Queensland Museum, Brisbane

The Queensland Museum is part of the arts complex at Southbank just across the river from the CBD. The museum has been a part of the Queensland landscape for more than 150 years and has previously had homes at the Old Windmill, the Parliament Building, the Old Post Office and it was housed at the Exhibition Building for 86 years until it moved to its current site in 1985. To celebrate the museum’s 150th anniversary in 2012 it was extensively refurbished in order to provide Queenslanders with even better tangible access to their past and give visitors a clearer understanding of where the state has been and where it may go in the next 150 years.

There are more than one million artifacts in the museum’s collection, but popular permanent fixtures include: the dinosaur garden; a German AV7 tank; Captain Cook’s compass, Queensland aviator, Burt Hinkler’s aircraft from his solo flight from England to Australia in the 1920s and indigenous artifacts from the 19th century. The museum is open every day from 9.30 am - 5.00 pm. It is closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day and on ANZAC Day from 1.30 pm. General entry is free, but there may be some exhibitions that charge a small fee.