Scienceworks

Dr Robin Hirst joined the Museum in 1981 to manage the H V McKay Melbourne Planetarium. He was given the task of leading the development of the Exhibitions and Programs for Scienceworks. He is now Director of Collections, Research and Exhibitions at Museum Victoria.

The morning of 28 March 1992 was one the weary crew had worked towards for five years. We hoped that people would venture deep into the heart of industrial Spotswood to appreciate the new kid on the block, Scienceworks, our science and technology centre.

Aerial view of construction site of Scienceworks, Spotswood, in 1991. (MM 122474)
Source: Museum Victoria

Scienceworks building under construction, circa 1991. (MM 122505)
Source: Museum Victoria  

The sight of long queues of excited families waiting for the doors to open made me feel both elated and apprehensive. This was the day we were to hand our creation to the public for their use and delight. This was the day for the locals to be admitted free of charge as a test run. When the doors opened that morning the crowd ran in. Like bargain hunters at a Myer sale, each vied to be the first at every exhibit.

With Boyce Pizzey, the Director of Science and Technology, we had conceived Scienceworks, designed the building, installed the exhibitions and planned how the place would operate. We spent many an hour in smoke-filled rooms challenging and being challenged. We crafted a new visitor-centric experience for families and school children. We thought it would work, but we didn’t know. It was so new and seemed so far from the city.

Left to right: Geoff Harrison, Project Manager, Boyce Pizzey and Robin Hirst at Scienceworks, 1991. The Pumping Station is visible in the background.
Source: Museum Victoria  

The night before, we had the official opening with still much left to do at the crack of dawn the next day to be ready for the public.

Richard Glover installing a display of bicycles at Scienceworks in 1992. (MM 133542)
Source: Museum Victoria  

Two views of crowds in the Amphitheatre at Scienceworks on the opening day, 28 March 1992 (MM 135043, MM 133479)
Source: Museum Victoria

Playground, Scienceworks opening weekend, 28 March 1992.
Source: Museum Victoria  

The exhibits did suffer that day and many nocturnal emergency repairs were carried out. The crowds the day after were even bigger. In many ways Scienceworks has continued the way it began very much loved.

As Scienceworks turns 21 we can feel proud of what we gave birth to. Happy birthday.

Links:

Scienceworks Heritage Collection on Collections Online

If you're looking for Victoria's bird emblem, you won't find it in Museum Victoria's Field Guide to Victorian Fauna app.

This is our best picture of a Helmeted Honeyeater. Do you have a better one?
Image: Nicole Kearney
Source: Museum Victoria

The app contains over 700 Victorian species, but the Helmeted Honeyeater isn't one of them. Why not? We don't have a picture of one.

Museum Victoria is almost ready to launch the MV Field Guide app on the Android network – we just need a few final images. Can you help?

If you have a photograph of any of the species below, send it to discoverycentre@museum.vic.gov.au. If we like it, we'll give you a double pass for our museums and a $30 gift voucher for our museum shops. You'll also be credited as the image's photographer (and get your name in the MV Field Guide app).

• Helmeted Honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops cassidix
• Diamond Firetail Stagonopleura guttata
• Plains Wanderer Pedionomus torquatus
• Little Eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides

Haven't got the MV Field Guide app? Download it for free from the App Store. Android users, stay tuned – it's coming soon!

UPDATE: The Android version is now available from Google Play. Hooray!

Terms and conditions

To submit an image, you must be the copyright holder (or have permission from the copyright holder). Images should be provided at a size of 2048px along their longest edge (please do not send watermarked images).

By submitting a photograph you agree that, if your image is selected, Museum Victoria may publish and reproduce your photograph in Field Guide apps and associated projects. Museum Victoria will credit the photographer in every circumstance where the photo is used.

Museum Victoria passes and shop vouchers are valid at Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum and Scienceworks (for 12 months from the date the selected entries are announced). Travel, parking, accommodation and other expenses are the responsibility of the winners.

This competition is open to everyone. Competition closes 24/03/13 at 5pm EST. Photographs submitted after this date may be considered for future releases of the app, but will not be eligible for the prizes above. Winners will be contacted via email and announced on the MV Blog. Judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

MV's Conditions of Use policy applies.

