

Links:

Comments from the pinboard on Pinterest

SmartBar photos on Melbourne Museum's Facebook page

Natasha works in public relations for Museum Victoria. 

Renowned Melbourne chef Guy Grossi is putting on a special event at the Immigration Museum, A Sweet Dinner with Guy Grossi,on 15 March as part of Sweets and the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. He has also contributed a couple of items to the Sweets exhibition. I had a chat with him about why he got involved.

Guy Grossi preparing some Italian sweets.
Image: Stewart Donn
Source: Museum Victoria  

Why were you interested in being a part of Sweets?

Food has a magical way to be able to bring people together and share special memories together and many a moment has been shared over a dessert or sweet treat that has us all melting. We all remember those moments. I was really interested in exploring how delicious sweet ingredients have been used in dishes, both savoury and sweet, throughout different cultures and how this has evolved over time. It's such a fascinating journey and I'm excited to be a part of this exhibition.

What are some of the sweet influences that you grew up with?

My speciality is Italian food so I have incorporated a great Italian pastry as the dessert – Canoli alla Siciliana. My parents are not from Sicily but I remember every time we would visit a pastry shop or café in Carlton I would have one of their crispy pastries filled with sweet ricotta. Amazing!

Do you have any memory of sweet foods being used in Italian celebrations when you were growing up?

Celebrations in Italian culture are remembered for the particular sweets that are served at them. Different cakes, pastries, lollies and biscuits are used to typify different occasions such as weddings, Easter, Christmas and many more.

Your degustation dinner includes sweet influences from Indian, Mauritian, Turkish and Japanese cuisines. Have you enjoyed integrating other cultures into your cooking?

It has been a big adventure for me and as a chef, we're always looking for new ways to do things. Food is always evolving and whether it be a new ingredient or technique there's a constant drive in chef's to always improve and evolve. Throughout my travels I've been lucky enough to try so many incredible dishes and I tried to incorporate some of those memorable ingredients, as well as my own research and speaking to other chefs who are experts in their field, to gauge their opinion on integrating sweetness into my menu. I've tried to keep it authentic to the culture as I highlight the theme.

Sweets: Tastes and traditions from many cultures encompasses an exhibition, a one-day festival and the Sweet Dinner. To buy a ticket to the Sweet Dinner with Guy Grossi, call 13 11 02 and press '3' to connect to the Immigration Museum. Credit card payments are accepted.

SmartBar logo
Source: Museum Victoria  

On March 1, Melbourne Museum will be presenting SmartBar – an evening event for adults featuring talks by museum scientists and interactive experiences.

As part of the event, the dissection of a road-killed bird will occur to demonstrate how Museum Victoria researchers study these sorts of animals that are brought in by concerned members of the public. This process increases our understanding of animal health, diet, welfare and conservation. The information we gain from this type of research is critical for our understanding of issues that impact Victorian fauna such as climate change and human activities.

SmartBar will provide Museum Victoria a chance to introduce people to the work of the museum, first hand. Beyond our exhibitions, we undertake important and ongoing research to learn more about our fauna, with a view to helping inform its conservation into the future. At SmartBar, we're giving people a chance to learn about some of that work and meet some of our staff in an informal setting. We're hoping this attracts an audience who would not normally attend Melbourne Museum so they too can become passionate, informed and respectful of Victoria and Australia's wildlife.

In earlier communications we described the event in a way which was misinterpreted by some readers. We apologise for any confusion or anxiety this may have caused and would like to thank everyone who has given us feedback on the SmartBar event.

Links:

SmartBar

Lisa works in the Public Programs Department at Melbourne Museum but also volunteers in the Palaeontology Department and has been on several fossil digs.

Last weekend hailed the beginning of the annual Dinosaur Dreaming dig season at Inverloch in Victoria. The crew will spend the next three weeks searching for the fossils of animals including dinosaurs, mammals, turtles, freshwater plesiosaurs, fish and pterosaurs that lived on and around the floodplain and in the forests that existed in the area 120 million years ago.

We can only access the dig site while the tide is out far enough to expose the shore platform, and before we can start hunting for fossils we need to prepare the site. First we remove the sand with shovels, which is often a bit of a smelly job due to the bits of rotting seaweed that have washed into the hole (the name we give to the part of the site which is being worked at any given time) with the tide.

Left: The crew removes sand, boulders and seaweed from on top of the rock layers. Right: John Wilkins and Dean Wright remove one of many large boulders from the dig site using a boulder extraction contraption John invented and built for us.
Image: Lisa Nink
Source: Museum Victoria  

Next we use large chisels, crowbars and large drills to remove the overlying layer of sandstone. Once we have access to the fossil layer we can begin searching.

Some of the crew use large chisels and sledgehammers to remove large chunks of the fossil layer and the rest of the crew sit further up on the shore breaking these large rocks into walnut sized pieces in search of fossils.

Left: Travis Park uses a sledgehammer and chisel to remove a large chunk of fossil-bearing rock. Right: Gerry Kool uses a much smaller hammer and chisel to break down chunks of rock in search of fossils.
Image: Lisa Nink
Source: Museum Victoria  

While the main aim of the dig is to find fossils, there is much more we can learn about the site. Dean Wright, a surveyor, and Doris Seegats-Villiers, a PhD candidate at Monash University, used a Leica Total Station to collect data which will be used to map geological features such as the different rock layers and fault lines. Dean plans to overlay this data onto a 3D map of the site he made last year and this information will assist scientists to better understand the geology of the site.

Dean Wright and Doris Seegats-Villiers taking data points which Dean will use to create a geologic map of the Flatrocks site.
Image: Lisa Nink
Source: Museum Victoria  

Some of the interesting bones we have found so far this season:

Left: A cross-section through a dinosaur limb bone. Right: A cross-section through a dinosaur toe bone.
Image: Lisa Nink
Source: Museum Victoria  

Links:

Dinosaur Dreaming blog

Infosheet: Dinosaur Dreaming - the Inverloch fossil site

Video: Dinosaur Dreaming

Sweet talker Emily Kocaj is working with Elise Murphy to organise the Sweets festival and exhibition. She manages community exhibitions at the Immigration Museum and delights in tasting sugary creations from around the world.

The Immigration Museum is working on something very special and super sweet. For the last few months we have been collaborating with five sweets-loving Victorian communities to create Sweets: tastes and traditions from many cultures, a delicious exhibition and festival that are part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and Cultural Diversity Week in March 2012.

Members of the Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mauritian and Turkish communities have come together with the museum to jointly explore the historical and cultural significance of sweets. This unique project has seen us sharing sweet stories, traditions and recipes with the communities, not to mention fantastic creations from their kitchens!

Sweets committee members enjoying an array of sweets.
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

The community representatives have delighted each other (and us) with a steady stream of treats at each Sweets committee workshop – from crisp, syrupy baklava, tangy limone tiramisu, cloud-like mochi, rose-scented gulab jamun, gorgeous pink napolitains and numerous other delicious morsels.

  Five delicious sweets from the countries and communities featured in the Sweets festival and exhibition. Clockwise from top left: Italian tiramisu al limone | Indian gulab jamun | Turkish baklava | Mauritian napolitains | Japanese mochi
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

As well as sharing these gorgeous confections, the communities have been working incredibly hard on the exhibition and festival. In further posts we will show you sneak peeks of what will be happening on festival day and in the exhibition, both opening on Sunday 18 March 2012.

Sweets committee members with an array of sweets.
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Links:

Sweets at Immigration Museum

On the afternoon of Saturday 28 January, I made my way down to Port Melbourne for the Piers Festival, a celebration of migration at Station and Princes Piers. The Immigration Museum had a display at Station Pier about – you guessed it – Station Pier!

Immigration Museum’s ‘Station Pier’ exhibition at Station Pier.
Image: Max Strating
Source: Museum Victoria  

Even though the festival was to celebrate both piers, it was really about launching the newly opened Princes Pier after its recent $34 million renovation. The poor dear had ended up in a terrible state after years of neglect. The renovation included restoration of the gatehouse, plus installation of a rotunda with touch screens showing the history of the pier, large raised deck platforms, an area of artificial turf, a generous amount of seating, and public binoculars for viewing ships at sea. Last but not least, the first 196 metres of decking were replaced with a concrete slab, for which the entire gatehouse had to be lifted in order for it to be poured – no mean feat.

Children playing at Princes Pier
Image: Max Strating
Source: Museum Victoria  

In the gatehouse was an exhibition of historical photographs from Princes Pier – soldiers off to war, local boys on bikes, and migrants arriving after the war.

Ottoman Mehter Marching Band.
Image: Max Strating
Source: Museum Victoria  

The festival was put on by Multicultural Arts Victoria and the program included a wide variety of performers and musicians, starting with the Victorian Police Pipe Band and finishing with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra. The most arresting costumes were of the Ottoman Mehter Marching Band. Poor guys, it was about 35 degrees in the shade, never mind under their hats!

The crew of the Enterprize showing off their Jigging and Reeling skills.
Image: Max Strating
Source: Museum Victoria  

Ska Orchestra
Image: Max Strating
Source: Melbourne Museum  

One of the many stalls selling tasty treats and colourful crafts.
Image: Max Strating
Source: Museum Victoria  
 
The evening ended with a generous fireworks display. Can’t wait for next year’s festival!

Karen Rowe is a Research Associate at MV where she studies evolutionary ecology and behaviour in birds and mammals.

January 20th is an auspicious day for birding enthusiasts, marking Penguin Awareness Day. With 17 species currently recognised, members of the family Spheniscidae (pronounced sfen-IS-kuh-dee) are found only within the southern hemisphere. While most of us think of penguins as cold-adapted animals, surviving long treks over ice to breed and raise their young in the middle of winter, many species live further north, among the islands off of Antarctica, along the coasts of New Zealand and Australia, and one species is found on the Galapagos Islands (the aptly named Galapagos Penguin).

Royal Penguins (Eudyptes schlegeli) – among Elephant Seals on Macquarie Island.
Image: Julie McInnes
Source: Julie McInnes  

As a group, penguins possess an amazing array of adaptations, uniquely suited to their predominately marine existence. Unlike other birds, penguins have solid, rather than air-filled bones, to help them dive in the water. They have highly modified feathers that form a thick insulating layer that cover the body, rather than growing in the well-defined feather tract found in other birds. They also have unique eyes that allow them to see clearly both on land and in the sea. And while their short legs and feet make them seem awkward on land, many species actually travel tremendous distances over land and rocks to reach their breeding sites – some even traveling as far as three kilometres from water.

Captive Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) floating in the water. The coloured flipper band allows zoo keepers to distinguish between individuals.
Image: Erich Fitzgerald
Source: Museum Victoria  

Extant species show a wide range of body sizes, from our own Little (or Fairy) Penguins, weighing 1.1 kg and standing 40 cm tall, to the largest species, the Emperor Penguin, at a whopping 30 kg and up to 115 cm tall.

Little Penguins (Eudyptyla minor) in captivity. These coloured leg bands are another way to tell individuals apart.
Image: Erich Fitzgerald
Source: Museum Victoria  

But even the Emperor Penguin is dwarfed in size by some of the extinct fossil penguins, including a 15-million-year-old giant penguin (Anthropodyptes gilli) from Victoria that may have approached twice its size. Senior Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Dr. Erich Fitzgerald studies fossil penguins here at Museum Victoria. "Victoria was home to a remarkable diversity of penguins over the last 20 million years," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "The tiny Little Penguin living in Australia today is an oddity on a geologic timescale. The fossil record tells us that most penguins that have lived in Australia were large to huge in size and that at any one time there were perhaps two or more species coexisting here." Currently, Dr. Fitzgerald and his student, Travis Park, are working on six-million-year-old fossil penguins found in Melbourne on the shores of Port Philip Bay that are thought to be the size of the living Gentoo and Emperor Penguins.

The upper wing bone (humerus) of living penguins compared with their fossil counterparts from Victoria. From left to right: the 18-million-year-old fossil Anthropodyptes gilli; the living emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri; the living fairy penguin Eudyptula minor; the living gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua; and the 6-million-year-old fossil Pseudaptenodytes. Credit: Photograph by Erich Fitzgerald
Image: Erich Fitzgerald
Source: Museum Victoria  

Emperor Penguin and chick, Antarctica.
Image: Julie McInnes
Source: Julie McInnes  

The unique ecology of penguins makes them particularly susceptible to a variety of human-induced threats. In particular, commercial fishing, often leading to death through by-catch or competition for prey items (which include fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods), directly impacts their survival. Penguins are also dependent on breeding grounds close to the shore and habitat loss is a major source of population declines. Smaller and fewer breeding grounds also promotes disease, as most species of penguins breed in large colonies.

Royal Penguin colony. This species is endemic to Macquarie Island and this is the largest Royal Penguin colony with over 180,000 breeding pairs. The fluffy young penguin in the front on the right is in moult.
Image: Julie McInnes
Source: Julie McInnes  

Although little research has been done looking at the impact of climate change on penguins, their specialised lifestyle suggests that climate change could have dramatic impacts on their distribution and abundance. "Penguins are an ancient group of birds, with a history stretching back some 65 million years to the extinction of the dinosaurs," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "In southern Australia they have persisted through the last 20 million years of major climatic changes, but it is unknown how they will respond to the current human-exacerbated wave of environmental upheaval. It would be a terrible shame to see this ancient and superbly successful group of birds become threatened with extinction within our lifetime."

