Who can access the Australian Museum collections?
Australian Museum illustrator Hannah Finlay, produces scientific illustrations of Australian Museum specimens such as this bug, Caridopthalmus n.sp. Illustrations are then published in journal articles and other scientific publications. Photo: P Ovenden, Australian Museum
Providing access to its collections is one of the Australian Museum's most important functions. You access the collections every time you visit the Museum. Our website, outreach programs and publications also give further access to the vast wealth of information in our collections.
The Museum also has an active loan program with research and educational institutions around the world. We also welcome visiting national and international scientists and students who wish to study specimens and objects in our collections.
Through outreach programs, the Museum provides indigenous communities access to their cultural objects held in its collections. For example many Aboriginal communities are establishing and maintaining their own museums, called 'Cultural Centres' or 'Keeping Places' and developing cultural exhibitions within them. Museum staff work with communities to produce these exhibits using objects from the Australian Museum's collections and local knowledge within the community.
The Museum also undertakes the repatriation of significant cultural objects and ancestral remains to indigenous communities both within Australia and overseas. These objects and remains have immense spiritual and cultural meaning to indigenous communities and the Museum holds these values above any other interests.
Sydney University museum studies students Elizabeth Thomas and Michelle Brown working with the Australian Museum Pacific collection. Photo: S Humphreys, Australian Museum
Visiting scientist Dr. Hiroyuki Motomura is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Dr. Motomura is studying a number of different families of fishes that are well represented in the Australian Museum's Fish Collection. Photo: S Humphreys, Australian Museum
Phil Gordon, Manager of the Aboriginal Heritage Unit, with Roy and June Barker from the Goondee Keeping Place. The axe in Roy's hand is one that the Museum purchased from him in the 1980's. Photo: C Bento, Australian Museum
Specimens and objects from the collections are on display in all permanent exhibitions. You access the collections every time you visit the Museum. Photo: S Humphreys in the Reptile Gallery, Australian Museum
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