It was 10 years ago today, 1 February 2003, that the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on its way back to Earth. The STS-107 crew had spent 16 days in orbit and were just 16 minutes from landing when the accident tragically occurred.

This photograph survived on a roll of unprocessed film recovered from the accident. Bottom row (L to R): Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Laurel B. Clark, mission specialist, and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist. Top row (L to R): David M. Brown, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot, and Michael P. Anderson, payload commander.
Source: NASA  

On a trip to the USA in 2002, I attended a talk by astronaut and astronomer, John Grunsfeld. He was asked “why fly into space when the risks are so high?” and his reply has always stuck with me. It was pretty much “because it’s the most amazing thing to do.”

He went on to explain that while astronauts are fully aware of the risks involved – and they don't take them lightly – they are also certain that the benefits of what they are doing will lead to greater things for our future.

Today we remember the amazing men and women who have believed in the spirit of space exploration. I hope there will always be pioneers just like them, who are willing to push the limits of what’s possible and dream big for all of us.

Links:

Powerhouse Museum: "Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short..."

Like other Australian astronomers last night, I was glued to the computer watching as a fire raged across the Warrumbungle National Park in NSW, home to Australia's world-class optical and infrared telescopes at Sliding Spring Observatory. I think the hardest thing was knowing that it's almost 10 years ago to the day, that fires destroyed the Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. Could this really be happening again?

A truly frightening image, as Australia's largest optical telescope, the Australian Astronomical Telescope (AAT), is engulfed in smoke.
Source: Rural Fire Services  

Fires blaze around cottages in front of the AAT. To the top right of the image are the flames that engulfed the lodge.
Source: FTS webcam  

The glow as the astronomer's lodge is destroyed. Temperatures at the AAT were measured to be over 100 degrees.
Source: FTS webcam  

Thankfully, lessons were learnt from that event and there is much hope that measures put into place may have saved the dozen or so telescopes on the mountain. We'll have to wait and see as the damage is assessed over the next few days.

The good news is that all 18 staff were evacuated safely. Many telescope domes are still standing, as new images come through this morning. The building which has been destroyed was the lodge which provided accommodation for astronomers during their observing runs. 

Electronics were not meant to survive such temperatures.
Source: HATSouth webcam  

The picture I wanted to see today. The AAT dome still stands, but there will be a wait to access how the telescope fared inside.
Source: LCOGT webcam  

Our thoughts are with the community of Coonabarabran and those who have been affected by the fires, and our thanks go out to fire services for their great efforts. 

If the telescopes had been destroyed it would have been devastating for Australian astronomical research, all but ending our ability to do continue doing optical astronomy here. Hundreds of researchers and students rely on those telescopes. And it would also have affected the Coonabarabran community, many of whom rely on the telescopes for their livelihoods too.

Images of the event, many taken from the webcams that are normally used by astronomers to check sky conditions during their nightly observations, tell the story.

The burnt out remains of the astronomers lodge. I have fond memories of Margaret's delicious chocolate pudding, which I would devour there, before heading up to the telescope for the night's observing run!
Source: Rural Fire Services

The square "dome" on the left houses the ANU's 2.3 metre telescope which stayed a comfortable 20 degrees throughout the fire. The dome to the top right is the new SkyMapper telescope, led by Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt and built to continue the work of the Great Melbourne Telescope after it was destroyed in the Mt Stromlo fires. Temperatures there peaked at 65 °C.
Source: Rural Fire Services  

UPDATE: 

The Warrumbungle Shire Council has set up a Warrumbungle Shire Mayor’s Bushfire Appeal with donations being used solely to assist residents affected by the fire. The NSW Rural Fire Service are reporting that some 40 properties and over 110 out-buildings have been confirmed lost as well as a large number of livestock and farm machinery.

Links:

Siding Spring after the fires of January 2013 via Observations Blog, Sydney Observatory

Report from The Australian

Astropixie liveblogging the fire: Sunday night and Monday morning

A big, cracking thank you to everyone who visited the Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention exhibition at Scienceworks this year. Over 100,000 visitors tinkered inside the exhibition while it was on display from 19 May to 11 November, and just over 15,000 entries were received in the Cracking Ideas Competition.

Our panel of judges, including a representative from Intellectual Property Australia (IP Australia), has selected the lucky winners from the tremendous pool of wildly creative ideas and contraptions we received as part of the competition.

