We get a lot of mail coming through this centre - photographs, requests for information, offers to donate items, insects to identify. In recent days, our mailbag has been leavened with some delightful letters from junior fans of the Museum. Here is a selection of our favourites:

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

Kirby gave us some great feedback! Kirby's favourite things in the Museum are the dinosaur bones, followed closely by "the Phar Lap". I can tell you that the various relevant curators and managers were well chuffed, and that copies of this letter occupy pride of place on office walls. Kirby expresses an interest in working at the Museum "when I grow up" - Kirby, judging from the folk we work with, I don't think you need to wait to grow up...it doesn't seem to be a prerequisite of employment around here!

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

This batch of letters came from a grade one class in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Not only does their handwriting put mine to shame, but all letters were carefully dated, politely opened with "Dear Sir or Madam", and signed off with "Yours sincerely". They embellished their letters with beautiful garden drawings, and each included a question. "Why are plants green?" (Chlorophyll - it's a pigment found in most plants that enables them to absorb energy from sunlight) and "What is Victoria's tallest tree, and how tall is it?" (Eucalyptus regnans, or the Mountain Ash, which can grow up to 100m tall!).

Thank you to all of our correspondents, and we look forward to more mailbag excitement.

One of the great things about working in the Discovery Centre is that we can be asked a question on just about anything relating to (or not, as the case may be) the Museum’s collections and areas of research.

When we get questions that we consider particularly interesting, we like to publish them on our website as the Question of the Week on the assumption that other folk will find them as interesting as we did.

But then we also get the odd question that wildly misses the mark – certainly not fit to be called a Question of the Week, but which certainly deserves some attention. Our favourite so far is the request to use Phar Lap as a prop in a high school history presentation; but we have a new contender in the request for DC staff to confirm that the Museum is built to the dimensions of Noah’s Ark…

Melbourne Museum is one of the most modern and architecturally creative buildings around, so this is probably unlikely, but there’s a floorplan below for you to decide for yourselves. Although, not so sure about the Royal Exhibition Building…

(Besides, how would Noah have gone with the Evolution Gallery, I wonder?)