Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery

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Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is Launceston's cultural hub with history, natural sciences and visual arts and design as its key collection areas. It has an art gallery in Royal Park and a museum in Inveresk. Both locations are open from 10am­ to 4pm every day except Easter Friday and Christmas Day. Entry is free.



We visited the museum recently and were rather impressed. The Tasmanian Connections gallery displays some of Tasmania's natural science and history. This includes colonial and bushranger artefacts, animals, geological timelines, bikes, buggies and planes, as well as dinosaurs.



The collection that stood out for me though was the excavated material from Sydney Cove. Various parts have been recovered from the wreck. The ship carried cargo such as pottery, Chinese porcelain dinnerware, salted meat, leather, leather shoes, spices, Prussian blue dye, rum and gin. And, examples of these can be explored too. Incredibly, some bottled beer had survived. Its yeast, which was a rare hybrid strain, stayed alive under the sea for 220 years!



I also learned a fair bit from the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) exhibition. This large carnivorous marsupial once lived throughout Australia and New Guinea. However, the last known thylacine died in 1936, and what remains today are a few photographs, objects and stories. An adult female with a pouch is one of the rare specimens on display.



Railways, which began in 1868, transformed Tasmania and ushered in huge economic changes. The Launceston Railway Workshops played an important role during this 125-year period. Although no longer the case, its site now features iconic locomotives as well as workshop and network artefacts.



Signwriting became a crucial job as all sorts of signs were used across the railway network. In the Signwriters' Shop, you can explore the job further and perhaps spot the sign with a spelling error! You can also explore how blacksmiths shaped metal in the Blacksmith Shop, which is home to a large number of machineries. This area was in operation until 1994. For us, getting to the Blacksmith Shop was quite a 'wet' endeavour as rain poured continuously the day we visited.



Besides all these permanent displays, you'll find a couple of temporary exhibitions from time to time too. Unbound (until February 23rd) will expand your understanding of what a book is. I particularly loved the pop-up books which brought back many memories from my childhood. I even learned how to create them in school! For those who are not familiar, pop-up books have 3D features that activate when a page is opened.



Another temporary gallery (until July 20th) focuses on the photography of Olegas Truchanas. Various images have been selected to celebrate his life. He loved Tasmania's wild places and campaigned to expand awareness of the endangered southwest in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.



The museum is worth visiting if you have some free time when in Launceston. As our hotel was nearby, we simply made our way there on foot. However, you can also drive or catch the free Tiger Bus. For more information, including a site map and the full list of exhibitions, head to www.qvmag.tas.gov.au .



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