A big congratulations to you, budding inventors! Your prizes are on their way!

The Recycling Robot
Image: Millie (5 years old)  

Littlies
• Animal Alive by Isla (5 years old)
• A Hair Machine by Zoe (4 years old)
• Rainbow Slide by Elliot (3 years old)
• Automatic Rooftop Window Cleaning Machine by Juliet (6 years old)
• The Arvi by Oliver (5 years old)
• Clever Night Light by Rohan (6 years old)
• The Recycling Robot by Millie (5 years old)
• The Super Car by James (6 years old)

The Super Car
Image: James (6 years old)  

Bigger kids
• Memory cap by Ned (8 years old)
• The Super Bed-O-Matic by Ned (7 years old)
• The Perfect House by Ashley (10 years old)
• Mandy Rin by Stephanie (9 years old)
• S.L.T.D.A.R (Stephanie Leonard's Trash Detector and Remover) by Stephanie (10 years old)
• Solar Powered Earmuffs by Phoebe (11 years old)
• The Future Tablet by Tristan (12 years old)
• The Unnecessary Tea Machine by Daniel (11 years old)

Teen kids
• Blue pen with stylus by Sam (16 years old)
• Traffic Jam Jam by Maya (16 years old)
• The "Wake up you lazy git" O-Matic by John (13 years old)
• Aerodynamic Wind Propelled Sustainable Car by Beatrix (14 years old)
• Doggy Seeds by Faith (13 years old)
• The Cup-Caker by Isabella (14 years old)
• The No Drip Cone by Dshamilja (17 years old)
• Giant Mechanical Ozone by Murray (19 years old)

Guinea pig cage mover
Image: Natalie (39 years old)  

Even bigger kids
• Water ladder by Rachael (38 years old)
• Idea-o-matic by Courtney (20 years old)
• Boot with tiny robot legs by Andrew (21 years old)
• Onion eyes by Anna (38 years old)
• Pot-o-gold locate-a-matron by Coralie (34 years old)
• Guinea pig cage mover by Natalie (39 years old)
• Pizza Player by Paul (45 years old)

Wallace & Gromit on the set of the World of Invention TV series.
Source: (c) Aardman Animations Ltd. 2012  

P.S. If you're in Sydney over the summer, don't miss seeing the Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum too.

Links:

IP Australia

Dr J. Patrick Greene is the CEO of Museum Victoria.

Yesterday we heard the sad news of the death of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, an enthusiastic supporter of Museum Victoria who always took a keen interest in the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks. As recently as September this year I received a letter on her behalf thanking me for sending her the Museum's magazine, Six Months, and commenting on the wide range of activities and projects described in it.

  Dame Elisabeth at the launch of Ancient Hampi at the Immigration Museum in 2008.
Source: Museum Victoria  

I first met Dame Elisabeth shortly after I took up my post as CEO of Museum Victoria in 2002. Harold Mitchell, then President of the Museums Board of Victoria, had written to inform her of my appointment. She asked to see me and we met in my office. It was immediately apparent that I was in the presence of a formidable but charming woman, who immediately put me at ease by saying how much she wanted to meet "another Greene". She revealed that her maiden name was Greene, and told me about her grandfather who had arrived from Ireland to work as an engineer for Victorian Railways. One of his many projects was the construction of the viaduct that carries the lines into Flinders Street Station. She gleefully told me that The Age had at the time described it as 'Greene's Folly' and her pride that more than a century later it was still performing its task so well – some 'folly!'

A notable occasion was the celebration of the museum's 150th anniversary in 2004 which took place in the Royal Exhibition Building with Dame Elisabeth as the guest of honour. Harold Mitchell discovered that her birthday was just a few days away and spontaneously asked the army trumpeter to play Happy Birthday, which all the guests joined in singing.

Dame Elisabeth arriving at Harold Mitchell's farewell party in 2008.
Source: Museum Victoria

Dame Elisabeth was renowned for her warmth, her ability to remember names and of course her philanthropy. I spoke at a Philanthropy Australia event held in her honour about her contribution to Museum Victoria's activities and was amazed at the range of other causes that she supported. She was a very special person who made a considerable contribution to Victoria.