Australian Museum - NEW Revamp - Sydney - Review
The revamped Australian Museum reopened a few weekends ago after a $57.5 million renovation adding more than 3,000 sqm of new public space. The NEW Australian Museum includes a new expanded Grand Hall called Hintze Hall, new touring exhibition spaces, a larger Museum Shop, an additional café upstairs in the old KidSpace, new cloaking facilities and public amenities downstairs and throughout.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The touring exhibition spaces are now located downstairs with the NEW Tyrannosaurs - Meet the Family exhibition now open for visitors which we loved, very interactive! Our review here.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The old KidSpace has been replaced with the Billabong Waterhole Café and a large sitting area (further room on the right of the photo below) where visitors can enjoy a coffee and eat their morning tea/lunch/snacks etc. The café uses The Little Marionette coffee which was nice as well as some of the food.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The previous occasional play room for school holiday activities has now been replaced by Prehistoric Playground which replaces the old Kid Space and Search & Discovery Space. I was told by an Australian Museum employee that additional kid spaces will be created in 2021 to make up for the reduced kid spaces.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The Prehistoric Playground has a dino inspired setup to coincide with the touring exhibition Tyrannosaurs - Meet the Family. It has a reading nook, fossil cleaning station, a little dino theatre, colouring activity table and more.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
There’s also a Fossil Lab area where demos take place, there are stations for kids to observe fossils and the like using a microscope.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
There’s also a paper plane station and area for flying it amongst the dinosaurs!
Photo credit: @busycitykids
As well as a flight station where kids can cut paper cups and test them for flight (similar to Questacon and Scienceworks flying stations)
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The highlight of the Prehistoric Playground was by far the Paperassic Park where kids can colour in their dinosaur and put their name or markings on it, scan it and see it come to life, eat, hunt, fly etc on the projected wall. The kids spent most of our time doing this activity, we must have done more than 40 dinosaurs in two seperate sessions!
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
We love the NEW Australian Museum spaces and can’t wait for more kid spaces to be added to the museum so the kids can spend more time there. During our visit, I noticed some signs re a new interactive space to excite young minds.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
There will also be an area replacing the old Minerals space.
We spent almost 3.5 hours during our visit, this included a visit to the Tyrannosaurs exhibition, The 2020 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year free exhibition as well as existing exhibitions we enjoy visiting whenever we go to the museum.
Our tips & info:
The Australian Museum is located at 1 William Street in Sydney CBD.
The venue is wheelchair accessible with lifts available.
Entry is FREE until mid next year (except for touring exhibition) but you must register via the QR codes provided at the entrance for CovidSafe practices.
Please follow CovidSafe practices throughout the museum, 1.5 m social distancing, sanitising and the like to keep everyone safe.
The Australian Museum has sanitising stations all over the museum and in each exhibition space across the museum.
The Australian Museum is open every day 10am–5pm (Closed Christmas Day).
Early Birds Access Mornings are available for visitors on the autism spectrum or those who have other access requirements with family & friends. Make sure you register with the AM to access before public opening hours.
Summer School Holiday Programs are available - see your Sydney School Holiday Spots post for more info.
Checkout the new Members Lounge if you are a member.
For more information on the newly revamped Australian Museum, head to their website.
For more ideas and reviews for what to do with kids around Sydney, head to our blog where you will find reviews as well as useful guides like our Daily Spots List as well as parents rooms, playgrounds, beaches & pools and more!