Adelie Penguin, Bechervaise Island, Antarctica.
Image: Julie McInnes
Source: Julie McInnes  

Links:

Emperor Penguins in the Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world

Penguins on Atlas of Living Australia

Happy Feet Two at IMAX Melbourne

We love our MV Members. We appreciate their ardent support of our museums, we love that they help us plan exhibitions and to improve what we do. But why do our members choose to join Museum Victoria?

Chris and Janet Wright have held a family membership for many years and also donate to MV. We asked them a few questions to find out why.

The Wright family on the House Secrets monster couch.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

What made you decide to become MV Members?

Our children were babies and pre-schoolers and we wanted to pop in for an hour or so every few months. We'd meet relatives and their kids there, and stay for a little while. It was fun, stimulating and educational. Membership was an economical way for the whole family to go to the museum. We've stayed on as members both to keep the value for money, but increasingly to support the work of the museum. Janet has a personal connection to the museum, with one of her friends working there when she was at university, and the collection houses some of Chris's grandfather's firearm collection. Our daughter Annie did work experience there during her secondary school.

What do you value about Museum Victoria?

Having access to the world of knowledge, and to the world of finding out, is central to our way of life. We value that MV makes science accessible, interesting and attractive to Victorians, and it supports the work of scientists in our state. The Immigration Museum preserves wonderful stories of the history of so many Victorian families and the staff there continue to add to our knowledge.

Do you have a favourite memory or experience from your visits?

I remember as a little boy going to visit the museum when it was housed in the State Library Building on Swanston St. I was completely fascinated with the working models - these were to-scale replicas of various machines - steam engines, motors, dynamos, generators, 4 and 2 stroke petrol motors, diesel motors - all in their own wooden / glass display case, with a lovely white button in a brass bezel on the front. When you pushed the button: THINGS HAPPENED!!! The motors went around, the electric motors whirred - quite a miracle for an eight-year-old to see!

The Wright family in the Perception Deception exhibit at Scienceworks.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

When we visited Scienceworks as a family, we'd all try to race Cathy Freeman - we'd laugh at the skeleton pedalling and wonder at mechanics of the Pumping Station. The Immigration Museum brought back memories for Janet - when she was seven she went to the US on an ocean liner. The mock cabin brought all those memories flooding back.

The Wright family racing Cathy Freeman at Sportsworks.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

Are you an MV Member? What draws you back to membership each year? Do you have a favourite museum memory you'd like to share?

Links:

MV Members

Donate to MV

Scienceworks: What's On today

You can see the work of MV's preparation department before you even walk in the door of Melbourne Museum. Hanging in the front window there is a food chain of predators chasing a school of fish. Our preparators created over one thousand individually painted fish for the school and the brilliant prehistoric animal models in the Science and Life Gallery are their work, too.

One of specialist tasks of the preparators is taxidermy: preserving the skin of an animal specimen and preparing a mount that records exactly how the animal looked in life. Taxidermy is truly an art that takes many years to learn and even longer to master. At Museum Victoria, our master taxidermist is Senior Preparator Dean Smith.

I paid him a visit as he was putting the finishing touches on a taxidermy mount of a male koala. This individual was the unfortunate victim of a road accident; Dean reported that its skull and jaw were fractured from the impact. It's a reminder for all of us to drive carefully in areas where animals roam, but this koala will now have a second life as a teaching aid in the museum's Discovery Program, our mobile outreach service. Says Dean, 'it will go to the elderly, the disabled, little kids... they will be able to touch a koala.'

Senior Preparator Dean Smith with his handiwork.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Dean learned how to prepare mounts from a former taxidermist who worked at the museum for 40 years. He's now passing on his skills to other staff in the Preparation Department, describing it as 'the cycle of learning'.

This beautifully prepared koala specimen will join the Discovery Program in 2012.
Source: Museum Victoria  

From start to finish, a specimen like this takes several weeks. First Dean removed and tanned the skin. He cast an exact copy of the koala's body and stretched the skin over the cast, pinning it it place. He recreated the fine structure of its head beneath the skin. After three weeks of drying, he cleaned the fur and airbrushed the fleshy details of its ears and mouth. The result is an exquisite specimen that is incredibly lifelike.

Close-up of the koala specimen, showing Dean's amazing attention to detail.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Later this month, Dean will be working on a Wedge-tailed Eagle for the Discovery Program. He says that birds are much more difficult to prepare than mammals because their feathers lose their structure. 'You have to sit for hours and comb the feathers.' We'll cover the process here on the MV Blog.

Links:

Wildlife Victoria

Infosheet: the Koala

What's that smell?

This week the Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS) released a study that presents some interesting figures on the declining number of year 11 and 12 students in Australia who are studying science – it was a hot topic in the Museum Victoria offices!

The name of the report, The Status and Quality of Year 11 and 12 Science in Australian Schools, may be a bit dry, but the findings are very relevant to us all.

One of the main recommendations was to involve students in science at an earlier age and to make learning about science an active experience as opposed to a spectator experience. This approach is very dear to the museum, so as the year draws to a close, we asked some of our experts in science education to give their highlights of programs that actively engage students in science.

Priscilla Gaff, Program Coordinator - Life Sciences, Melbourne Museum

'I enjoyed the program, because even though it was about science it was turned into something fun,' said a Year 9 student after participating a new science and multimedia program at Melbourne Museum, 600 million years in 60 seconds.

Ouch! The science-loving teacher within me is astounded that the quote doesn't read more along the lines of 'because it was science it was fun'. But the realist within me knows that that actually this quote offers cause for celebration, especially in light of the new report from the AAS showing the dramatic fall in the number of students choosing to study science.

In 600 Million Years in 60 Seconds, groups of three students are given a mission: to produce a 60 second science clip about evolution to show to the rest of their class... in 25 minutes! And they do it – fabulously! – using the real objects and research on display in 600 Million Years: Victoria evolves.

Secondary school students using cameras and movie-making kits as part of 600 million years in 60 seconds.
Image: James Geer
Source: Museum Victoria  

The education program movie-making kit.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

This program offers this age group exactly what the report recommends: science education that captures the interest of year 7 to 10 students. It allows students to be creators and investigators, rather than simply consumers of facts.

Pennie Stoyles, Public Programs Manager, Scienceworks

Two years ago the team at Scienceworks changed the ways we communicate with students about science. The aim was to develop programs that encourage students not to think of science in a fixed way, but rather approach it as one does problem-solving – by making mistakes and learning from them. This is how Scienceworks promotes 'active science' in education.

For example, our Experiment Zone provides hands-on enquiry-based science and maths activities for students from across Victoria – and it features chemicals and robots (what more can you ask for?). In 2011 we've seen students from years 3 to 6 investigate soil chemistry by devising a fair test to measure water retention.

Benjamin Quint studies a model robot controlled by an iPad from the Robot Reboot education program at Scienceworks.
Image: Benjamin Healley
Source: Museum Victoria  

Middle year students have used data loggers to measure, record and analyse physical phenomena and to better understand graphing as a scientific and mathematical tool.

Life sized models and puzzles inspired students to actively learn about problem solving as a mathematical process... and then we have the previously mentioned robots.

Robots were used to find 'hidden treasure' in a program where students also learn about problem solving and the use of robots in the mining industry. The idea was to get students programming the robots, and in the process making mistakes and trying again.

The skills learnt in these programs encourage engagement with science, and help students to translate the information into real life problem solving.

Mirah Lambert, Online Learning Manager, Museum Victoria

A student from Lara Primary School participating in the Biodiversity Snapshots fieldwork project.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

It seems almost everyone has a mobile device nowadays, so why not tap into that in learning? Biodiversity Snapshots is a mobile tool that enables students to observe and report biodiversity in their school, local park or bushland. It contains a field guide with more than 650 species, observation reports and the ability to upload data.

Biodiversity Snapshots was developed by Museum Victoria to assist students and teachers to take field trips and report on their local fauna. It is intended that a broad range of environments in south-eastern Australia will be surveyed, including urban, bushland and coastal areas.

With nearly 1000 observations reported, and almost 200 species identified, Biodiversity Snapshots has demonstrated that through the use of mobile technology, primary and secondary students can build environmental awareness and become real citizen scientists.

At Museum Victoria, we encourage students to investigate, construct and test explanations about the natural world using real specimens, experiments and new media. We hope that by continuing our work in this area we can help more students get excited about science!

Links:

Bridge Building

Biodiversity Snapshots

The Status and Quality of Year 11 and 12 Science in Australian Schools (PDF, 2.41 MB, via Australian Academy of Sciences)

Jan Molloy's profound contribution to Victoria's multicultural community was recognised at the 2011 Multicultural Awards for Excellence ceremony at Government House last week. She received a Service Delivery to Multicultural Victoria Award, which was presented to her by Premier Ted Baillieu.

Jan Molloy and Premier Ted Baillieu at Government House for the 2011 Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.
Source: Museum Victoria  

These awards are presented annually to celebrate the contributions of individuals and organisations that promote the social, economic and cultural benefits of Victoria's multicultural community. The Governor, Alex Chernov AO QC, and Mrs Chernov presided, and guests included the Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Nicholas Kotsiras, plus more than 500 members of the state's multicultural community.

Jan Molloy and Minister of Education Martin Dixon at Government House for the 2011 Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.
Source: Museum Victoria  

L-R: Linda Sproul, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship Nicholas Kotsiras and Jan Molloy at Government House for the 2011 Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.
Source: Museum Victoria  

After more than two decades of teaching, Jan joined Museum Victoria in 2006 and she coordinates humanities programs at the Immigration Museum. Over the years, Jan's passionate belief in the power of education to build strong communities has driven several innovative programs for teachers and students, including:

Narratives Across Cultures: a partnership program with both Deakin University and VUT leading to an ALTC research project 'Teaching and Learning in Public Spaces'

Cultural Diversity Quest: a partnership program with DEECD celebrating cultural diversity in our secondary schools, culminating in an exhibition at the Immigration Museum for Cultural Diversity Week 2010

Small Object Big Story: A program in which participants learn research techniques, explore their personal histories, uncover the stories embedded in familiar objects, and learn how to share their discoveries through exhibitions and publications. This program formed the basis for Making History.

Congratulations Jan Molloy!

Links:

Immigration Museum education programs

MV Blog: Making History with the experts

Where would we be without our donors? Thanks to the generosity of our supporters and donors, Museum Victoria's collections (and thus, the collections belonging to all Victorians), research, exhibitions and facilities are much enriched. To acknowledge our donors and express our gratitude, we held an official thankyou event at Melbourne Museum last month.

Guests viewing Twycross collection objects at the donor thankyou event.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

Sarah Myer (Trustee, Yulgilbar Foundation and Myer Foundation, wife of Baillieu Myer) and Tim Hart (Director IMT) at the event.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

Recent donations to Museum Victoria include:

• An omnicycle from 1880
• An important collection of butterflies
• A slab of tiger eye that features in Dynamic Earth
• Pendle Hall Dolls' House
• Support for a research fellowship
• Assistance with the upgrade of the Immigration Museum Discovery Centre
• The Twycross Collection of decorative arts
• Support of the Bunjilaka redevelopment

On the evening, Senior Curator Lindy Allen toured the guests through the Ancestral Power and the Aesthetic exhibition and specially selected Twycross Collection objects were on display.

Lindy Allen (Senior Curator - Anthropology Northern Australia) talking to donor Ross Field and his wife in the Ancestral Power exhibition. Ross donated a significant selection of butterflies to MV.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

Many of our donors have given objects of tremendous personal significance to the museum, and it is quite an honour to be entrusted with them. Financial support has enabled valuable research projects and much-needed exhibition renewal. As MV CEO Patrick Greene said, "It was wonderful to meet so many of our generous supporters, and be able to thank them personally. Whether the donation is a priceless object or financial support, it is greatly appreciated and supports the work of our exhibitions, research and programs."

Martin Carlson (Treasurer, Hugh D. T. Williamson Foundation), with Will and Margie Twycross beside selected items from the Twycross collection they donated to MV.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

Links:

Donate to MV

Alexandra is the Early Learning Program Coordinator at Scienceworks. She loves exploring the ways in which science engages young children.

The first trial of the Nitty Gritty Super City interactive PDF on iPads went well last week!

Child playing with an iPad at the trial of the interactive PDF.
Image: Jackie McWiliam
Source: DEECD  

The interactive PDF was designed to work like a series of games based on the much-loved Nitty Gritty exhibition content. It functions like a low-tech app, and will soon be available to download from the Scienceworks education pages. It is full of physical and environmental science concepts specifically developed for early learners, in accordance with the Early Years Learning and Development Framework.

Alexandra demonstrating the Nitty Gritty Super City interactive PDF section about microscopes.
Image: Jackie McWiliam
Source: DEECD  

Out of the group of 22 four and five year olds, two children had iPads at home and five children said they had seen an iPad before.

When I showed the children the iPad for the first time, I asked the group, 'What is this?' One child yelled at the top of his voice, 'It's an iPad!'

When I asked the group what an iPad was, one child said, 'It's a rectangle!' Completely wonderful.

Kids learning what to do when the 'Oops!' screen pops up.
Image: Jackie McWiliam
Source: DEECD  

And while we have a little tweaking to do based on this inaugural trial, apparently Christmas came to Laverton Children's Community Centre a little early this year.

