We've been excited for a while, now, about the redevelopment of the Immigration Discovery Centre - the bigger space, the calmer mood, the interactive touch-screen device. Excitement has reached fever pitch now that the architects' plans have been handed over to the builders responsible for the project.

But for me it was the following image that shifted the mood from planning to action, from fantasy to reality. It's a photograph of a loom with a rug on it. And not just any rug - the rug that will welcome visitors to our beautiful new Discovery Centre at the Immigration Museum, soon. 

Photo and Source: Cadrys

"Does Melbourne have a tram museum?" asked a visitor to the Immigration Discovery Centre who'd had enough of ships. It does, yes. Two, actually, but both of them were closed, on this particular day, and neither was within walking distance of Flinders Street...

So we stayed in the Discovery Centre and did some research online, exploring Melbourne Museum's cable tram, in detail, then watching a curator describe the model on display in the Melbourne Story exhibition, which has its own virtual tour. Then we reminisced about the flying tram that starred in the opening ceremony to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne, and which was temporarily on display at Melbourne Museum. Further information was gleaned from the Marvellous Melbourne website's section about the development of Melbourne's tram network, which features a brilliant image of a tram-conductor's ticket punch. Then we ran search after search at the Victoria Railways website, enjoying its image gallery of Victorian Railways trams.

Distracted momentarily by an article about bugs on trams, we got serious with the Transport Collection at the History and Technology Collections Online site, where 5787 items were listed and described for our unwavering interest. Somewhere amongst all this we found an eerie image of a tram in Cairo (for all the world like a piece of Melbourne transplanted to Africa) and just sort of stared at it, for a while.

Photo: Sapper Galbraith  Source: Museum Victoria

Sometimes we're contacted by eager collectors wishing to replenish our supplies of live bugs. Such was the case on the last day of the year, when a young woman contacted us to ask if we needed any Spiny Leaf Stick Insects. Sure enough, our Live Exhibits team was happy to take her boxload of bugs, each of which resembled a pile of sticks and leaves. In fact these critters are so adept at camouflage that they even move like leaves. Cool!

How many can you spot?

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

You can learn more about these and other bugs at Museum Victoria's Bugs website. You can also see lots of similar critters on display at Melbourne Museum's popular exhibition, Bugs Alive. Yep, they're alive.

This morning we had a visit from one of the Museum's conservators - those talented people who care for the things we keep. She was helping us install three new object drawers in the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre, two of which feature medals from international exhibitions held at the Royal Exhibition Building and the other of which contains numerous medals awarded to Hans Irvine, the pioneering vigneron and politician known as the "Wine King of Australia." The conservator used her electric drill more carefully than anyone we've seen!

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

These beautifully-preserved objects can now be viewed by members of the public every day of the week, along with the many other treasures housed in our object drawers. The medals are part of the Museum's very large Numismatics and Philately Collection, explored in more detail at the the Coins and Medals website. There's also an infosheet available online for those wanting more facts about the 19th-century exhibitions themselves. Exciting times!

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

A young visitor to Melbourne Museum's Discovery Centre presented us with a large number of brownish objects, explaining that she'd found hundreds of them on the beach. They were light and springy, and smelt like a holiday. 

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

We sent them off to our Collection Manager of Marine Invertebrates for identification. He explained that these were remnants of seagrass plants that grow underwater, just beyond the breakers. When the plants die, their flesh rots away, leaving only fibrous veins, which cling together into spheres and sausages. Sometimes, these clusters of veins get washed up on the beach, to the delight of beachcombers like our young visitor.

Want to know more? Check out this website. And happy beachcombing!