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The fantasy of history coming to life within a city museum - just a tale from our cinema screens? Or a real life experience? Enter one of Melbourne’s many and varied museums you will be convinced of the latter. During the light of day, our museums are alive and kicking with ideas and innovations; the sciences and past civilizations; and all the nuisances of history.

Melbourne has a rich tradition of fascinating exhibits. The Centennial Extravaganza of 1888 at the Exhibition building showcased the sciences and industrial innovations of the young colony. This exhibit is now remembered at the Exhibition building’s neighbor, the slick and stylish Melbourne museum.

But Victoria’s history and culture is more than that introduced since European settlement. The Melbourne Museum, through the permanent and special exhibits in the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Culture Centre shares the history and stories of the Kulum Nation. Told through intimate, personal stories, the centre reveals the importance in aboriginal culture of connection to country (Victoria has over 36 separate aboriginal countries). This is powerfully conveyed in the “Returning to country” hearse displayed from the Funeral Club of the 1970’s.

Other exhibits in this modern, spacious museum include the “Mind and Body” gallery, where the wonders of the human form are brought to life. Victoria’s marine life from the shallows of the “Jelly zone” to the depth of the seamounts can be explored in the “Science & Life” gallery, while all things creepy crawly are on show in the “Bugs Alive” gallery, don’t miss the opportunity to get inside a living ant hill!. Our technical history is not forgotten, with CSIRAC, Australia’s first computer on display; nor the kids, with a hands on interactive gallery for the under 8’s where they can unearth a dinosaur fossil or explore their own growth cycle. However all the family is guaranteed to marvel at the unique exhibit “Forest Secrets”, that shows visitors everything from the subterranean life forms to the towering tall timbers that can be found in Victoria’s mountain forests.

My personal favourite is the community collections in the “Australia gallery”. This revolving exhibit celebrates the human love of collecting. Everything from needlework to board games, milk cartons to royalty, both the modern British monarchy to sci-fi royalty – Star Trek!, have featured in this display of personal and community group collections.

Community displays are also a feature of Melbourne’s Immigration Museum, housed at the old Custom house. Presented by Victoria’s many cultural community groups, the exhibits share the unique experience of each groups’ migration to Australia.

The museum is rich with personal tales of the journey to our shores, from a family of Russian Jews who made the arduous trip in the 1890’s to a young Sudanese woman who made the no less difficult journey in the 1990’s. The highly emotive combination of personal mementos and individual stories portray the mix of fear, excitement, lose and anticipation that accompany the immigration experience.

To compliment these personal accounts, the museum follows in detail the events and, policies that shaped Australia’s immigration history. In the gallery “Getting in”, visitors can try their hand at the controversial “dictation test” or participate in candidate interviews that presents immigration experiences from the 1920’s, 60’s and the present day.

Our Chinese community has a long proud history of immigration to Australia. In the basement of the Chinese Museum, this darkened cavernous space has been converted into a replica of a Chinese mining town from the Victorian Gold Rush era, the boom period when 50,000 Chinese made Australia home.

The museum celebrates the trials and successes of establishing life in Australia for the Chinese community. From merchants introducing Chinese products such as tea and herbal remedies, to farmers cultivating market gardens in the unfamiliar terrain and as community leaders who sort to blend traditional culture with the lifestyle of the new homeland. Photos of the members of the Young Chinese league dancing at debutante balls, playing in the Chinese football team of the 1930’s and proudly carrying traditional lions and dragons in Melbourne and Victoria festivals are wonderful tributes to a community who embraced the new while holding onto the traditions of the past.

The museum is home to these colorful and highly decorative parade lions and dragons. The curving long stairway to the basement is cleverly used to display the 66 metre long dragon's tale!

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image is another museum to explore life in Victoria. Using the medium of the moving image, individuals and community groups have contributed their stories to the many short films on display in the “Memory Grid”.

Sitting in one of many viewing “pods”, visitors are invited to select stories based on either location or various themes such as “Migrant women to Australia”, “Voices from the Riverland” or “Challenges and Aspirations”. In the classic style of oral history, the digital storytelling projects convey the individual’s life journey in their own voice. Whether it be an aboriginal artist from Echuca, the multi-generational history of a Chinese family in Bendigo or the challenges of being a female farmer in rural Victoria, the words and images bring these personal stories to life.

From personal tales to the story of a city, the City Museum at the old Treasury Building presents the many and varied facets of life in Melbourne. With a focus on the areas growth and expansion since European settlement, we are given snap-shots of the city as a simple village, carefully planned grid city, and a booming gold-era metropolis. With the cities and the Treasury Buildings inexplicable links with Victoria’s gold rush of the 1850’s, the former vaults showcase the influences and impact of gold on the state. From pirates in the bay to bushrangers along the highway, to the flourish of grand architecture and the creation of exquisite gold and silverware.

The Treasury building was more than the location to manage and store the states mined wealth, it was also a family home. Reproduced in the basement is the 1920’s home of the Superintendent and his family of seven. Listen to the sounds of family life from a by-gone era, like all the exhibits in Melbourne’s museums, it is truly captivating.

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