Galleries / Museums

 Parkes Pl E, Parkes ACT 2600, Australia +61 2 6240 6411 Website 10am – 5pm Canberra Campervan Hire

spitefulmashed (contributor)

The National Gallery of Australia, contains a very varied collection of work ranging from art as in pictures to fabric, jewellery, sculpture, etc. Its collection is divided into a number of geographic collections

Aboriginal Art Collection
In 2010 the National Gallery building was extended and a new wing – basically devoted to Aboriginal art (but including a new entrance and foyer, Gallery shop and a new function and event space was added). While formally the Gallery’s Aboriginal display offering was limited and not that interesting it now offers a much larger range in beautiful bright and spacious surroundings. The most stunning, evocative and perhaps controversial piece is the Aboriginal Memorial which can be entered directly from the main (new) reception area (see below). The Gallery’s collection of Aboriginal art (not all on display) includes about 7500 pieces and includes bark paintings, western style paintings (eg Albert Namatjira), more traditional “dot” style paintings, textiles, weavings, prints, drawings, photography, headdresses and sculpture.

Australian Art Collection
This collection covers the early colonial period to the present day with art of all styles form realism impressionism, symbolism, expressionism realism, surrealism and modern art covered.

Asian Collection
Sculptures (in a large part religious), textiles, paintings, prints and manuscripts are displayed in three main spaces dedicated to Art of the Indian subcontinent, Art of Southeast Asia and Art of East Asia.

European & American Art Collection
All major styles are covered in three galleries with a number of very famous artists such as Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Warhol represented.

Pacific Arts Collection
A very worthy collection of Polynesian and Melanesian art from Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands in between.

Wabat’s recommendations

Based on what I like (and this is off course a personal recommendation) you should not miss the following items:

Jackson Pollock – Blue Poles (or to use the artist’s title – No 11) is an abstract expressionist painting and one of the most famous works by American artist Jackson Pollock. It was purchased amid controversy (over its cost at $1.3m) by the National Gallery in 1973

Sidney Nolan – Ned Kelly Series – a series of paintings on the life of famous Australian Bushranger (outlaw) Ned Kelly.

Monet – Waterlilies and Haystacks at noon – paintings which likely need no introduction

Aboriginal Memorial – The Memorial consists of 200 hollow log coffins from central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory with each pole representing a year of European occupation. Together they stand as a memorial to all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who lost their lives during the colonial occupation in Australia from 1788 to 1988. Created 1987-88. The path through the installation represents the Glyde River in central Arnhem Land.

Sculpture Garden (see separate tip)

Turrell’s Skyspace (see separate tip)

I have refrained (though hard it is to do) from commenting on a number of pieces in the Gallery (including an approximately 2m by 2m white canvas) on the basis that art can be a very personal thing. But really ………. I stop!

Additional offerings
The gallery hosts excellent world class touring exhibitions – check out what’s on when you visit. At the time of writing this tip “TOULOUSE- LAUTREC – Paris & the Moulin Rouge” was finishing up awaiting the Arrival of “TURNER FROM THE TATE -The Making of a Master”. Alas these are not free!

The Gallery also hosts talks and films on a regular basis – many of these have no admission charge – check out the website for details.

Shop – The Gallery has a large and well stocked gift shop. Lots of interesting things in here including posters.

Catering – The Gallery has a cafe and an outdoor (weather permitting) coffee shop. While the food and coffee are both of good quality, prices are outrageously expensive.

Photography is prohibited inside the building – attached internal photos were taken some years ago before this rule came in.

Opening hours – Daily 10am – 5pm (closed Christmas day)

Admission fee : Free (but special exhibitions incur a charge)

starbuckstrevor (contributor)

This is the region’s first school and school master’s residence. It was built in 1845 (70 years before Canberra was named) by Robert Campbell of Duntroon estate, to provide an elementary education for children from the estate and surrounding farms.

The original building was destroyed in a fire in 1864 so the building you see today is a replacement building of that date, again built by the Campbell family. The school operated continuously from 1845 to 1880 and again from 1895 to 1907 when it finally closed as a school. Between 1907 and 1969 the building was either leased out or used by St John’s church.

In 1969 the Schoolhouse opened as a museum of early district education. It displays many nineteenth and early twentieth-century photographs relating to Canberra’s schools, churches, rural history and the beginnings of the city. While this is a small display it is very informative if you take time to examine it in some detail. It provides the visitor a great photographic summary of Canberra’s development. While I don’t know when the black and white photo attached was taken it shows St Johns church and schoolhouse before much other development in the area. The chap out shooting is located roughly where ANZAC Parade is to-day. The absence of the current spire on St John’s church dates the photo as pre 1878.

Entrance fee: Gold coin donation welcome.

Opening hours
Wednesday 10 a.m. – 12 noon
Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays 2.00 – 4.00 p.m.
Closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day

slateemploy (contributor)

A great place to get your bearings and learn something of the story of the national capital through a combination of audio-visual displays, films, photographs and artifacts prior to going out and exploring. The Canberra “Sound and Light Show” with its scale model of central Canberra gives an excellent overview of the city’s layout and the location of all the main tourist sites. Also look out though the windows for an excellent view of the central basin of Lake Burley Griffin.

