Queensland Museum Kurilpa
South Brisbane
Journey through Queensland's prehistoric past and scientific discoveries spanning millennia. A day at Queensland Museum Kurilpa is brimming with opportunities for exploration, from the tiniest specimen to the most powerful megafauna. Visit the permanent exhibitions, galleries, café and museum shop alongside a program of blockbuster exhibitions, events and talks. The Dinosaur Garden is a perennial favourite and dinosaur fans are particularly well catered-to across the museum.
The Discovery Centre is an interactive space where children and adults alike can brush up on their zoology, history and geology, and get up close and personal with everything from beaked whale skeletons, snake skins and taxidermied Tasmanian devils to precious metals and fossils.
Wild State is another highlight, taking visitors through five stunning environments pertinent to Queensland - arid outback, eucalypt forest, tropical rainforest, sunny coastal zones and teeming marine environments.
Uncover 250 million years of life in ancient Queensland at the fascinating pre-historic Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibition. You’ll come face to face with Queensland’s own ’velociraptor’ Australovenator and measure up against mighty Megalania, the world’s largest lizard.
Meanwhile, highlights for young children are the al fresco sponge-floored Dinosaur Garden, where lifelike statues of a T-Rex and Triceratops roam, children run, and burn off some energy.
A last highlight to keep an eye out for is the hulking, great German Mephisto tank, one of only twenty manufactured and the only World War 1 tank left in existence. It was captured by Australian troops and shipped back to Australia, whereupon it resided for decades outside the old Museum building in the Valley, then lived downstairs in the Dinosaur Garden until it was damaged by the floods. and now features in the Anzac Legacy Gallery.
Those wanting more can buy a ticket and head downstairs to SparkLab, which is now incorporated into the Museum proper, otherwise exit via the Whale Mall with its suspended life-sized whales and reverberating primeval cries.
The Museum shop on the way out has a fantastic assortment of cerebral souvenirs, games and gifts for children visitors of all ages.