Links:

Nitty Gritty Super Kids

Kearston presents public programs at Scienceworks.

On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 of November, Scienceworks Pumping Station was transformed into a LEGO® haven for young and old. The Melbourne LEGO® User's Group (MUG) along with hundreds of fans and visitors created a huge, moving road train whilst raising awareness for the benefits of LEGO® as therapy for patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Two of our volunteers getting involved in the train building.
Image: Kearston Bloxidge
Source: Museum Victoria  

MUG describe themselves as "Adult Fans of LEGO®" and say that they have witnessed the power of LEGO® play to help children with ASD communicate and grow. They are dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding of ASD around the world. It is believed that the systematic and highly structured nature of LEGO® appeals to children with ASD, while giving them the opportunity to share tasks with their peers. Studies have shown that ASD children receive long-term benefits from this kind of play, too.

The train under construction as each individual trailer was added.
Image: Kearston Bloxidge
Source: Museum Victoria  

The goal was to construct the largest road train possible in the two days. Once the individual trailers were built, visitors could let their imagination run wild in building the cargo for the train to haul. After two days, up to 3000 visitors to Scienceworks had contributed to the construction of 190 trailers which combined made a road train just over 46 metres in length.

This dinosaur robot was just one of the many amazingly creative lots of cargo seen on the trailers.
Image: Kearston Bloxidge
Source: Museum Victoria  

This event wasn't exclusively for the kids; in fact there were just as many big kids! Some visitors stayed all day Saturday and then came back for more on Sunday!

Links:

ASD Aid

Yahoo group for Melbourne LEGO® User Group (MUG)

Seated around an enormous pile of industrial offcuts and repurposed bits and pieces, MV staff launched themselves In-Flight last Friday in a special after-hours aeroplane construction session.

Staff working on their planes. Completed planes are suspended above them.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

In-Flight is one of three parts of Another Country, a project at the Immigration Museum by Filipino-born, Brisbane-based artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, that comprises displays, workshops and art installations. The series examines what it's like to leave your country and make a new home elsewhere.

"We make art-making as fun as possible. In-Flight asks people to create their own little aeroplanes. Of course, when you talk about aeroplanes it's about going from point A to point B. But at the same time there are a lot of other things that go into it – it becomes an object of memory, it could also become an object of fear. So one way to demystify this object is for us to get people to come and make their own little aeroplanes."

"It's good to have non-artists create things. If you get them involved not just as a passive observer but as an active participant, then that's the best way to get interested in art."

-Alfredo Aquilizan, interviewed on 3RRR FM

Artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan who created In-Flight as part of their Another Country series.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

It's rare for grown-ups to have a chance to play like this, especially at work. Recycled rubber bands, icy pole sticks, bits of plastic and cardboard tubes became wonderful model aircraft to join the installation of planes suspended above the work table. Some staff rejected any pretence of aerodynamic qualities while others painstakingly replicated real aeroplanes, complete with engines, landing gear and propellers.

MV staff with the planes they made for In-Flight.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria  

You can make a plane, to take home or to join the In-Flight installation, at the Immigration Museum until 31 January 2012.

Links:

Another Country series

MV Staff In-Flight flickr set

This post is by Science Program Manager, Frances Haire.

On Saturday 5 November we held the inaugural Big Kids' Night Out at Scienceworks. Over 600 big kids took over what is usually the realm of little kids. They played in the exhibitions, took a trip through our galaxy in the Planetarium, saw a show about the science of alcohol and learned how to make the perfect layered cocktail.

Two big kids playing in the little kids' Nitty Gritty Super City exhibition.
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

In the Experiment Zone, 'Test your senses' checked our visitors' eye dominance. When you look at something with both eyes, each eye is looking from a slightly different angle. The brain then pieces the two images together to form one three-dimensional image. Most people have a dominant eye, which means that when the brain compiles information from both eyes, the view from the dominant eye is favoured.

To test your eye dominance, make a circle with your thumb and forefinger. With both eyes open, look at an object and centre it inside the circle. Shut one eye, then open it and shut the other. Did the object move out of the circle when you shut one of your eyes? If so, that eye that you shut is your dominant eye. If not, you have no dominant eye.

At Big Kids' Night Out we tested the eye dominance of 223 big kids. Of the men tested, 48% were right eye dominant, 49% were left eye dominant and 3% showed no dominance. In women, there was slightly more variance with 43% favouring their right eye, 51% their left and 5% showing no dominance.

A graph showing the results (in percentages) of our eye dominance test.
Source: Museum Victoria  

The big kids were all old enough to vote but they played like they weren't! Some were reliving childhood excursions while others had never been to Scienceworks and grabbed the chance to visit while the galleries were child-free.

A big kid testing his perception skills in the Perception Deception exhibition.
Image: Dylan Kelly
Source: Museum Victoria  

Next up for adult programming at Museum Victoria is the Cross(X)Species Adventure Club edible cocktail extravaganza at Melbourne Museum on 1 December. Keep your ears and eyes open for the next adults-only event at Scienceworks.

Links:

Scienceworks

Big Kids' Night Out media release

Natasha works in public relations for IMAX Melbourne and the Royal Exhibition Building.

If you are a car enthusiast, a historian or somebody who takes interest in the evolution of popular culture, you would have found something of interest at Motorclassica, the motor vehicle exhibition held at the Royal Exhibition Building from 21 to 23 October.

The exhibition featured more than 150 veteran, vintage and classic motor vehicles worth more than $100 million. Eighty-six years after the Motor Show first opened at the Royal Exhibition Building, Motorclassica brings an amazing collection of vehicles that are a step back in time.

But for me, the most enjoyable thing about Motorclassica was the story attached to every vehicle brought in for display – some of them outright intriguing. This shiny red 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet is the only one of its kind in Australia and has an interesting history: it was originally owned by a prominent Third Reich Official.

1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet
Image: Natasha Duckett
Source: Museum Victoria  

This 1932 Chrysler Imperial Sedan looks like something out of an old New York Gangster movie, because it could well be! This model was believed to have been owned and driven by the New York gangster, Jack "Legs" Diamond.

1932 Chrysler Imperial Sedan
Image: Natasha Duckett
Source: Museum Victoria  

This 1973 Holden Brock HDT LJ GTR XVI Torana made its first appearance at Bathurst in 1973 and went on to become the stuff of legend with Brock going on to win the 1973 Manufacturer's Championship and the 1974 Touring Car Championship in this car.

1973 Holden Brock HDT LJ GTR XVI Torana
Image: Natasha Duckett
Source: Museum Victoria  

But according to car enthusiast Norbert Probst it is this 1969 Brabham BT28 Formula 3 vehicle that stole the show:

1969 Brabham BT28 Formula 3 vehicle
Image: Natasha Duckett
Source: Museum Victoria  

"Jack Brabham built his own cars, drove them, was his own mechanic. He was the all rounder of Australia. He did it all well," said Mr Probst.

Motor Show at the Royal Exhibition Building, May 1963.
Image: Edwin G. Adamson
Source: Museum Victoria  

Links:

Victorian Hot Rod Show, Royal Exhibition Building, 20-22 January 2012

Alexandra is the Early Learning Program Coordinator at Scienceworks. She loves exploring the ways in which science engages young children.

As part of a fabulous partnership with DEECD Western Metropolitan Region (WMR) Laverton Community Children's Centre recently made their very first visit to Nitty Gritty Super City. These children hail from the fastest-growing region in Australia, as well as being identified as amongt the most culturally and linguistically diverse.

This is what it looked like on the big day:

Finding clothes to wear on a sunny Melbourne day.
Image: Kimalee Reid
Source: DEECD  

Using the lever to operate the digger.
Image: Kimalee Reid
Source: DEECD  

We played in the Scienceworks playground.
Image: Kimalee Reid
Source: DEECD  

The kids had a great time and the day's event was a great first step to encourage an interest in science for these early learners. We hope to see them back again soon! 

Links:

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

Education programs for Nitty Gritty Super City

Avvy is a Programs Officer at Scienceworks. She develops science-related activities and shows for visitors, and organises various community science events.

There was an assortment of chills, thrills and spills at the 2011 Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge held at Scienceworks on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 October.

Scienceworks Arena is transformed for the solar vehicle challenge.
Source: Dione Read

This competition, now in its 19th year, brings together teams of school students from all over Victoria to race solar powered model cars and boats that they have designed, built and tested throughout the year. The two-day event allows participants to discover who is the ‘fastest under the sun’.

Two solar boats prepare to race.
Source: Museum Victoria

In what has almost become tradition for this solar-powered event, the weather on Saturday morning was overcast, cold and drizzly. This did nothing to dampen the spirits of over 700 students and their supporters, fiercely competing in a number of different divisions – primary school teams start their model solar education building junior boats, while the more complex cars and advanced boats are usually built by secondary school students. Teams spend several months building their vehicles, working with science and technology teachers, parents and lab techicians.

Two solar cars competing on the race track.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Taking on the challenge, one of the solar cars that competed at Scienceworks
Source: Museum Victoria  

The patchy conditions and rain over Saturday led to some accidents, as cars that had been tweaked to deal with low levels of sunlight found it hard to maintain a solid grip on the slippery track, while other cars had difficulties to facing the challenging slope of the track. However, Sunday dawned bright and sunny, allowing the solar vehicles to perform at their zippy best – sometimes to their detriment, with some speedy cars losing grip when cornering and spilling off the track.

Scienceworks Arena is transformed for the solar vehicle challenge.
Source: Museum Victoria

After many rounds of knockout races, ‘Comet’ from Geelong College emerged victorious in the car division. ‘Rainbow Warrior’ from Ruskin Park Primary was the winner of the junior boats category, while ‘Interim Name’ from Torquay College took the trophy for advanced boats. These top competitors will receive invitations and sponsorships to attend the national championship in Hobart in November.

Links:

Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge

On Wednesday a small team - five scientists and two rangers - were allowed into into the protected heart of Wilsons Prom as part of the Prom Bioscan project. The Vereker Creek Reference Area, colloquially known as Paradise Valley, is largely untouched by recent human activity. It is afforded the highest level of conservation protection and access is strictly limited to infrequent scientific research. The purpose of keeping areas such as Paradise Valley closed is to maintain a pristine reference point against which the impacts of human activity can be measured.

The area contains a stand of Antarctic Southern Beech trees (Nothofagus cunninghamii) and thus the possibility of Gondwanan wildlife. Rare and endangered mammals might still persist there. It's a very exciting opportunity for the specialist team but the first obstacle is getting there. There are no tracks to Paradise Valley, just a long hike through swordgrass taller than their heads after being dropped by helicopter on Five Mile Beach.

Wayne and Richard in their helicopter suits waiting for their turn in the chopper.
Image: Melanie Mackenzie
Source: Museum Victoria  

I didn't make the cut for the team going in to Paradise Valley, but there was enough room in the helicopter for a couple of us to tag along for the drop-off, which was an adventure in itself. Seeing the Prom from the air was simply amazing.

The beautiful Five Mile Beach seen from above.
Image: Melanie Mackenzie
Source: Museum Victoria  

Jim Whelan of Parks Victoria and our pilot Ed in the helicopter.
Image: Melanie Mackenzie
Source: Museum Victoria  

Helicopter taking off for Five Mile Beach carrying field gear and three days' food in a sling beneath it.
Image: Melanie Mackenzie
Source: Museum Victoria

Tomorrow I'm heading to Sealers Cove with about half of the MV scientists for more survey work. We'll be back in the middle of next week with much more to report on the Prom Bioscan.

Lantern slide, about 1920, looking out over Sealers Cove (BA 2950)
Image: A.G. Campbell
Source: Museum Victoria  

Museum Victoria has partnered with Parks Victoria for a two-week intensive biodiversity survey of Wilsons Promontory National Park. The Prom Bioscan project, from 16 to 28 October, is targeting terrestrial, freshwater and marine wildlife and visiting some remote and rarely-visited sites. This rapid census will help Parks Victoria assess the environmental impacts of recent extreme weather events: the 2005 and 2009 fires and the floods in early 2011. On 23 September the southern part of the Prom reopened to visitors after six months of flood repair. Many riparian zones (near creeks and rivers) have changed proundly since the flood, their vegetation and beds scoured away the 370mm of rain that fell in one day in February.

Wilson's Prom is one of Victoria's oldest National Parks. It was first designated a National Park in 1898 due to its unique wilderness, stunning natural beauty and its ease of isolation from the mainland. Its habitats - heathlands, swamps, grasslands, forests and more - house numerous species of plants and animals.

A skink from Wilsons Promontory.
Image: David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria  

A lacewing caught at Wilsons Promontory.
Image: David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria  

Researchers have worked here for decades to document the life and environment of the Prom. The Prom Bioscan is a special case: it's rare to have so many experts working simultaneously across the park. Over 40 Museum Victoria staff and volunteers and 15 Parks Victoria staff are participating.

Karen, Lara and Karen checking mammal traps.
Image: Michela Mitchell
Source: Museum Victoria  

In the first few days, the scientists have observed 69 species of birds, two types of rats, Gondwanan snails, numerous skinks and much more. Some specimens will become part of the Museum Victoria collections whereas others are released after a small tissue sample is taken for genetic research. The days in the field are long, especially for those who follow animals that are active at dawn and dusk, but the stunning surroundings more than make up for it.

