Archives: Discovery Centres

Part of the Queensland Museum Network and home to the National Carriage Collection, discover a variety of interactive displays, exhibits and heritage trade workshops. Immerse yourself in Toowoomba’s natural and cultural history and revisit an Australian transport era. Wander through the charming National Carriage Collection and discover how the 47 horse-drawn vehicles played an important…

The SA Whale Centre is located in a beautiful historic goods shed that was built in 1864. The railway line from Port Elliot ran past the nearby Victor Harbor station, through the goods shed and along The Causeway to the wharves on Granite Island. The Centre has skeleton displays, videos, interactive exhibits and a kids play…

The French explorer d’Entrecasteaux sailed along the southern coast of Western Australia in 1792, naming the locality of Esperance when he landed there, seeking shelter from a storm. The Esperance Museum was established in 1976 and presents local social history as well as displays of agricultural, maritime, railway and space artefacts. The museum is located in the former Esperance railway…

This five hour cruise explores historic Macquarie Harbour, ducking out Hells Gate into the Southern Ocean before passing salmon farm pens and heading serenely up the tannin stained water of the Gordon River. The boat moors by a rain forest on the bank of the river and passengers can explore the huon pine forest, including…

Visitors can see at least some of the six 22 m dish shaped radio telescopes making up the Paul Wild Observatory, which form part of the multi-site Australia Telescope. Even though the dishes are spread out over up to 6 km, they work together, and they can be moved on a very wide guage railway…

Naracoorte is a system of 26 limestone caves, and four of these are open to the public. The various caves were formed over half a million years ago and they are a significant site for fossil research. The Caves are a World Heritage site, recognising the significance of the many fossil deposits, especially of the…

The Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst is the home of the Somerville Collection, the lifetime’s work of Professor Warren Somerville who gathered beautiful minerals from all around the world, as well as from over 100 Australian mine sites. There are two main galleries for fossils and minerals, a temporary exhibition space for travelling shows and a shop. The Museum hosts…

The National Dinosaur Museum has over 300 fossils on display, as well as 23 complete dinosaur skeletons. There are dinosaur dioramas and an outdoor park with lifelike dinosaur models. The museum explores geological history and evolution and there are guided tours on the weekend. There is a gift shop and the museum also hosts children’s…

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is nestled in the grounds of the Mount Coot-tha campus of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. The planetarium seats 125 people under the dome and it has a new digital sky projector. The observatory has a 15 cm refractor and a 20 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (note that visitors need to be 150 cm tall to be…

On Mondays there is a 90 minute tour of the Gladstone Power Station starting at 1.00 pm. The power station is Queensland’s largest, with its six turbines generating almost 1.7 GW. The power station consumes about 11 000 tonnes of coal each day and most of the power is used by the nearby aluminium smelter. The tour…