In the beginning
The land that the Australian Museum is built on is Cadigal country
Interior of the Long Gallery, Australian Museum, geological hall and mineral gallery looking west. Photo: H Barnes, 1887. Australian Museum Archives.
Ellis Troughton (standing) and Arthur Livingstone unpacking their Santa Cruz collection in the Australian Museum yard. Photo: GC Clutton, c.1926. Australian Museum Archives.
Ellis Troughton, Museum mammologist. Photo: Howard Hughes, c.1951. Australian Museum Archives.
Excavation of dugong remains at Shea's Creek, Botany - Museum Curator and palaeontologist Robert Etheridge (Junior) stands centre left in his top hat with WS Dun, Government Palaeontologist on his left, 1896. Australian Museum Archives.
The first exhibition held in the Australian Museum, on 14 November 1854, of specimens sent to the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. Australian Museum Archives.
Ethnological Court at the Garden Palace Exhibition, Sydney, 1879-80. Australian Museum Archives.
AR McCulloch (the Museum's Ichthyologist) in diving dress, Vila, New Hebrides. Photo: G.C Clutton, c.1910. Australian Museum Archives.
Method of catching venemous snake in Museum grounds. Photo: GC Clutton. Australian Museum Archives.
Collection of coral made at Hayman Island, Whitsunday Group, Qld (acquired c.1933). Australian Museum Archives.
Sunfish specimen about to be hauled through west wing window c.1870. Australian Museum Archives.
Australian Museum late 1880s (photograph courtesy of Mitchell Library)
- 1827
- The Australian Museum was first established (originally called the Colonial or Sydney Museum) and a budget of £200 a year was allocated to cover all the running expenses of Australia's first museum.
- 1829
- The first custodian of the Colonial Museum was William Holmes, a carpenter and joiner and keen naturalist. He was appointed as the Museum's Zoologist and was the Museum's first collector. Holmes' museum career was cut short when he was 'shot by accidental discharge of gun while at Moreton Bay collecting birds and other curiosities' in August 1831.
- 1830s
- Like many other Sydney institutions the Australian Museum had to recruit professional staff from convicts who had been transported to New South Wales. After the death of Holmes, the Museum was managed by an Irishman, William Galvin, who had been sentenced for bayoneting a rioter. His assistant at the Museum was Londoner John Roach, who had been transported for stealing clothes. Roach was considered a gifted taxidermist and later opened his own taxidermy business in Hunter Street.
- 1835
- Dr George Bennett, a distinguished naturalist of the time, was appointed as the first Secretary and Curator of the Museum which was, at the time, based at Macquarie Place (near Bridge Street). Bennett published the first catalogue of the Museum's collections.
- 1836
- The Colonial or Sydney Museum as it was known was formally named the Australian Museum.
- 1846
- Construction began on a dedicated Museum building near Hyde Park. Despite assurances from the Colonial Architect that it would be completed the following year it took another 11 years before it opened. Before this time the Museum collections were housed in several locations around the Sydney area.
- 1853
- The Museum Act was passed creating the first Australian Museum board of 24 Trustees.The Act granted £1000 per year to the Trust to spend at their discretion.
- 1857
- The new Australian Museum opened to the public.
- 1861 to 1874
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Under the curatorship of Gerard Krefft, the Australian Museum became recognised as a scientific institution in its own right. An early supporter of Darwinism, Krefft built up the research collections of the Museum (actively exchanging specimens with European naturalists) and described many new animals in local and overseas journals.
'Eventually [Krefft] fell out - partly through his own fault - with the Trustees and with prominent politicians and he barricaded himself in the museum.'
He was finally evicted by one of the Trustees who used the services of two prize-fighters to break down the door and carry Krefft - still in his chair - into the street.
- 1874 to 1894
- Krefft was succeeded by Edward Ramsay, who oversaw major additions to the collections, including 18,000 birds, 7500 anthropological objects and the acquisition of Francis Day's huge collection of Indian fishes.
- 1879
- Thousands of objects from the Australian Museum's Anthropological collections are placed on display in the Ethnographic Court at the Sydney International Exhibition, housed in the Garden Palace.
- 1880s
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The recruitment of scientific staff in the 1880s established the scientific departments in the Museum. Each Curator was both researcher and collection manager until the 1980s when the two functions were separated.
By the late 1880s, Sydney was a major port of call between the Pacific region and Europe. The Australian Museum traded in objects and specimens, by purchase or donation, with traders, ship's captains, colonial officials, merchants, and missionaries. The Museum also acquired specimens and objects through an active exchange program with other museums and by fieldwork.
- 1882
- The Garden Palace built to hold the Sydney International Exhibition burned down and an estimated 2000 Australian Museum objects were lost.
- 1905
- 'Gallery demonstrations' begin as the first popular educational activities of the Museum. These proved popular, and resulted in a successful bid for government funds to build a lecture theatre (opened in 1910).
- 1906
- William Walford Thorpe was appointed as the Museum's first ethnologist.
Collectors
Early collectors were often trained taxidermists but, when collections began to be acquired for local research purposes, fieldwork became the responsibility of scientists.
Anthropological collections
The first Museum catalogue in 1837 lists 25 items from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Few colonists showed interest in indigenous cultures at this time. The early collecting focused on animals, rocks, minerals and fossils, reflecting the expertise of those running the Museum.
Interest in Aboriginal culture remained limited at the Museum until 1887 when Robert Etheridge became Curator (1895 - 1919). Etheridge actively built up the anthropological collection. Although a palaeontologist, he was very interested in Aboriginal prehistory and was the first to carry out systematic archaeological excavations at Aboriginal burial sites.
This new interest in Aboriginal culture took time to make an impact on the collections. Artefacts from Melanesian culture st ill dominated the collection until the early 20 th century.
Today the collections, numbering approximately 1,110,000 individual items, are a major strength of the Museum because of their size, breadth, range and historical significance.
Copyright © Australian Museum 2004