Granite boulders, wildflowers and blue sea at Wilsons Promontory.
Image: Mark Norman
Source: Museum Victoria  

You can follow #PromBioscan on Twitter. Tweet your questions for MV scientists about the project to @museumvictoria. 

Links:

Parks Victoria: Wilsons Promontory National Park 

Michelle is the Facilities Coordinator at Scienceworks, and as such has had to quickly learn the ins and outs of the building in her 10 months with the museum – every day brings new discoveries.

I've been at Scienceworks for only a short time in the big scheme of things, and was really proud to finally be able to take part in the training session for Machines in Action Day held here on the arena in September. The folks out here at Scienceworks kept referring to this 'MAD' day, and I couldn't help but wonder what it actually was - some very strange imagery certainly entered my mind I can tell you!

Upon seeing the giant old steam trucks brought out from their garage, it suddenly took me back to my childhood days (both in sights and smells) of visiting Puffing Billy. We had several enthusiastic volunteers shovelling coal, and driving these magnificent old engines around the arena. How easy we all have it now in our quiet cars that require only a keystart!

I jumped on board for a ride on the Super Sentinel Steam Wagon with Tom. Tom's a fitter and turner by trade, but he just loves being a part of the crew that get the old machines running. He told me how he had several at home he liked to tinker with, and it was really heartwarming to find out that the volunteers offer so much of their time to Scienceworks and to our lucky patrons, their only payment being opportunity to be a part of the fun.

Tom and another volunteer outside the garage at Scienceworks.
Image: Michelle Ladgrove
Source: Museum Victoria  

Des Lang, our supervisor for the Scienceworks Engineering workshop, jumped aboard and decided we'd take the Wagon out on the road to Willi (Williamstown for those who may not know)! Apparently they've taken her all the way to Mitcham before too, at a reasonable pace of 30-40kph mind you - not bad!

  Inside the Sentinel, with Des and Tom.
Image: Michelle Ladgrove
Source: Museum Victoria  

View from the driver's seat of the Super Sentinel Steam Wagon.
Image: Michelle Ladgrove
Source: Museum Victoria  

The MAD Training session came to a close, and after a few rounds of the arena where I got to wave to the crowds and pull down on the steam whistle, we carefully backed the lovely old Sentinel back into the garage. I can honestly say that I am SO looking forward to the next Machines in Action Day on Sunday 9th October and will be bringing my family in to experience it too.

Thanks to the wonderful volunteers we have here at Scienceworks, and to Paula Collins who coordinates such an enormous group to which we owe so much. Hope to see you all there!

Links:

Access All Areas podcast Episode 20 - Roll out the steam engines

Machines in Action Day

Artist Joceline Lee has spent her last few Wednesdays in the basement of the Royal Exhibition Building among the palaeontologists, geologists, rocks and fossils. She is working on drawings for her first solo exhibition, Rendered Bones.

Joceline draws skeletons and anatomical forms in pen and ink which makes palaeontological specimens the ideal material for her. When I visited her at work, she was drawing an echidna skeleton that she'd selected from the collection. She was accompanied by her mentor Rob Delves, a sculptor who has worked with Joceline for seven years at Art Day South. This project is run by Arts Access Victoria in Melbourne's south-east to give artists with disabilities opportunities to develop their artwork through workshops, mentorships, collaborations and exhibitions.

  Joceline Lee and Rob Delves working on an echidna skeleton in the Museum Victoria Palaeontology Department.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Rob said that when she first came to Art Day South, her drawings were intricate and very tiny. "Her linework was amazing in these little drawings and they just said 'skeletons'." He started bringing her photographs and models of animal skeletons about three years ago, and Joceline was hooked. "Then we brought in bigger things and it's grown from there." In July this year, MV's Discovery Program visited Art Day South bringing a tortoise shell, a huge model dinosaur leg, fossils and more for the artists to explore.

Joceline works slowly but steadily for hours at a time, with each drawing taking two to three weeks to complete. Rob loves her unique style of drawing. "She goes off in beautiful directions, with all this contrast... dark and fine lines."

Rendered Bones is part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival program from 4 to 9 October in the No Vacancy Project Space in the Federation Square Atrium. Be sure to visit the exhibition if you'd like to see Joceline's distinctive interpretation of fossils, bones and skeletons.

Flyer for Rendered Bones exhibition.
Image: Arts Access Victoria
Source: Arts Access Victoria

Links:

Melbourne Fringe Festival: Rendered Bones

No Vacancy Gallery: Rendered Bones

Dr J. Patrick Greene is an archaeologist and the CEO of Museum Victoria.

On Saturday I attended a remarkable event in Whakatane, a town on the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand's North Island. I was a guest of the Ngāti Awa people, and the event was the opening of Mātaatua Wharenui (meeting house), a wonderful structure that was originally built in 1875 by the iwi (tribe) despite the devastating effects of colonisation and land confiscations.

Mātaatua Wharenui back home in Whakatane, New Zealand.
Image: Patrick Greene
Source: Museum Victoria  

Unfortunately, the building was soon lost to the people who built it as it was dismantled to be taken to be displayed in Sydney and then, in 1880, as part of the New Zealand display at the Melbourne International Exhibition. That was my connection with the event, as Museum Victoria is the guardian of the Royal Exhibition Building constructed for the 1880 exhibition. Charlotte Smith (Senior Curator in MV's History and Technology Department) carried out some research at the request of the Ngāti Awa which revealed that only the carved wooden panels were displayed rather than the complete structure.

  The interior walls of Mātaatua Wharenui have intricate woven panels and carvings. They were restored by Ngāti Awa craftspeople.
Image: Patrick Greene
Source: Museum Victoria  

After Melbourne, Mātaatua was taken to England where it was displayed, and remained for several decades. It then went to the Otago Museum, and in 1996, under the Treaty of Waitangi, it was returned to the Ngāti Awa. A team of craftspeople — carvers and weavers — have worked for 15 years to restore the building that had become seriously decayed on its travels.

I was present for the pohiri (general welcome), a series of speeches and songs in which the Ngāti Awa welcomed their guests, who, group by group, responded. As well as other iwi, there were delegations from Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It was a great privilege to part of the ceremony and to witness the oratory that is a treasured part of Maori (and Polynesian) culture, a world away from the sound bites that constitute so much current discourse. The restoration of the building is a triumph: it has been beautifully carried out and the building will stand as a testament to survival of a people and their culture.

Mātaatua: The House That Came Home is a short film that tells the story of the meeting house, courtesy of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa.

Today, students from Spotswood Primary School attended Scienceworks to participate in an online conference with NASA astronaut, Rex Walheim. Rex is in Australia as a guest of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to launch their new exhibition Star Voyager, Exploring Space on Screen.

To coincide with the launch, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development organised an online conference using their Elluminate software. Rex was speaking to students in the ACMI theatre at Federation Square. Scienceworks' Program Coordinator, Bronwyn Quint organised for Spotswood PS students to participate in the session which was projected onto the big screen in the Auditorium. MV Astronomer, Dr Tanya Hill was also on hand to answer questions from the Spotswood students.

Bron Quint and Tanya Hill preparing for the online conference (fingers crossed that the technology works).
Image: Pennie Stoyles
Source: Museum Victoria  

Dr Tanya Hill answering questions from Spotswood PS students.
Image: Pennie Stoyles
Source: Museum Victoria  

Over 100 other schools throughout the state also participated. Many questions were submitted throughout the 45-minute session and those that could not be answered by Rex during the presentation will be posted on the DEECD website.

Astronaut Rex Walheim answering student questions via online conference.
Image: Pennie Stoyles
Source: Museum Victoria  

We've lent a number of objects to ACMI for the Star Voyager exhibition, including a space glove, a large number of magic lantern slides, a urine collection device and an altitude and azimuth instrument.

Altitude and Azimuth Instrument - Troughton & Simms, London, circa 1836 (ST 022216)
Source: Museum Victoria  

Links:

Rex Walheim's Biography

Star Voyager, Exploring Space on Screen.

MV Blog: Lost in Space

Following Dr Mark Norman's Warrnambool pub chat about chemistry and communication in deep sea animals on 2 August, the second Backyard Science at the Pub rolls into Bendigo tonight.

Geologist Dermot Henry will explore the origins of crystals and minerals found in central Victoria. The geological processes that made central Victoria such a booming gold-mining area also produced all kinds of other fascinating minerals; studying these helps us understand the rich chemistry of the Earth.

 Fluorapatite, Dolomite and Quartz minerals from 1,200', Diamond Hill area, Bendigo.
Image: Frank Coffa
Source: Museum Victoria

Dermot has worked at Museum Victoria since 1982 and has managed Museum Victoria’s Natural Science collections since 2001. He was responsible for the development of geological themes and content and the selection of specimens for the Dynamic Earth exhibition at Melbourne Museum.

Backyard Science at the Pub is part of National Science Week 2011 and will be held Tuesday 16 August 6pm – 8pm at The Foundry Hotel, 366 High Street, Bendigo. For enquiries or to register your interest, please email or telephone 0412 607 525.

A group of miners at 'crib time', Bendigo, Victoria, circa 1908 (MM 6962).
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

Backyard Science at the Pub event on Facebook

Super Science Month

Dermot Henry's staff biography

Bronwyn is Scienceworks' Program Coordinator for Physical Science.

On Wednesday 3 August 2011, 55 teams of young engineers in years 8 and 9 brought bridges of their own design, built by themselves using a kit of materials supplied by Aurecon to Scienceworks. There they loaded the bridges to breaking point to see whose bridge could carry the greatest load. Made from balsa wood, string, cardboard and glue, the bridges were very diverse with many having interesting designs.

Bridge-building teams in Scienceworks Amphitheatre waiting for their chance to have their bridges tested.
Image: Bronwyn Quint
Source: Museum Victoria

Bridges were weighed on arrival and the teams registered and photographed. At noon the testing started. Bridges were judged on not only the load they carried but also their aesthetics, workmanship and creativity. A formula was then used to give each bridge a score out of 50 based on the weight of the bridge, the weight supported, the maximum weight carried by a bridge on the day and the aesthetics score.

Testing the Kaniva College mixed team bridge under the watchful eye of The Hon Dr Denis Napthine MP.
Image: Bronwyn Quint
Source: Museum Victoria

A fun day was had by all who attended with prizes being awarded by The Hon Dr Denis Napthine MP (Minister for Major Projects) who chatted with many of the teams present.

The winning teams in 2011 were:

• 1^st    Kaniva College (mixed) 115.5kg
• 2^nd   Kaniva College Girls’ team 100.2kg
• 3^rd    Leibler Yavneh College (boys) 78.0kg

The two Kaniva College teams pose with their winning cheques and The Hon Dr Denis Napthine MPpose with their winning cheques and The Hon Dr Denis Napthine MP.
Image: Bronwyn Quint
Source: Museum Victoria

A new prize, the Aurecon Innovation Award (sponsored by Major Projects Victoria), went to Tintern Girls Grammar with a stylish pink bridge modelled on the Golden Gate bridge.

Tintern Girls Grammar team with their innovative bridge and The Hon Dr Denis Napthine MP.
Image: Bronwyn Quint
Source: Museum Victoria

Kaniva College have now made it a hat trick winning the last three years of the Aurecon Bridge Building Competition.

Links:

MV News: Aurecon Bridge-building Competition (2010)

MV News: Breaking bridges (2009)

Aurecon Bridge-building Competition

In September we're showing a stunning documentary about the Islamic pilgrimage called Hajj that we're certain will prove fascinating for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

In 1325, Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta set out from Tangier to journey to Mecca, the historical and cultural centre for Islam, in what would become the first Hajj. The documentary recreates his perilous journey, and also shows the contemporary Hajj, which today attracts more than three million Muslims from all over the world every year.

The film marks the first and only time an IMAX camera has captured an aerial view of the Hajj from a helicopter hovering 200 feet above Mecca, and the first time an IMAX team has been admitted into the most sacred sanctuary of Islam - the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

We gave four Melbourne Muslims a sneak preview and spoke to them afterwards to hear what they thought.

Watch this video with a transcript

Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta opens at IMAX on 3 September 2011.

Left: Federation Handbells. Right: making a Mardi Gras cake.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

Thank you all for coming along and we hope to see you back at our next Kids Fest in January 2012.

Links:

Immigration Museum

Past Event - Kids Fest: Carnivale

Since 2008, Melbourne’s architectural gems have thrown open their doors for one weekend a year as part of Melbourne Open House. This year the Royal Exhibition Building is among the 75 theatres, tunnels, halls, houses and more that will welcome visitors on 30 and 31 July, 2011.

Interior of the Great Hall of the Royal Exhibition Building with a view of the decorated dome.
Image: John Broomfield
Source: Museum Victoria

A new interpretive display on the mezzanine level will provide Melbourne Open House crowds with more information as they admire the REB’s magnificent murals and arches. It includes wonderful historical pictures of the life and times of Melbourne’s World Heritage building – photos of it in the glory days of International Exhibitions, through to its many uses during the mid-20th century, its restoration and World Heritage listing in 2004.

A newly produced documentary exploring the recent reconstruction of the 1880’s parterre beds, scroll garden and ‘German’ garden will be shown in the REB theatrette.

