There are real-world links to almost all the exhibits in SparkLab! Here are some of our favourites. Alligator water dance When a male alligator is ready to find a companion, he produces a sound from his lungs too low to be heard by the human ear. This infrasound creates vibrations through his body which cause the water above him to ‘dance’ in a liquid splash. … Continue reading Where you’ll find SparkLab science in the real world
Insect Investigators – Scientists and schools, coming together to discover, document and describe Australia’s biodiversity. Continue reading Insect Investigators
School holidays have arrived, and curious young minds are already making the most out of their break at SparkLab, exploring the wonder of science and making lifelong memories. Continue reading It starts with a spark!
It was love at first flight for Lores Bonney, who took up the offer of a joy flight in 1928. Continue reading Lores Bonney’s Brisbane
Queensland Museum holds a very important ethno-musical instrument collection donated by Charles and Kati Marson in 2002.
The museum, in partnership with Griffith University, Conservatorium of Music, are the custodians of 830 musical instruments belonging to the Marson Collection. Continue reading Musical instruments from Tibet
Glass was the perfect packaging for medicine during the 19th and early 20th century – stable and strong, and built for ease of branding and distribution. But be warned, sometimes the most decorative bottles hid the most dangers… Continue reading Bottled Health: The benefits of glass for peddling dangerous medicines and cure-alls
“How should we categorise this?” we wondered after reading stories of farmer debates, tales of woe and the occasional exploding animal. Continue reading “Where’s my ten shillings?” and other peculiar museum correspondence
“What are you working on today?” This is a fairly usual question amongst collection staff at Queensland Museum. Continue reading Admiring the finest of thrones on World Toilet Day
As a young animator in Australia, Marie Hambleton (nee Sampson) could only dream to one day be among the likes of renowned Walt Disney Animation Studios artist Mary Blair. Continue reading Marie’s trip down memory lane
For the second installment in this two-part series we take a look at some of innovations that have come from the Walt Disney Animation Studios. These innovations in technology can be explored in more details in Disney: The Magic of Animation now on at Queensland Museum. Continue reading Technological Advances in Animation | Part Two
In this two-part series we take a look at some of innovations that have come from the Walt Disney Animation Studios. These innovations in technology can be explored in more details in Disney: The Magic of Animation now on at Queensland Museum. Continue reading Technological Advances in Animation | Part One
How we can use virtual displays to learn about our collections Written by Sophie Price, Assistant Curator, Anthropology Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre (TATSICC) For many years, if you strolled past Museum of Tropical Queensland to the end of Flinders Street in Gurrambilbarra (Townsville), you’d reach the cultural hub that was the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre. The centre … Continue reading From showcase to online gallery
By Paul Oliver At first sight a Spiny Knob-tailed Gecko looks more like a Pokemon character than a lizard! Not only do they have perhaps the smallest tail of any lizard, but they also have strange enlarged knob of unknown purpose at their tail tip. Furthermore, their tail is so attenuated that they are one of the few geckos that have also lost the ability … Continue reading Understanding the diversity of some of Queensland’s oddest lizards
Celebrating International Music Day – 1st October Photos and text by Karen Kindt, Collection Manager, First Nations Cultures I start my day off listening to classical music on the radio. As the day progresses my music choices transition to 70s, 80s and 90s pop culture. In the evenings, I love exploring and listening to different music genres and musicians. What do you listen to? A recent … Continue reading Music to my ears!
Written by Patrick Couper, Senior Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians, Queensland Museum The beginning of the Plastic Age Large-scale plastic production began in the 1940s. Over the following decade, production was stepped-up to supply items for the mass consumer market. Plastic quickly became an integral part of our daily lives. It was hailed as a wonder product, versatile, light weight and cheap, manufactured from hydrocarbons … Continue reading Throwaway living – decades of marine damage
Dr Sarah Hamylton, President of the Australian Coral Reef Society explains why the dive helmet used on the 1928-29 Great Barrier Reef Expedition brought the coral reef underwater environment within reach for scientists to take measurements for the first time. The exhibition Making Waves: A Century of Australian Coral Reef Science opened at Queensland Museum in August 2022. Over the last nine months Queensland Museum … Continue reading The dive helmet: A revolution in underwater coral reef science
Karen Kindt, Collection Manager, First Nations Cultures Today is World Rhino Day. In acknowledgement of the importance of these amazing creatures and the demise of their populations, the museum has delved into the World Cultures Collection, to showcase a rare, valuable, interesting object – a carved, rhinoceros horn libation cup. Why does the museum hold a cup made of rhinoceros horn? Most people are collectors … Continue reading Reflecting on the collection
Written by Karen Kindt, Collection Manager First Nations Cultures Queensland Museum’s collection is built upon over a hundred years of sourcing and documenting items from Australia and around the world, many of which come into our possession through donations. Recently, the museum received a postal delivery containing a thangka (a Tibetan Buddhist painting on silk applique), however the package was missing any information of the … Continue reading Unboxing the mystery of the Tibetan Thangka
Wednesday 7 September is Indigenous Literacy Day – a national day to raise awareness and funds to support literacy in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. It aims to improve access to educational resources for these communities, as well as create greater opportunity for First Nations voices in publishing. Lead by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), it is also a chance to celebrate the revitalisation and … Continue reading Celebrating First Nations Languages this Indigenous Literacy Day
In 1905 Queensland Railways were publicly criticised for the poor appearance of their stations. the railways acted by planting more trees. They even hired a gardener to maintain gardens at stations across Brisbane. Continue reading Competitive Hedge – How a competition helped Queensland’s railway stations transform from barren to beautiful
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