How to Move a Zoo - Museum of Sydney - Review
This week for our final week of school holidays, we haded to Sydney Living Museum’s Museum of Sydney to checkout their kids exhibition How to Move a Zoo.
After following the paw prints, we headed upstairs to see the exhibition. How to Move a Zoo is based on Sydney’s first public zoo - Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales which was established in 1884 and was located in Billy Goat Swamp in Moore Park which is now occupied by Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls High Schools. After the site was deemed too small, too dusty, noisy and not in the best interest of the animals due to the cages, it moved to the now Taronga Zoo site in Mosman in 1916.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Over a six months period in 1916, hundreds of the zoo’s animals were moved across the city streets and ferried across Sydney Harbour to their new zoo - Taronga Zoo which in Aboriginal means Beautiful View. There were 228 mammals, 552 birds and 64 reptiles at Taronga when it opened. The main figure of this move, was Jessie - a 4 ton elephant who took the interesting journey below to Taronga Zoo. Other animals such as kangaroos, lions and cockatoos and other animals big and small made their way too to enjoy the new view. We loved looking at the historical photographs from the NSW State Archives Collection.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
As soon as we entered the exhibition, the kids started creating their version of the Zoo animals by choosing the type of animal, choosing their size, their speed and colour features. Once created, they watched the animals walk, run, flop and fly through the beautifully illustrated streets of Sydney shown on screen. Kids can choose either a cockatoo, kangaroo with baby joey, a lion, elephant and seal.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
Photo credit: @busycitykids
It was cute seeing the created animals go across the city streets and around the screen, going over the harbour and ending up at the new Taronga Zoo.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
The exhibition also has animal structures which kids can admire, sit on or climb on. Little Mister loved the seal.
After we left the exhibition, little Miss and her brother created a Zoo selfie on the screen provided and added animal elements to their pics which was then sent to our email and displayed on the main screen of the museum.
Photo credit: @busycitykids
We then headed to the craft room where a 1:48 scale model of Jessie’s journey was on display. Jessie took her walk along Macquarie Street to Bennelong Point and this beautiful model showed it well. This scale model was made for the upcoming Tiny Oz tv series which will air on ABC TV in 2022. The tv series follows craftspeople from across Australia as they re-create historical moments in magical miniature.
The kids then made all sorts of animal hats and coloured them in. They loved this activity and we stayed there for some time and came back to make more animals after we re-visited the exhibition and the rest of the museum. Needless to say we left with many! We also completed some of the activities of the Souvenir Program provided when we received with our tickets. How To Move a Zoo at the Museum of Sydney was a nice exhibition and we enjoyed the beautiful illustrations throughout and the craft area, it made us think about animal welfare and how we need to protect wildlife and give them suitable spaces to live in.
Busy City Kids were hosted by the Museum of Sydney for the purposes of a review. Travel & parking was self funded. All opinions & feedback are genuine & truthful.
How to Move a Zoo is on at the Museum of Sydney until the 24th April 2022, for more information or to book tickets, head here.