Royal Exhibition Building exterior, December 2008.
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

Melbourne Open House: Royal Exhibition Building

Royal Exhibition Building website

Dr Gillian Bowen is the Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Ancient History, Monash University. Join her for "Tutankhamun’s wardrobe", an exploration of Ancient Egyptian attire, Tuesday 26 July 2011, as part of the Tutankhamun Tuesdays Public Lecture Program.

Dr Gillian Bowen.
Source: Dr Gillian Bowen

In 1922, when Howard Carter first opened the virtually-intact tomb of Tutankhamun, he astounded the world with the vast array of treasure. Among the items, which received little attention from the public but were meticulously recorded by Carter, was the king’s wardrobe: his underwear, tunics, kilts, gloves, socks, shoes and sandals. This is the only substantial collection of items from a royal wardrobe to survive from ancient Egypt.

Many of the garments were poorly preserved as the cloth had disintegrated over the millennia and the elaborate beadwork had fallen off. To preserve these precious items, Carter employed Alfred Lucas, a chemist and specialist conservator. Surprisingly, other clothes were in perfect condition. The garments, along with the iconography such as that shown on the gilded throne, allow us to glimpse the wardrobe of Tutankhamun and his queen, Ankhenenamun. The items represent the height of fashion in the late 18^th Dynasty.

Amongst the garments, Carter counted around 145 loincloths, which functioned as underwear, and 81 pieces of footwear. Some of the ceremonial clothes are made of the finest linen which resembles silk and the embroidery and beadwork on these garments and the shoes is exquisite. The marquetry sandals are made of wood, leather, bark, plaster and the decoration is in gold. The scenes show the traditional enemies of Egypt, the so-called “nine bows” on which the king tramples. These items were made by specialist craftsmen as well as the women in the king’s harem. Very few items from Tutankhamun’s wardrobe are on display in the Egyptian Museum and this talk offers one of the few opportunities to view images of the garments.

The Australian node of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is now live!

BHL is a project started by a consortium of American and English museums and herbaria that wanted to make historical biodiversity texts available online. These important books and journals are scanned, uploaded to the Internet Archive, and made available through the first BHL website. It's especially useful to scientists needing historical information about species, distributions and taxonomy, but it's also a fascinating site for anyone interested in natural history or rare books. Museum Victoria is managing the Australian part of the project in conjunction with the Atlas of Living Australia.

Since late last year, MV Online Developer Michael Mason has been creating a mirror site of the USA/UK original, ready to receive scans of Australian books later this year. At present, the Australian site provides everything the original site provides but with a different interface. "We started with the US model and changed the appearance and some parts of the functionality," says Michael.

Online developer Michael Mason.
Source: Museum Victoria

The first difference you'll notice is the local influence; the page is adorned with beautiful illustrations of Australian wildlife by Gould and Australian books are featured. Michael has also worked with designer Simon O'Shea to overhaul the way the book viewer looks and works to make it more user-friendly.

Biodiversity Heritage Library Australia website.
Source: Museum Victoria

At present, the 34,596,227 pages in the BHL-Australian node come from libraries in US institutions so there is plenty of Australian content yet to be added. First off the rank in this national project are some of the in-house journals that have already been scanned by other museums including those of the Queensland Museum and the Western Australian Museum. Museum Victoria, with new book-scanning equipment, will be leading the development of new scanning projects starting with the complete archive of Memoirs of Museum Victoria containing the first scientific descriptions of many Victorian animal species. This will be very handy for biologists worldwide who don't have ready access to hard copies of this journal. Later on, rare books from MV and the libraries of other Australian institutions will be scanned and uploaded.

The high-quality scans are not just useful, but often quite beautiful. You get the whole book – covers, library labels, marbled endpapers and marks of age – not just the text within. Michael's favourites are the 1600s books in Latin with fantastical illustrations. "You'd never get to see these in a library, they're too fragile and valuable," he says. BHL puts these wonderful books in the hands of anyone.

Links

Biodiversity Heritage Library Australia

Biodiversity Heritage Library

MV News: BHL visitors

Adrienne is a Senior Programs Officer at Melbourne Museum. Adrienne, David, Bernard, Tim, Beth, Alexandra, Lisa and Sonia can be found in the Mysteries of the Nile room these winter school holidays. Come visit!

Where do you find six kilometres of antique gold thread? 9,000 fake jewels? A printing company that embosses gold onto paper and is affordable? Egyptian palm trees? How do you make ancient Egyptian costumes when they really wore very little?

Being a materials expert and quantity surveyor should be on the job description for Programs Officers who develop and deliver the school holiday programs at Melbourne Museum. Once the team has done the fun bit of thinking up what will be educational and fun, it’s a nail biting time searching for materials, doing lots of calculations, working with designers, talking to suppliers, writing requisitions, praying for timely arrivals of the orders, training our wonderful volunteers and communicating to everyone else what’s coming up. And that’s before the holidays begin.

D-day arrives. Or is that H-day? From the start of the holiday period, there are day-by-day questions – will we run out of anything? Should we reorder and when? Can we afford it? Why are so many people turning up? Why is that little girl back again – wasn’t she in just yesterday? (How many pendants has she actually made so far?)

Beautifully coloured and bejewelled pharaoh pectoral pendants made by holiday program participants.
Image: David Perkins
Source: Museum Victoria

Last holidays our visitors made 7,000 postcards. In summer, 11,650 earth capsules. We’re planning on 9,000 pharaoh pectoral pendants being made these holidays. And for every 3 – 12 year old that makes a pendant, there will also be grandparents, prams and babies, mums and dads, big sisters and brothers, all  in the school holiday program space. The Mysteries of the Nile room is packed, with kids busy writing hieroglyphs and creating their pendants, donning costumes and posing Egyptian style, reading books and playing games, watching a mummification show and even wrestling Nile crocodiles.

Kids enjoying the school holiday program.
Source: Museum Victoria

Is it worth it? Do we love it? More importantly, do they love it? We’ve been asking people what they think. “We come here every school holidays at least once because the kids love doing these activities. They are just great”.  They can reel off all of the things they’ve made in the past few years and it’s satisfying to hear. “What you’ve done is provide people with something to do, somewhere to sit if you need to be quiet, a fun corner for costumes and an educational show”. The parents 'get it’ and the kids love it.

Links:

Melbourne Museum school holiday programs

Immigration Museum school holiday programs

Scienceworks school holiday programs

This episode of Married to the Job features Sarah Edwards, Discovery Program Manager for Museum Victoria.

In the spirit of tradition, we ask Sarah to tell us about herself and her work by showing us something old, new, borrowed and blue.

Watch this video with a transcript

Links:

Discovery Programs

I was fortunate enough to attend a session of Fresh Science this week. The intensive program takes 16 early-career researchers from around Australia and develops their skill in science communication.

The participants are at the start of their scientific careers: some are part way through a PhD, some have completed PhDs, others are doing post docs or beginning work in leading science organisations. These people are creative and inspiring – the best, freshest minds that will lead Australian science into the future.

2011 Fresh Science participants at Melbourne Museum.
Image: AJ Epstein
Source: Science in Public

You may have heard on Monday about a smart bandage that changes colour when the wound is infected, or seen a saw shark on the news last night. These are just two of their discoveries with more to appear in the press in coming weeks.

The greatest part of the day was the opportunity to meet people from television, radio and newspaper. They told us how they hear about and choose the stories that make the news. Remarkable considering they have to make decisions before most of us even get out of bed!

Mount Stromlo Observatory, where one of the Fresh Science researchers is working.
Image: Lauri Väin
Source: Used under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 from Lauri Väin

The 'bootcamp in science communication', as the organisers phrase it, is supported by the Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and New Scientist Magazine, with Melbourne Museum hosting a number of events for the program

Links:

Fresh Science

The Age: Chameleon bandage helps wounds to heal

Women with clever hands from three parts of Australia – Arnhem Land, Wagga Wagga in NSW and Victoria – shared their passion and skill in basket-weaving today, to mark the opening of the travelling exhibition Women With Clever Hands: Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr Gong Djambatjmala.This exhibition features vivid and intricate fibrework by women artists of Gapuwiyak in Arnhem Land.

Three of the artists – Lucy Malirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu, Kathy Nyinyipuwa Guyula and Anna Ramatha Malibirr – are at Melbourne Museum for the exhibition opening and to demonstrate their craft. Curator Dr Louise Hamby worked on this exhibition with the artists and the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. She explained that fibrework of this region had its own characteristic style and the purpose of the exhibition was to share this with other communities in Australia.

Following the launch of the exhibition on Friday morning, the three groups of women exchanged stories about their work, techniques and materials and examined baskets and other fibre objects in the MV collections.

Curator Antoinette Smith showing fibrework collection objects to the visitors.
Source: Museum Victoria

The Gapuwiyak artists use the natural fibres from plants that that grow in their area, such as pandanus, which is a real challenge to collect because of its rows of sharp spines and its habit of growing in wet, buffalo-riddled country! The outer layers of pandanus are stripped away and the core is dyed with local materials.

The Women of Wagga Weaving (WOWW) group brought in an array of works produced by Wiradjuri Elders and other women. Melanie Evans spoke about how much the women love the opportunity to meet regularly, share their work and learn side by side. They have met with the Gapuwiyak artists several times through the collaboration between the Gapuwiyak Cultural Centre and the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and been deeply inspired by it. A small group of Wiradjeri women with Melanie Evans and Linda Elliott from the Wagga gallery also travelled to Gapuwiyak in 2010.

Women from WOWW talking about their fibrework.
Source: Museum Victoria

Three Victorian artists also spoke about their work: Vicki Couzens, Bronwyn Razem and Marilyne Nicholls are renowned fibre artists with works in major private and public collections. They told stories about learning their art and how it is sacred to them, and the importance of sharing the knowledge and giving guidance and instruction about these skills to younger people.

This glimpse into culture and skill of basket-making made me aware that these women are not just craftspeople and artists, but botanists, ecologists and geologists. Each variety of fibre comes from a particular plant, which is understood in terms of its country. Finding fibre means understanding soil types and the environment the plant requires to grow, as well as the biology and anatomy of the plant to know when and which parts to harvest. The preparation – stripping, drying, dyeing – is yet another level of knowledge.

The Gapuwiyak artists will hold a weaving demonstration at Bunjilaka at Melbourne Museum today. Come along and see how it is done!

Women With Clever Hands is on show at Bunjilaka until 28 August 2011.

Links:

Women With Clever Hands at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

The amazing French film Oceans opens in Melbourne on 26 May. This documentary about the wealth of life in seas was filmed over four years by a global team. MV’s Julian Finn and Mark Norman worked with the film crew as scientific consultants for several of the animals filmed. Two of these animals - Nomura's Jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai) and a blanket octopus (Tremoctopus gracilis) are often found together in the near-surface waters of the open ocean.

Underwater cameraman Yasushi Okumura filming a female blanket octopus.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Blanket octopuses are so-named because of the membranous webs that the females possess on two of their arms. This is a defence mechanism: a two-metre-long female blanket octopus can use her webs to mislead potential predators about her size and shape. If this doesn’t intimidate them, she can also shed off pieces of her web – ‘like sheets of toilet paper,’ according to Julian – which in turn stretch out into long, tangling filaments.

Detail of the female Tremoctopus web, showing the bands where bits of it can break off as a defence mechanism.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Another extraordinary thing about blanket octopuses is the size difference (or dimorphism) between males and females. We discussed size dimorphism on the blog recently but here’s the most extreme example we know of. In Tremoctopus, the male can be up to forty thousand times smaller than the female by weight!

Female Tremoctopus.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Now from the miniscule to the massive. Nomura’s Jellyfish is one of the largest cnidarians in the word. When these creatures invade Japan’s coastal waters, thousands of jellyfish can clog fishing nets, making the nets so heavy that fishing boats have overturned trying to recover them. Oceans includes footage of Julian diving with one so you can see for yourself just how huge they are.

A still from the film Oceans showing Julian Finn swimming with a giant Nomura's Jellyfish.
Source: courtesy of Galatee Films

Julian believes that Tremoctopus are able to survive in hostile environment of the open ocean through association with jellyfish, probably feeding on the small fish that live amongst the tentacles and within the bell of giant Nomura’s Jellyfish. Male and small female Tremoctopus harvest the stinging tentacles of another variety of jellyfish – the Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia spp.) – to use for their own defence and/or prey capture, suggesting a long association between two quite different types of animals.

Special offer for MV Blog readers:
We have 200 two-for-one passes up for grabs courtesy of Hopscotch Films. For the chance to receive one, enter the draw here.

Links:

M. D. Norman, D. Paul, J. Finn & T. Tregenza. First encounter with a live male blanket octopus: the world’s most sexually size-dimorphic large animal. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2002, Vol. 36: 733-736

Tree of Life: Tremoctopus

Oceans preview trailer

From 20-22 May, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre proudly presents the Melbourne leg of the 2011 Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival, featuring new Indigenous films from Australia and around the world. It's playing at the Capitol Theatre and ACMI and all films are free.

This year – the festival’s twelfth - the Message Sticks family is the largest yet. There are eleven host venues nationally, from the launch at the Sydney Opera House and screenings at Blacktown Arts Centre last week, to outdoor sessions at Darwin’s Deckchair Cinema in August.

Actress, writer and director Pauline Whyman has a role in Here I Am, the headliner film by Beck Cole, and is travelling as MC and host of this year’s festival. She spoke about the unique nature of Message Sticks, which is the only Indigenous film festival in Australia. “What also sets it apart from other festivals is that it’s accessible to anyone and everyone. It takes really great cinema to communities at no cost.” 

