Sydney
-cities of the world-
Museums
Sydney has interesting museums, starting with the Australian National Maritime Museum reinforcing Sydney's link to the ocean. The Powerhouse Museum exibits all sorts of artifacts, paying homage to science while the Australian Museum dedicates its rooms to Natural Science. Fine pictures and art objects make the ecclectic collection at the Art Gallery.
Australian National Maritime Museum
As the natives say, the ANMM is chock-a-block full of things to see and do, all relating to Australia's relationship with the sea. The contents are no big surprise, considering that 90% of the descendants of European ancestry that settled this island live within about 60km of the shore.
The structure is reminiscent of a lowered, scaled-down version of the Sydney Opera house with its sail motif. And a well chosen architectural theme it is, given what's on display.
The six galleries making up the museum, and the contents outside as well, offer everything from figureheads and model ships to brass hardware, antique racing yachts to the jet-powered Spirit of Australia. The latter has held the world water speed record, for going on 30 years. Another award winner, the double scull Barcelona used to win the Olympic Games gold medal is there as well.
A recent addition, the USA Gallery, houses artifacts from the Smithsonian and elsewhere from the United States.
An open-air section offers several vessels tied up at the wharves nearby the museum, including a WWII destroyer and the HMAS Vampire, a Royal Australian Navy destroyer. There's an Oberon Class submarine from 1968 as well as the lightship Carpentaria from 1917. A merchant ship, the James Craig, built in 1874 is housed there, too.
Not all the works are original, but even the replicas are fascinating. Captain James Cook's ship Discovery has been re-created and has recently returned after an 11 year voyage around the seas.
Another, the Endeavour, has also recently come home after a trip to Melbourne. Entries from the captain's log are available at the website.
Visitors can get a feel for what life was like on the convict ships that sailed from Britain to Australia. They can see how Australia's first submarine fought at Gallipoli in WWI. Tourists can see a Vietnamese refugee boat that carried its passengers all the way to the shores of Australia and a racing cutter from 1888.
The James Craig, an iron-hulled, square rigger is open to visitors. Carefully restored over the last 20 years it still sails the harbor from time to time.
The history of Australia goes back much further than the landing of Captain Cook's ship at Port Jackson, however. The museum also has many displays depicting how the native Aborigines traded with their Asian 'neighbors'.
There are videos and guided tours that both educate and entertain along with photographic exhibits and computer games. Kids can find out how a lighthouse works with a hands-on display of the lens and light mechanism.
The ANNM is located at 2 Murray Street Darling Harbour. Visit www.anmm.gov.au for details on hours and admission prices. Basic admission is free, but there are varying charges depending on which and how many ships you want to explore.
Powerhouse Museum
A part of Sydney for over 125 years, the Powerhouse Museum has housed science and technology exhibits at the present site since 1988.
With over 400,000 artifacts - many acquired from the original owners - the museum offers one of the world's outstanding collections. It also offers ongoing and ever-changing displays that educate and entertain - from the history of TV to the most up-to-date results from astronomy.
The site is as inspirational as the objects housed there. Built in a renovated 19th century power station, the museum offers hands-on exhibits of the sort found in any science museum. Fascinating experiments with soap bubbles, electricity and magnetism and the usual gamut. But it goes well beyond these.
There are displays of the history of musical instruments not far from the latest videos of interstellar nebulae. It even houses the first steam locomotive to operate in new South Wales (the region of which Sydney is the capital).
The Locomotive No. 1 exhibit recreates a journey from Sydney to Parramatta in 1863. With audio and video it helps show visitors what train travel was like during that period. One of the rare period trains still in existence, it has been part of the collection for more than 120 years.
Nearby is the Strasbourg Clock, built in 1887, a working model of the astronomical clock in Strasbourg's Notre Dame cathedral. That's the cathedral in Strasbourg, not the more famous one of the same name in Paris.
Since most of the artifacts are in storage at any given time, repeat visitors are likely to find something new on every trip.
The computer collection is ever changing as new models join old in the museum's exhibits. Visitors can sit in a life-size space shuttle cockpit and try out the chocolate tasting machine.
There's even an exhibit on the history of cinema, the highlight of which is a 1930s Art Deco-style theater. The seats are from the Manly Odeon, built in 1932.
The 'Inspired!' section offers dozens of objects that show the history of design.
Here, hand-made items and the machine-tooled sit side by side. The revival of the crafts movement shows many objects, such as glass bowls, inspired by the rebellion against industrialization. Others show the gleaming objects of Art Deco or Scandinavian modernism that embraces and celebrates it.
Everything from kettles and burners of 1878 to 21st century factory made watches are to be found on display. One item of note is an early 1960s armless chair designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry, which looks much like a piece of melted taffy, folded onto itself.
Going beyond the variety to be found in most science museums, it's almost a Natural History museum.
There's a section of the mast of Lord Nelson's ship, the HMS Victory, used at the Battle of Trafalgar. There's also a wheel from Bluebird, the car used to break the world land speed record in the 1960s.
These, along with half the other items in the collection are to be housed in a new building at Castle Hill. The original, modern site of the museum is at 500 Harris Street.
