The Ichthyology Collection is one of the oldest and most significant fish collections in Australia, representing 150 years of acquisition from a wide variety of sources and comprising some 36 000 lots and 350 000 specimens.
It includes fishes (sharks, rays, chimaeroids, jawless and bony fishes) as well as representatives of the lancelets (primitive chordates belonging to the subphylum Cephalochordata). The collection also contains the world’s most comprehensive representation of fishes from marine, estuarine and freshwater environments of south-eastern and southern Australian waters, as well as a broad spectrum of the world’s fish fauna.
The majority of the collection is comprised of specimens in 70% alcohol, with subcollections of ethanol-fixed and frozen tissues, a larval fish collection, a dry and skeletal collection, an X-ray and photographic collection.
The collection is used for research and exhibition purposes, with the research component having increased significantly with the growth of the tissue collection.
Significant Items
- Historically- and scientifically-important material from Australia and overseas, including collections from Bleeker, Castelnau, the British Museum, Museum Godeffroy, the FIS "Endeavour" and Andrew Goldie (New Guinea).
- Demersal and midwater fishes from continental shelf and slope environments of south-eastern Australia.
- A large and comprehensive collection of freshwater fishes from Victoria and elsewhere in Australia.
- Collections from elsewhere in and around Australia (including antarctic and subantarctic components) and from neighbouring regions to the north.
- Other significant components include a larval fish collection and an ethanol-fixed tissue collection for molecular studies.
See Documenting Change, an essay on this collection from A Museum for the People: A history of Museum Victoria and its predecessor institutions 1854-2000.