Message Sticks 2011 promo from Blackfella Films on Vimeo.

Links:

Session details

Blackfella Films: Message Sticks 2011 tour

YouTube: Beck Cole and Kath Shelper interview about Here I Am at Adelaide Film Festival

This guest post is from Brendan, an animator and illustrator who is currently working on Tilt, the Planetarium’s upcoming show.

Here is Max’s first smile! After a process of design, approval, modelling, approval, etc. the characters for the new Planetarium show are starting to come to life!

Whilst it is a laborious and ongoing process, one that involves making a separate 3D model for each expression that the character will need, I can’t help feeling a bit of the exhilaration that Victor Frankenstein must have felt when his creature sat up and came in to being. Well, OK, that is a bit melodramatic but hey, I’m easily entertained (I wonder if that excuse would have worked for the doctor?)*.

Max with a grin!
Image: B. Williams
Source: Museum Victoria

There’s still plenty of work to be done, but it is these small victories that keep me excited and pointed in the right direction.

*before you all grab your pitchforks and storm the Planetarium Production Room, please note that Max and all associated characters exist only on in the computer!

National Volunteer Week (9-15 May 2011) is a celebration of the priceless contribution of the thousands of volunteers to charities, organisations, communities and institutions across Australia.

There are 529 active volunteers at Museum Victoria and their ages range from 17 to 91 years. They help manage the 16 million items in our collections, they run activities for visitors, they lead tours at each of our venues, they restore steam engines, and much more. To thank these generous people, MV throws a celebration in National Volunteer Week each year. Yesterday afternoon, volunteers gathered at the Melbourne Planetarium at Scienceworks to mingle, share food and drink, and enjoy a Planetarium show.

MV Volunteers assembled at this year's thank you event in National Volunteer Week.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria

Barbara Horn, Director of Museum Operations, read out some statistics about our volunteers. In 2009-2010, volunteers donated an incredible 52,639 hours of their own time to Museum Victoria. At Melbourne Museum, they helped visitors construct 6,792 cardboard models of the Titanic and 11,650 Earth Capsules in Dynamic Earth, plus 1,200 Mobile Skeletons as part of Humanoid Discovery at Scienceworks.

Two remarkable volunteers – Vic Wilks and Tom Brereton – have each reached the milestone of more than 10,000 voluntary hours. Both started at Scienceworks in 1992 shortly after the building opened. Tom, who regularly announces the steam engine parade at Machines in Action Days, joked that they’d known each other “for a year or two.”

Scienceworks volunteers Tom Brereton (left) and Vic Wilks (right) have racked up over ten thousands hours each.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria

Vic explained what has inspired him to volunteer for nearly two decades. “In retirement, you need something to stimulate your brain. It’s also the social side of it, meeting all the other volunteers and staff and also contribute something back... hopefully it provides some benefit to the community and the museum in the process.” As a local Williamstown resident, he sees Scienceworks as an important community hub. “It was one of the first things we got in the western suburbs that provided something to the people. Most other museums and art galleries are in the city or the east side.”

A big thank you to all Museum Victoria volunteers - we simply couldn’t manage without them.

Links:

Volunteering at MV

This guest post is by Natasha, who works in public relations for IMAX Melbourne.

The team at IMAX Melbourne Museum can’t believe what a jam-packed few months of blockbuster new releases we have coming up, with three big films all opening soon. To celebrate, IMAX Melbourne Museum will open these films with special midnight screenings as follows:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D
  Midnight Wednesday 18 May
  Tickets are now on sale here


• Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D
  Midnight
Wednesday 29 May UPDATE: Tuesday 28 May

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (3D)
  Midnight Tuesday 12 July
  Tickets to this session sold out within minutes when released for sale on Monday 9 May. In response to this demand, IMAX Melbourne Museum created a second, 3AM session of the epic Harry Potter finale.
  
  3AM Wednesday 13 July
  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (3D)
  Tickets are now on sale here

Harry Potter fans dressed in costume for the midnight opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in 2010.
Source: Museum Victoria

Costumed fans at the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
Source: Museum Victoria

Midnight screenings at IMAX are always a lot of fun with heaps of activities and prizes given to the best dressed.

To find out more about what’s happening at IMAX, you can sign up as a free subscriber or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

This guest post comes from Natasha who works in public relations for IMAX Melbourne.

IMAX Melbourne Museum is astounded by the amazing response we’ve had from Melbourne viewers for the release of Born to be Wild 3D, which opened on 8 April.

Young elephants playing in Born to be Wild 3D.
Source: IMAX

This gorgeous film about the amazing people who take care for orphaned baby orang-utans in Borneo and elephants in Kenya, has been so well received by a local audience that IMAX Melbourne has topped the global box office for April.

Born to be Wild: Global Top 3

1. Melbourne
2. Montreal OP
3. Washington DC

We don’t know if it was the beautiful baby orang-utans, the sweet baby elephants or the amazing support we have received for this film from WWF-Australia, Zoos Victoria, the Herald Sun, The Circle, Peregrine Adventures, Mix 101.1 and World Expeditions... but IMAX Melbourne is delighted and humbled by this huge response!

A young Orang-utan in Born to be Wild 3D.
Source: IMAX

You can find out more about Born to be Wild 3D or buy tickets on the IMAX website.

Craig is a Melbourne writer with an interest in natural history. He has been a museum volunteer in Birds and Mammals for several years.

150 years ago today, Burke and Wills returned from their trek to the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cooper Creek in south-west Queensland. Tragically, the party that had waited for them for 18 weeks had left just hours earlier on the same day, leaving a small cache of food buried under the a coolibah tree carved with the message 'DIG 3FT NW APR 21 1861'.

The Burke and Wills Dig Tree at Bullah Bullah Waterhole, on Coopers Creek, Queensland, Australia.
Image: Peterdownunder
Source: Used under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 from Peterdownunder

By the end of June both Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills were dead, leaving John King the only survivor. He was rescued by Alfred Howitt the following September during a search expedition, which also located the bodies of Burke and Wills.

Museum Victoria holds a number of important items associated with the story of Burke and Wills, particularly from Howitt’s two expeditions to Cooper Creek. Watch this space for more information in the coming months.

Medal - Burke & Wills, Victoria, Australia, 1864. (NU 20096)
Source: Museum Victoria

The famous, ill-fated Victorian Exploring Expedition was an enterprise of the Royal Society of Victoria, which is still located just across Carlton Gardens from Melbourne Museum. The expedition remained a dominant story in the Colony (and later State) of Victoria at least until World War I and the advent of the ANZACs. Pictured is a medallion from the Numismatics Collection, minted by Thomas Stokes about 1864 to commemorate Burke and Wills.

Links:

Royal Society of Victoria: Burke & Wills Commemoration program

Dig - The Burke & Wills Research Gateway at the State Library of Victoria

This guest post is from Jan Molloy, a teacher who now works at the Immigration Museum. She develops education programs and works on partnership projects with schools.

How do you bring a gaggle of students from across Victoria together with prominent historians into one classroom? Virtually, that’s how!

Making History is an interactive website where students can research their community’s history, interact with professional historians and access Museum Victoria’s online collection. By sharing research and stories on the Making History channel, students will showcase their work while contributing to the knowledge and collections of the museum. Making History is a collaboration between the DEECD, Museum Victoria and the Public History Department at Monash University. It will launch in June 2011 but in March we held two pilot online sessions.

On Friday 25 March, Professor Graeme Davison spoke with more than 40 students from Maffra Secondary College, Fairhills High School and ,Sacred Heart College, Kyneton and the Victorian School of Languages, about his work as a historian. He answered questions from the virtual floor for over an hour, using the web to link the computer lab at Melbourne Museum to classrooms across Victoria. Students moved from personal queries like:

If you got to own one of the things in a museum what would it be?

to

What happens when you have something at home that looks old but you don’t know its history and no one in your family does?

 Screenshot from Making History pilot session.
Source: Museum Victoria

In a second session on 30 March, Dr. Seamus O’Hanlon  responded to questions in a virtual classroom of over 100 students. Our very keen Year 9s from Maffra and Fairhills Secondary Colleges returned and were joined by students from Castlemaine North Primary School, Tongala PS, Kyabram P-12 and Lalbert Primary School. Their questions ranged from:

Why do you like your job as an historian?

to

How do you research the history of a building without using the internet?

 Screen shot from the Making History pilot session: Seamus tours students around a site about architectural history.
Source: Museum Victoria

The participating students were inspired by their chats with Seamus and Graeme and were keen to start their own research. We look forward to seeing some fantastic work from these students.

Links:

History education resources

Wonderful news – MV's Access All Areas Podcast Adventures just picked up the award for Best Audio/Visual/Podcast category in the MW2011 Best of the Web awards!

Dr Andi Horvath created this podcast series in 2008. Since then, she's taken listeners through parts of the museum most people don't get to see, including research laboratories, exhibition openings, collection stores and more. The audio format is perfect for interviews, poems, noisy collection objects, noiser wildlife, and even the odd scandal from the depths of the museum's past.

A screenshot of the Access All Areas site.
Source: Museum Victoria

Big congratulations also to ACMI for winning not only the Education category, but the highly-coveted overall Best of the Web prize, for their excellent video studio site, ACMI Generator.

The Best of the Web awards are presented in conjunction with the annual Museums and the Web conference, which this year ran from 6-9 April in Philadelphia, USA. Judged by a panel of museum professionals, these prestigious awards attract international nominees of a very high standard.

Links:

Access All Areas Podcast Adventures

Access All Areas on iTunes

List of MW2011 Best of the Web winners

Museums and the Web 2011

In this video, Head of Sciences Mark Norman and Gunditjmara Elder Ken Saunders talk about the recent Bush Blitz project at Lake Condah.

Watch this video with a transcript

More Bush Blitz video is coming soon!

Bush Blitz is a three-year national project to document plants and animals protected in Australia’s National Reserve System. Bush Blitz is a multi-million dollar partnership between the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, Earthwatch Australia and the Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) AusPlots. It involves Australia’s top scientists from museums, herbariums and research institutions across the country.

Links:

Bush Blitz

Lake Condah Sustainable Development Project

ABC Mission Voices: Lake Condah

The story of Leadbeater's Possum is so interwoven with the history of Museum Victoria that there was no better place to celebrate it than at Melbourne Museum last Sunday.

This tiny, highlands marsupial was first described by the museum's director, Sir Frederick McCoy in 1867, who named it Gymnobelideus leadbeateri after our first taxidermist, John Leadbeater.

By the 1900s, it was thought extinct. No one saw it for decades. Charles Brazenor, later to become director of the museum, published a plea in 1946 for naturalists to find the creature to no avail. In 1961, a young museum employee changed the fate of Leadbeater's Possum. The amazing story of its rediscovery is recorded in this short film by Curator of History of Science, Rebecca Carland:

On Sunday 3 April, exactly 50 years after his first glimpse of a wild Leadbeater's Possum, Eric was honoured at a ceremony jointly organised by Parks Victoria, Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum and Museum Victoria. On behalf of the museum and the people of Victoria, Robin Hirst presented Eric with a print of Leadbeater's Possum from the Prodromus of Zoology.

L-R: Robin Hirst, Director of Collections, Research and Exhibitions; Eric Wilkinson; CEO Patrick Greene and curator Rebecca Carland.
Image: Liza Dale-Hallet
Source: Museum Victoria

Eric handed a young sapling of Mountain Ash as a symbolic baton of care to a representative of the of the group HELP (Help the Endangered Leadbeater's Possum). Four Year 7 students started HELP in 2009 to raise awareness of the plight of the species and to gather funds to assist in its future survival. Eric spoke about the inspiring work they've done so far, and the important role of the next generation in protecting our state's faunal emblem.

Jo Antrobus from Parks Victoria with students from St. Margarets School, Berwick, special guest speaker and environment ambassador Sheree Marris and Lake Mountain mascot Lenny Leadbeater. Lake Mountain is home to most of the remaining Leadbeater's Possum habitat.
Image: Liza Dale-Hallett
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

YouTube video - Leadbeater's Possum: Our state emblem under fire

The Age article: Hello, possums! Breed saved from extinction 50 years on

Leadbeater's Possum on Collections Online

Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum

There are records of seven species of frogs here in the Lake Condah region; all seven are relatively common across south-eastern Australia. Last week, MV frog experts Josh Hale and Katie Smith tracked down six of the seven species within a day or two. The last one, the Southern Toadlet (Pseudophryne semimarmorata) is proving elusive but Josh is back this week to keep looking.

On rainy nights, we’ve seen frogs hopping around the base camp. Bush Blitzers have found them by turning over rocks where they shelter during the day. They've also been identified by the distinctive calls of the males.

Pobblebonk or Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes dumerilli) at Lake Condah Mission. This frog was found moving over mown grass.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

The Southern Smooth Froglet, Geocrinia laevis.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Many of the frogs we’ve seen are young juveniles, which means they were tadpoles over the past season. Josh remarked on the unusually large numbers of young frogs and attributes this to the very wet summer; the same conditions that have kept the vegetation unseasonably green. It’s an indication that frogs can build up populations quickly here and recover after years of drought.

Green morph of Brown Tree Frog, Litoria ewingii. This species is more often brown.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Brown Tree Frog, Litoria ewingii, in its more common brown morph.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

“Many frogs all round the world are declining so to see healthy breeding populations like this is really encouraging,” says Josh. Frogs make up an important part of the food chain and become prey for birds, mammals and reptiles.