Be sure to visit both and enjoy everything inventive Australians have produced for 200 years or more.
Australian Museum
Established in 1827, the Australian Museum was the country's first major collection of natural artifacts. First opened to the public in 1857, the Australian Museum is Sydney's premier offering in the arena of Natural History.
Spread over three floors, the architecture alone is worth a visit. The sandstone Greek-style porticos invite the curious of all ages. The neo-classical building houses artifacts from Australia, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere in the Pacific region. There are first-rate exhibits in mineralogy, insects, birds, reptiles and a host of other areas.
Not surprisingly, the dinosaur exhibit is ever-popular. There are several imposing skeleton specimens. But there are more modern reptiles as well, including their descendants, the birds. Cockatoos, lyrebirds, honeyeaters, bowerbirds, Emus and others. There's even a Night Parrot, one of only 24 such specimens in the world.
The museum has several educational tools that entertain as they enlighten. Come find out how birds acquired hollow bones and why they developed feathers. The skeleton samples, too, provide an excellent overview of the structure of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles.
The Insect Gallery houses a wide variety, including some distinctive poisonous creatures found only in Australia. Here visitors can find out just how venomous is the funnel spider and why another is called the Australian Upside-Down Fly.
Kids will get a thrill out of learning about Australia's 300 different kinds of snails, along with seeing blood-sucking leeches, scary scorpions and hairy spiders.
But the non-threatening part of the collection is just as interesting. The museum's butterfly specimens are among the most diverse and beautiful found anywhere.
Visitors can spend time profitably exploring the non-living world as well. The Albert Chapman Mineral Collection is small by New York or London standards, but there are many gems here (pun intended).
Collected from all over the world, the highlights are the Australian minerals. Unique, as the country itself is, the Albert Chapman also has several computer displays that provide in-depth information about the specimens.
An adjunct to the Albert Chapman is the Planet of Minerals exhibition where visitors can learn about the rocks native to Sydney Harbor (technically known as Port Jackson).
Students of all ages can explore how minerals and rocks are formed, how the Earth has changed over the eons, what meteorites are like, and what forms limestone caves or volcanoes.
The exhibition features a 4.2 billion year old zircon found in Western Australia, along with opals and an entire Gem Vault full of precious stones.
As you would expect from an island so closely tied to the sea, there is also an extensive array of shells and other fossils from the native waters.
Be prepared to spend the day, or come for multiple visits as there is far too much to see in one outing.
Parking is pricey, so visitors may want to take the train and exit at Museum Station or St James Station. The George Street bus is another low-cost, low-hassle alternative. Get off at Town Hall and walk up Park Street.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The gallery is as individual as the country of Australia itself. Housing every style from 16th century landscape to the latest fad-with-no-name, this Sydney museum offers something for every taste.
One of three major public galleries but the only one in Sydney, the building itself is worth a long visit. Classical Greek columns festooned with cloth drapes advertising the latest exhibits remind visitors of a small version of the Metropolitan in New York.
Opened in 1884, but redone at the turn of the 20th century in the classical tradition, every angle says 'art museum'. The modern additions are well integrated thanks not only to the design, but also to the subtle blend of gray concrete and sandstone. The exhibition space was more than doubled in 1971. The latest major addition was the Captain Cook Bicentenary Wing, completed in 1988.
The Australian Collection offers a wide representative sample of works from the country's European-ancestry natives. Sculptors and painters both have works here, with such artists as Roberts and McCubbin among the collection. Roberts' 1894 The Golden Fleece and McCubbin's 1896 On The Wallaby Track are on display.
The Captain Cook wing houses works from the 20th century, also with a strong emphasis on Australian artists.
On the third level, the Yiribana gallery displays works from Australia's Aboriginal artists, with a wide selection of craft objects produced over many centuries. More modern Aboriginal artists' works are housed in the 20th century Australian wing. The museum also holds several works representing Torres Strait Islander art.
Reflecting its Pacific location, the museum has an outstanding Asian collection on the ground floor and in an area below it.
Chinese and Japanese art both ancient and modern form part of the collection. But parts of India and Southeast Asia are also represented. Divided by geographical region, the displays allow visitors to easily find any distinct areas of interest.
The Western Collection is small, but holds many items of interest to lovers of 16th century Italian and Dutch, 19th century Victorian and others. The Australian Heidelberg school is well represented, with several impressionistic landscapes from the period. There are also more modern works on display, including contemporary Australians.
Outside, the grounds offer several delightful areas for a picnic. On those excessively hot days for which Sydney is famous you can lunch in the 2nd floor cafe inside. On the top floor is a pricey restaurant for those who want to sample the museum's best.
The museum offers a variety of new programs. One month, modern photography will be the highlight, the next, visitors may catch a musical performance of a modern Aboriginal performer. One can even spot the occasional tour guide directing children through the collection dressed as a fruit bat.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales is as eclectic and interesting as the country hosting it and is located a short walk across from the Royal Botanic Gardens, not far from the Sydney Opera House.
Where to go from here? Taste Oceania through ist food, enjoy the exhuberance of Oceania and its wine, or return to World Food and Wine home page and seek a new adventure.