The exhibition outlines how Canberra was chosen as the site for the national capital on 8 October 1908 – yes it really was a compromise as the people of Melbourne and Sydney respectively could not stomach the other city being selection capital. An almost empty sheep paddock 300kms from Sydney and 600kms was chosen as the capital of Australia.

A competition was then launched to find someone to design a city. This was won by American architect, Walter Burley Griffin. Today Canberra is recognised as one of the world’s greatest planned capital cities in the company of Washington DC, Ottawa, Brasilia and Milton Keynes. Ok, I’m joking about Milton Keynes – its is, of course, not the British capital and some would even argue it ranks far for one of the world’s greatest planned cities. I’ve not been there so I wont buy into the latter argument.

Prior to entering, or preferably on leaving – with your new found knowledge on Canberra, the National Capital Exhibition do pause for a minute or two to admire the Walter Burley Griffin Terrazzo (on the ground!) – a mosaic created by Australian artist David Humphries of Walter Burley Griffin’s 1912 prize winning design for Canberra.

Allow about 30 minutes for your overview.

Opening Hours
9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday. Closed public holidays except Australia Day and Canberra Day.

Admission Fee : Free

FaxGrit (contributor)

If you’ve got this far then you’ll already be aware that Canberra is ‘artificial’ in that it’s been planned from scratch and is quite a recent edition to the Australian landscape.

This small museum is actually quite a pleasant surprise. I was expecting quite a dry display, but the history of ACT and the Australian National Capital is told here in an interesting way, with plenty of colourful visuals, not too much text and various interactive opportunities. From pre-European settlement through to present day developments. Not a huge exhibition, can kill maybe an hour max depending on your boredom threshold, it’s just about the right size. Take a look at the interactive map inside and the original plan for Canberra designed by Burley Griffin which is laid into the ground outside the main entrance.

The gift shop could do with some imagination, much of it is of the ‘cuddly koalas’ and Aussie flags variety – that is, very little that is specific to the city or this museum. The coffee shop is a bit sterile but with nice enough coffee and a lovely view of the park.

There’s a short video presentation which is worthwhile. Overall this is a bit of a ‘isn’t our new Capital city great and isn’t it great to be in Australia’ tour, but taken with a pinch of salt it’s worthwhile and informative. You might even be able to work out where things are in Canberra that little bit easier after a visit!

dexterdetail (contributor)

The Canberra Museum and Art Gallery (CMAG) is a bit of an unknown gem in Canberra. Right in the centre of the city, this gallery/museum is tucked inside a revamped office building, near the Canberra Theatre.

As well as permanent exhibitions on the settlement of Canberra, there is a well designed gallery which hosts exhibitions of often interesting and unusual art and sculpture. The space is pleasant, and has a little atrium cafe that is a lovely spot for a short coffee.

They also have a small side room where they hold miniature exhibitions of objects owned by locals. My family once displayed our easter egg collection there. Each year the family members sit down and paint a blown egg, and we have been doing it for about 25 years so now have a large and fascinating collection that reflects our family’s history.

Other mini-exhibitions have included teapots, snow domes and egg cups. Its a fun way to engage local Canberrans in the gallery and the collections can be truly bizarre! There are usually activities connected with these exhibitions. In our case, the family got together and gave egg painting sessions, and in the case of the teapot exhibition, ran tea ceremonies and story telling for the children.

Entry to the museum is free, but very occasionally there might be a cost attached to a particular activity or exhibit.

piperfuturistic (contributor)

Visiting the National museum of Australia, I did not expect to see lots of the things that were on display.
One that was very interesting, was of a rare specimen of a Tasmanian Tiger.

The thylacine is an extinct carnivorous marsupial, most commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger.
There is no information about how or where this specimen was collected with the last well-documented capture of a wild thylacine in 1930. This animal was probably collected around that time.

The thylacine once roamed well beyond Tasmania with fossilised remains being found across the Australian mainland.
They were believed to kill livestock and were often shot and trapped, and even when it was known to be close to extinction, little was done to save them. Luckily, times have changed, and we now protect our endangered species.

The thylacine was declared a protected species in July 1936, shortly before the last animal died in Tasmania’s Beaumaris Zoo on 7 September 1936

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST PRIZED SPECIMENS IN THE MUSEUM.

To see it, visit between 9 – 5pm
ADMISSION IS FREE

kylerheapicasso (contributor)

Canberra is a much-maligned city by those outside of the nation’s capital. Personally, I love visiting the place. Its clean tree-lined main streets, devoid of unsightly telegraph poles, service stations and fast food outlets, are a shining example of how urban planning should be done. As with large towns it also has many tourist attractions, the most popular, according to statistics, is the National Museum of Australia. Personally, over a longer period of time, I believe it would be the War Memorial with the imaginative Parliament House also a major attraction. One time you should try to visit is spring when they have a festival called Floriade. Walking through the banks of arranged flower beds (particularly tulips) in late September/early October would certainly be one of my top ten things while you’re visiting Australia. Set beside the artificial Lake Burley Griffin, the flowers are genetically engineered to all blossom at the same time. The plots are planned to different themes every year at a time when you can just about guarantee you’ll have sunshine.

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