Striped Marsh Frog, Limnodynastes peronii. These frogs are remarkably well camouflaged.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Spotted Marsh Frog, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Bush Blitz is a three-year biodiversity discovery program supported by the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, Earthwatch Australia and Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) AusPlots.

Links:

Frogs of Victoria

On Sunday 6 March under clear blue skies, Immigration Museum hosted its first West African Cultural Festival. The Honourable Nicholas Kotsiras, Minister for Multicultural Affairs & Citizenship, opened the event before a spectacular parade in which traditionally clad representatives from 16 West African countries welcomed visitors in the museum’s festival courtyard.

Assembled guests and community representatives at the West African Cultural Festival. Includes Nicholas Kotsiras, Minister for Multicultural Affairs & Citizenship, and J. Patrick Greene, CEO Museum Victoria.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

West Africa as a region includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Western Sahara.

As the region boasts such an incredible range of cultural, political and historical origins, an organising committee of community representatives worked hard to program performances, displays, films and talks to represent the diversity of West African communities in Victoria.

The main stage played host to incredible performances all day including drumming and dance, traditional kora strummed solo, and funky Afrobeat inspired by Nigerian pop-legend Fela Kuti. More than 800 visitors over the day sat in the shade in the courtyard perhaps enjoying Ekwusi soup with steamed semolina fufu, or Chicken Yassa washed down with a cool glass of hibiscus tea.

 Soccer demonstration, West African Cultural Festival.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

In the theatrette, audiences learnt to make their own fufu as well as a djembe drum (starting from scratch with the full hide of a goat!) They were also treated to films and talks including accounts of Malian history and the traditional cultural practices of Benin. Across the Museum, West African community groups ran information stalls affording visitors a window into contemporary West African culture in Victoria.

Attendees standing behind giant chicken coffin from Ghana at the West African Cultural Festival.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

The festival is part of a suite of programs running alongside the West Africa: Rhythm and Spirit exhibition (running till 29 May 2011), which features objects collected from West African countries by Joel A. and Patricia H. Vanderburg from Otago, New Zealand.

As with each of Immigration Museum’s cultural festivals, the West African festival provided an opportunity for audiences to engage across cultures and for communities to take a leading role in presenting their culture and activating Museum spaces.

Mimmie Ngum Chi in traditional Cameroonian dress.
Image:  Benjamin Healley
Source: Museum Victoria

This year, the Museum will expand on the success of this festival, and continue to run a series of cultural events that bring people from diverse cultural backgrounds together in celebration. Stay tuned for more details.

Were you at the West African festival on the day? What did you think?

This morning Patrick Honan from Live Exhibits instructed the Bush Blitz team to keep an eye out for Mountain Katydids (Acripeza reticulata). These are large, robust long-horned grasshoppers that are usually found in cold high-altitude areas so Patrick was surprised to see them recorded in a previous ecological survey of Lake Condah. Ranger Brad Williams and botanist Val Stajsic brought in two specimens from Muldoons that they’d found on Tuesday, suggesting that they’re reasonably common here.

Muldoons is property adjacent to the Lake Condah Mission site but getting there is not straightforward. There was a bridge decades ago dating back to when it was the hunting ground for people living on the mission. Matt Butt, the Coordinator of Land Management, explained that the bridge was washed away in a heavy flood in the 1940s. The road into the property was built only five years ago and the terrain is incredibly rocky. It’s also incredibly beautiful; the bush is largely intact since the ground was too rocky to be any good for agriculture. The ground is dotted with rock-lined sinkholes in the lava flow from Mount Eccles (known to Gunditjmara people as Budj Bim, meaning ‘high head’). Some of the sinkholes are full of water where Remko Leijs, from the South Australian Museum, has sampled the small crustaceans that live in the groundwater. Later in Bush Blitz some of the MV marine scientists will put on their SCUBA gear to film the wildlife of these water bodies.

Most of the MV biologists were at Muldoons for a couple of hours this morning and found some amazing animals. And yes, one of them was a Mountain Katydid plodding through low grass just a metre away from the road. She’s a female and particularly fat, possibly because she’s full of eggs. She’s gone back to Melbourne Museum with the Live Exhibits staff where they hope she will be the start of a captive colony for display.

Female Mountain Katydid found at Muldoons.
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Budj Bim rangers Simone Sailor-Smith and Deb Rose caught a beautiful Jewel Spider (Austracantha minax). Another amazing find was a Peripatus or velvet worm. These are ancient animals that share some characteristics with worms and some with arthropods, and haven’t changed much in millions of years.

The tiny and beautiful velvet worm found at Muldoons.
Image: julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

We also found scorpions, centipedes, beetles, lacewings, ants and lizards. Where possible, the team is only collecting the first specimen that is caught and releasing subsequent finds. For birds and mammals, the surveys are by sight, by ear or through capture and release. The birders spent a few hours this afternoon at Lake Condah and reported breeding Musk Ducks plus three Reed Warblers which is interesting because they have usually flown north by this time of year.

One of the hungry tiger leeches that are common in swamps, on low shrubs, and clinging to Bush Blitzers!
Image: Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria

Of course, all this time we're spending in swamps is great for one local animal - the leech. We've all become quite good at spotting and flicking leeches before they latch on to feed, but some of us have still become hosts for these blood-sucking parasites...

Peter Lillywhite with a leech feeding on his neck.
Image: Berlinda Bowler
Source: Berlinda Bowler

Bush Blitz is a three-year biodiversity discovery program supported by the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, Earthwatch Australia and Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) AusPlots.

The only way to learn about the biodiversity of an area is to get out there and look. That’s exactly what a team of scientists, including 24 MV staff and volunteers, is doing at the Lake Condah area in south-western Victoria for the next nine days.

The expedition is part of Bush Blitz – a three-year project to document the flora and fauna of Australia’s National Reserve system. As a partnership between the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, Earthwatch Australia and Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) AusPlots, Bush Blitz teams have identified about 350 new species on eight trips so far. The current trip is especially significant because it’s the first one to be held in an Indigenous Protected Area – the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, comprising about 3,000 hectares over several properties.

Open woodland at Kurtonitj, one of the properties that comprise the Winda Mara owned and managed areas.
Image: Mark Norman
Source: Museum Victoria

This country is the traditional homeland of the Gunditjmara Nation. Within its rocky, volcanic landscape are ancient structures including eel traps and stone houses. For thousands of years this was a site of major aquaculture efforts where Gunditjmara created pools and channels to cultivate and harvest eels. However Europeans arrived in the 1830s and within 30 years, the Aboriginal population had been decimated and displaced. The Government established Lake Condah Mission to house the people who refused to leave, but in 1919 the mission was closed and in the 1950s the land was reassigned to returning WWII soldiers. But this is a tough mob; in 1996, the Gunditjmara community persisted and they lodged a claim for native title to their lands. It was finally granted in 2007 and Lake Condah was returned to Aboriginal people.

A kangaroo eyeing off the Bush Blitz crew at Kurtonitj.
Image: Mark Norman
Source: Museum Victoria

Until 1 April, Bush Blitz will be taking a snapshot of the life of this region. There are botanists from the National Herbarium of Victoria and entomologists from the South Australian Museum and the University of New South Wales among the Bush Blitz crew. We’re counting and photographing and collecting to learn more about what lives here – which will, in turn, aid its protection. Working with the Elders of the community and the Indigenous rangers means that the scientists will learn about the ecological knowledge of the Traditional Owners, too.

Three MV biologists spotlighting for frogs on the first night at Lake Condah.
Image: Mark Norman
Source: Museum Victoria

Uncle Kenny Saunders came to talk to us the night that we arrived and gave us a warm welcome. He spoke about the spiritual and cultural importance of the area to the 300 or so Gunditjmara living locally and the much larger population of Gunditjmara now living across Australia. After telling us his stories he left us with an inspirational challenge – that he hoped these scientific surveys would give him more stories to tell about his country.

Links:

Bush Blitz

Lake Condah Sustainable Development Project

ABC Mission Voices: Lake Condah

So you've bought your ticket and popcorn, picked up your 3D glasses and chosen your seat at IMAX Melbourne. For you, it's a time to sit back and relax. However, in the projection booth at the back of the cinema, it's a highly-skilled dash to prepare the next film for screening.

David Booty, Senior Technical Advisor for IMAX Melbourne Museum, might be the projectionist setting up your film. He's been in the IMAX business since 1988 and sometimes has just seven minutes between shows to change over the huge reels of IMAX film. In this video he tells us about the unique projection system while he's rushing around to set up the next show.

This post is another in our special series during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Sometimes I wonder how we eat the seafood we do.

Take scallops, for example. With their plump and juicy meat, they are coveted for our dinner plates and in top restaurants around the world. But what are we really eating?

Well, there’s the shell, more for presentation than eating, characteristically circular with ridges radiating from a rectangular hinge that holds the animal protected inside.

Shells of edible scallops, Pecten fumatus from 1970s Fisheries material.
Source: Museum Victoria

And there’s the body. Unlike oysters, they don’t sit tight and daintily nurture pearls. Instead, they focus on moving small distances by squirting jets of water from between their shell halves, building muscle mass inside equivalent to a bodybuilder’s bicep, all for our eating pleasure (and also to flap away from predators like octopuses and sea stars I guess).

Scallops for sale at the Queen Victoria Market. The white part is mostly muscle, while the orange part is known as 'roe'.
Source: Museum Victoria

And what is that orange-brown blobby bit that tastes so gelatinously good? Gonads. A factory that pumps out hundreds of eggs and sperm into the water with the hope that some don’t get eaten or swept away into unsuitable habitat.

But sitting on the bottom in sand or silty mud can attract parasitic friends like trematodes and nematodes. (I won’t go into how many fish parasites a scientist sees under a microscope or you may never eat sushi again.)

Is it revolting to eat the disgusting? I suspect not, so long as some chef goes about his or her masterful ways to clean and transform the disgusting into the delicious.

Oh and if you’re interested...

Scallops probably have the most eyes in the animal kingdom – they can have hundreds of eyes along the edge of their mantle. Exactly what sort of pictures they see we cannot be sure. Their shells reach about 14 cm in length and they live on shallow sandflats to waters over 100 metres deep. Their diet of floating food, such as plankton, is filtered from the water. Some species move short distances, others make more permanent homes on the reef, often becoming so encrusted with coral and sponge growth that they are barely recognisable. They were commercially harvested in Port Phillip Bay until 1996, nowadays they are taken from Bass Strait. Several species were thought to occur within the range of the common variety we eat, Pecten fumatus, but recent genetic work suggests they are all the same species.

The annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival starts tomorrow and MV is hosting events at Melbourne Museum, the Royal Exhibition Building and the Immigration Museum. It seemed the perfect time to ask the History and Technology curators to suggest some foodie collection items for a series of MFWF posts.

It's hard to imagine Melbourne's food scene without an Italian influence. The flush of Italian migrants that arrived here following World War II brought with them the foundations of the café culture so prevalent across Melbourne today. Some early cafés still survive; Don Camillo near Victoria Market, and Pellegrini's in Bourke St being two well-know examples. Many Italian migrants also started food manufacturing businesses to satisfy the appetites of the migrant population, and, increasingly, the wider community that embraced Italian cuisine. One of these businesses, La Tosca, was founded in 1947 and still produces pasta today.

'La Tosca' Ravioli label for labelling tins of food produced by La Tosca Food Processing Company in the 1970s.
Source: Museum Victoria 

Curator Moya McFadzean talks about the La Tosca roller in this video from The Melbourne Story website:

La Tosca tools and package labels are on display in The Melbourne Story exhibition, which is also the venue for Melbourne's Culinary Story. This festival event features special guest Charmaine O’Brien, author of Flavours of Melbourne, a Culinary Biography and Victorian wines and produce. If you mention MV Blog when booking you will get the MV Members discount  - call 13 11 02 for bookings.

Links:

Selling Pasta to Melbourne - the La Tosca story

Marvellous Melbourne: Café Culture

Borghesi Family Collection on Collections Online

MV Melbourne Food and Wine Festival events

On Friday 25 February Immigration Discovery Centre participated in the annual Shake Your Family Tree. Organised by the National Archives of Australia (NAA), this is a national event that brings together family history experts in one location for an entire day.

Along with six other institutions, including State Library of Victoria, Public Record Office of Victoria, and Genealogical Society of Victoria, we set up our stand in the foyer of the VAC in North Melbourne and helped many enthusiastic visitors with questions about doing their family history research.

Advising a visitor at Shake Your Family Tree.
Image: Anna Koh
Source: National Archives of Australia

A number of seminars were presented on the day and I did a talk on Revealing objects & stories from Museum Victoria's Migration Collection. In this, I discussed the power of objects to tell a story and the way museums use them in their exhibitions, programs and online resources. As an example, I told the story of one particular migrant through the medium of some objects related to her life that are part of the Migration Collection. Lastly, I encouraged my audience to see if they could utilise any objects in their own homes to further enrich their family history research.

Nicole speaking on the MV Migration Collection.
Image: Anna Koh
Source: National Archives of Australia

Museum Victoria also participated in a Conservation Clinic, where members of the public could bring in their precious documents or objects for advice on how to protect and conserve them.

