Page 24 - Holidays with Kids - Volume 62 (January 2020)

READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS
1

Best museums

& art galleries Melbourne Museum © John Gollings

1 Melbourne Museum
Carlton, VIC 3
This pantheon of Melburnian culture and knowledge
boasts a huge variety of exhibitions for every age. Feel
dwarfed by the skeleton of diprotodon, the largest
marsupial to ever live, on the Dinosaur Walk; hear
stories of Melbourne’s heroes and scoundrels in The
Melbourne Story; or use virtual reality to learn about
the science of road safety in the Road to Zero National Gallery of Victoria © Julian Opie/Eugene Hyland
experience. Younger tots will love the Pauline Gandel
Children’s Gallery, where they can excavate fossils,
explore the discovery garden, or look at objects to
learn about history. museumsvictoria.com.au

2 Powerhouse Museum
Sydney, NSW
The Powerhouse Museum takes visitors deep inside
the world of technology. Walking through the halls of
the museum, you’ll learn about day-to-day life on the 3 National Gallery of Victoria
International Space Station, see some transport icons Melbourne, VIC
of bygone days (including a Catalina flying boat made Melbourne’s NGV houses one of the most impressive
in 1944), and learn about batteries, lightning and a art collections in the Southern Hemisphere with more
bunch of other scientific phenomena through than 70,000 artworks showcasing important works of
experimentation. The museum will begin moving to its European, Asian, Oceanic, American and Australian art.
new Parramatta site at the end of June 2020, so get in Diverse temporary exhibitions pop up throughout the
quick if you want to catch all the exhibits in their year and school holidays see the NGV come alive with
current home. maas.museum programs that include shows and hands-on workshops
for kids. And the NGV Kids Space offers a play space
where little ones can engage with art. A short walk
3 Questacon leads to NGV’s Ian Potter Centre and incredible displays
Canberra, ACT of Australian and Indigenous art. ngv.vic.gov.au
If this isn’t on your next Canberra trip’s itinerary, then
you’re clearly doing holidaying wrong. Questacon is a
staple of primary school Canberra trips, and is as much 4 Australian Museum
fun for adults as it is for kids. Feel weightless as you fall Sydney, NSW
down the six-metre-tall Free Fall slide, feel the force of
an earthquake and look at the differences between 5 Queensland Gallery
humans and robots. The museum has more than 200 of Modern Art
interactive exhibits and features science shows that South Brisbane, QLD
cover everything from engineering to ethics. There’s so
much to do here that you could easily spend a whole 6 Museum of Contemporary
day. Who knew science could be so much fun? Art Australia
questacon.edu.au Sydney, NSW

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