All in all it was a great day and we are already looking forward to next year!

A Museum Victoria conservator gives advice at the Conservation Clinic.
Image: Anna Koh
Source: National Archives of Australia

Links:

Museum Victoria Migration Collection

SLV Family Matters blog: Shake Your Family Tree 2011 style

National Archives of Victoria

Public Record Office of Victoria

Genealogical Society of Victoria

“The fountain is fountaining!” announced a colleague last Thursday. He’d passed the French Fountain in the eastern forecourt of the Royal Exhibition Building and noticed that it was flowing for the first time in ages. Years of drought and water restrictions meant the fountain has been out of action. However now that there are over a million litres of water stored in new tanks under the REB’s western forecourt, the fountain can run again.

It was recomissioned for the opening of the newly-completed German Garden, a careful restoration of the original garden that stood on the site for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. You’d never know that under the lush lawns and new garden beds – which follow the exact shape of the 1880 design – there’s a massive water tank and network of pipes to collect and distribute rainwater. Not only the gardens around the REB, but also Melbourne Museum’s Forest Gallery and Milarri Garden will benefit from this new sustainable water supply.

The Royal Exhibition Building's completed German Garden in the western forecourt on Rathdowne Street.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria

Thursday’s event marked the completion of the 18-month project World Heritage, World Futures. Even as the speeches were underway, people were wandering through the new landscape after so many months of it being hidden behind construction hoardings. Special guests, Minister for Consumer Affairs, the Hon Michael O’Brien, and Margaret Gardner AO, President of the Museums Board of Victoria, snipped the ceremonial purple ribbon and declared the garden open.

Guests at the garden opening. L-R: Dr Patrick Greene, CEO of Museum Victoria; Dr. Anne-Marie Schleich, German Consul General; Professorr Margaret Gardner AO, President of the Museums Board of Victoria; the Hon Michael O’Brien, Minister for Consumer Affairs and the Right Hon the Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria

Please come and admire the new garden with its restored iron gate, reinstated urns and stately plantings on your next visit to Carlton.

Performers in period costume test out the new garden.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

World Heritage, World Futures blog

What's going on here behind the aquatic invertebrate display?

A Water Scorpion in Bugs Alive hanging out while the TV crew sets up.
Source: Museum Victoria

Saturday morning TV show Kids' WB have been shooting in Melbourne Museum's Science and Life Galleries today, with a special visit to Bugs Alive this afternoon. Some of the museum's young visitors were very excited to see hosts Lauren and Andrew but for the resident insects, it was all in a day's work.

Chloe from Live Exhibits and Kids' WB hosts Lauren and Andrew filming in Bugs Alive.
Source: Museum Victoria

Chloe, one of our Live Exhibits keepers, brought out some special big invertebrates for Lauren and Andrew to hold. Let's just say that Andrew enjoyed this bit more than Lauren...

Chloe shows Lauren and Andrew a Spiny Leaf Insect.
Source: Museum Victoria

You can see Melbourne Museum featured on Kids' WB when this epidsode screens on Channel 9 at 10am on 5 March.

Jackie is a volunteer at Museum Victoria. She has been documenting and researching the Newmarket Saleyards Collection.

On Saturday Liza Dale-Hallett and I were lucky enough to head along to the 150th Newmarket Saleyards Reunion. It was a fabulous day under the shady peppercorns and oaks, with a turnout of over 250 drovers, buyers, transporters and auctioneers returning to share stories and catch up with old mates. Chequered shirts, moleskins and akubras set the dress standard for the day while a cold beer in hand was a necessary addition to any reminiscing.

Crowd at the 150th anniversary Newmarket Saleyards Reunion on 19 February.
Source: Museum Victoria

Although these days some of the ‘boys’ don’t get around that quickly, it was all too easy to imagine them striding around the saleyards, calling out to each other over the fences and down the lanes. They happily recounted anecdotes about their days at Newmarket – some were bold and some were bawdy, many were full of intrigue and most of them gave an insight into the tough life lived by drovers. Some chestnuts were enlightening, explaining things a city-girl would never otherwise know, while some memories were more sombre, recollecting mates that had passed on. I was regaled with yarns from Barney, Knocker and Marbuk; Bluey, Paddy, Waxy and young Strop. And while Jingles had me captivated with stories of getting up to no good, Dick warmed my heart with entertaining tales of his beloved dogs. Brothers Laurie and Lindsay were the gentlemen drovers, eloquent orators and fine historians; and larrikin Spot proudly showed off his new grandson. Men came from as far away as Queensland while others live just up the road and didn’t have so far to get home.

L-R: Greg Nichols, Peter Woodhead and Graham Spargo.
Source: Museum Victoria

Volunteer Jackie with Dick Chandler at the reunion.
Source: Museum Victoria

It was a day of storytelling and reminiscing at its very best and although there wasn’t a sheep dog in sight, it was easy to imagine Newmarket in its glory days as Australia’s premier saleyards.

Some exciting donations were made to Museum Victoria and we look forward to adding them to our Newmarket Heritage Collection.

Links:

Newmarket Saleyards Collection

MV Blog: Newmarket Saleyards turn 150

As our visitors relax under the Planetarium’s stars, what many of them don’t know is that just next door it’s a hub of activity. We’re busy working on a brand new fulldome planetarium show that will be launched later this year.

The question we’re exploring? What would happen if you accidentally messed up the seasons? That's what our characters, Anni and Max, have just done  – they’ve made it snow in the middle of summer!

Our storyboard of snow inside Anni's bedroom in summer!
Source: Museum Victoria

We've taken our script and mapped it out in storyboard form. The storyboard has a strange shape to capture the Planetarium's unique fulldome format.

You see we don’t use a normal rectangular screen but a 180-degree dome above our heads. It's the perfect way for showing a starry night sky and it also puts you in the centre of the action.

But behind the scenes, it means we must work with circular images – where the bottom is the front, the top is the back, (left is left, right is right) and the centre is what you see directly overhead.

A scene from Spinning Out, a show we made on the seasons many years ago.
Source: Museum Victoria

Can you imagine how the room above would look if it was projected onto a dome?

This new show we are working on will be our 14th production since the Melbourne Planetarium opened here at Scienceworks in 1999. It’s also our 4th production made in fulldome (the official name for this circular format).

Follow us on the blog as we give you some sneak-peaks of the show and its characters, Anni and Max, taking shape!

Today we launch our new vodcast series, Married to the Job, where we chat to museum staff. In the tradition of museum object and specimen collecting, we ask them to tell us about themselves and their work by showing us something old, new, borrowed and blue.

So let’s meet John Retallick, Public Programs Officer here at Museum Victoria.

Watch this video with a transcript

Have you ever looked down at the footpath in Melbourne's CBD and wondered about those 20cm round bronze plaques that seem to lead a trail through the city? Well, they are the path of the Golden Mile Heritage Trail. This walking tour explores Melbourne's buildings, laneways, streets, characters and history from its beginnings through to modern times. And, on a beautiful sunny Melbourne morning last week, I went to discover what it was all about!

The tour started at Federation Square, on the intersection of Swanston and Flinders Streets, one of Melbourne's liveliest spots for over 150 years. Our tour guide set the scene for the rest of the walk, describing the history of the buildings around us. From the 1852 gold rush era St Paul's Cathedral on one corner to the famous Young & Jackson's pub of 1861 opposite; from the Federation era opulence of Flinders Street Station of 1910, to the ultra contemporary public spaces of Federation Square, this intersection provides a physical snapshot of the city's history.

Sandridge Bridge
Image: Nicole Davis
Source: Museum Victoria

We next walked along the Yarra talking about how Melbourne was built up around this spot from its beginnings as an Aboriginal meeting place to the coming of Europeans to today. We chatted about some of the characters in the city's early history, such as John Batman, John Pascoe Fawkner and Robert Hoddle, and how they shaped the city. Our guide also pointed out interesting sites like the outlet for the creek that runs under Elizabeth Street and the Sandridge Bridge. This Bridge was originally a railway bridge and was the line that took immigrant passengers from Port Melbourne to Flinders Street Station before embarking on a new life in Australia. Now a pedestrian bridge, its sculptures and text panels explore the waves of people,from Melbourne's Indigenous inhabitants onward who have crossed the river on this spot.

Immigration Museum was next, where the tour officially starts. I turned tour guide for a few minutes, guiding our guide through the Immigration Discovery Centre and explaining what we do here.

The Travellers, Sandridge Bridge
Image: Nicole Davis
Source: Museum Victoria  Rutherglen House, Highlander Lane
Image: Nicole Davis
Source: Museum Victoria

We then meandered through some of my favourite sites in Melbourne - its laneways! I got to pop my head inside the Mitre Tavern and found out the fascinating history of the Savage Club, plus discovered a new spot I hadn't previously known about and will definitely be popping back to. Rutherglen House is an 1850s bluestone residence/warehouse located on Highlander Lane. Today it's still a private residence!

After our little laneway exploration, we wandered up Collins Street discussing the progress of Marvellous Melbourne and the boom and bust of the 1880s to 1890s. Despite the many modern office blocks that I always feel characterise Collins Street, there are actually a surprising number of buildings from the 1870s to 1900 period that survive. There are some fabulous opulent buildings like the Gothic ANZ bank building on the corner of Elizabeth Street and the adjoining Stock Exchange. I also really enjoyed seeing the way the 1890s Rialto and Winfield buildings have been incorporated into the Intercontinental Hotel and Rialto Towers.

Rialto Building from Collins Street
Image: Nicole Davis
Source: Museum Victoria

The tour ended another hour later with some of Melbourne's famous arcades: the Block Arcade from the 1890s; Howey Place, next to which the famous Cole's Book Arcade was once located; and the controversial Capitol Arcade, developed in the 1960s.

As you can see the tour was densely packed and I could write reams on more of the great stories that our guide had to impart. He was amazingly knowledgeable, gave fabulous detailed accounts, and brought to life Melbourne's history for me. Most of all, he answered my constant questions with good grace and love of his subject. As a student of urban history, it was a fascinating insight and a great opportunity to talk with someone who had an in-depth knowledge of these places. If you want to get to know Melbourne, whether you're a visitor or a local, I highly recommend going on one of these walking tours.

Links:

You can see more images of the tour and find out how to book on the Immigration Museum Website.

From the 1950s to 2009, the western forecourt of the Royal Exhibition Building was an asphalt car park - useful, but hardly befitting the World Heritage classification of the site. Certainly there was no trace of the ornamental garden planted there for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition.

Cue World Heritage, World Futures: a major project that began in October 2009. Funding for this project was provided form the Victorian Property Fund on the approval of the Minister for Consumer Affairs.

The project's three phases: excavation of the site to recover artefacts from the original 1880s garden, installation of an enormous rainwater storage tank, and restoration of the heritage garden and circular drive - are almost complete. 

Landscapers have installed the watering system and are now preparing the ground for planting. Within the next month the project will be finished and a beautiful water-wise garden will return to Rathdowne Street.

This extensive watering system will use the water from the new rainwater storage tank to ensure the garden stay lush and green sustainably.
Source: Museum Victoria

So keep an eye on the final flurry of activity behind those purple hoardings this month; the World Heritage, World Futures blog contains posts on the project's progress from the very beginning if you'd like to know more.

Hoardings around the project building site with a glimpse of the restored circular driveway.
Source: Museum Victoria

Links:

Royal Exhibition Building

World Heritage, World Futures

First generation iPod in the MV Collection from 2001. It was donated by a journalist who reviewed the device just before its release in Australia. (HT13346)
Source: Museum Victoria

Two new Museum Victoria podcasts by Dr Andi are now available on the MV website to listen to or download. 

The first podcast, part of the series Someone's Gotta Do It, profiles MV's chief tweeter and number one narwhal fan, Jareen Summerhill. Jareen helps Phar Lap manage his Facebook page, too.

The second, Episode 26 in the Access All Areas series, takes the poetry of Ogden Nash to museum experts for the full story on ants, pythons, ducks, coelocanths and more. Exactly how many ribs do reticulated pythons have, anyway?

Links:

Archive: Access All Areas podcasts

Archive: Someone's Gotta Do It podcasts 

iPod on Collections Online

Why must it rain on the annual Ride to Work Day? It just doesn't seem fair. It rained last year, and with drizzle this morning and storms forecast for this afternoon, this year's event was a bit washed out, too.

Ride to Work Day breakfast at Melbourne Museum.
Source: Museum Victoria

Despite the weather, dedicated museum staff peddled in and enjoyed the breakfast. There were breakfasts organised all over Melbourne - did you attend one?

The eleventh annual Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival finished its national tour at Melbourne Museum last night. It's the fourth year that we've hosted the festival and it finished with a brilliant documentary called Reel Injun about the portrayal of Native American Indians in films.

Trailer courtesy of Rezolution Pictures.

I was moved by the stories of kids growing up on Indian reservations watching cowboys and Indians films in church hall, cheering for the cowboys and not connecting the Indians on the screen with themselves. There moments that had the audience in stiches, too - snippets of non-Indian actors like Burt Reynolds sprayed in 'redface', or the first time anyone bothered to translate the words spoken in dialect by extras in films. Did you know that the headband was largely a Hollywood creation? According to the film, they weren't really worn by Indians; they were used by costume departments to keep the long black wigs on the heads of actors as they tumbled from horses!

Look out for the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival in venues around Australia in 2011.