Queensland Museum
Fast facts
In 2012, Queensland Museum celebrates 150 years of connecting and
collecting.
The number of items currently in the State Collection – so those officially
accessioned into the collection - is more than 1.043 million.
The current worth of the collection is almost $389 million.
Some of the more unusual items in the collection include:

Handwritten notes relating to the 1928 first Pacific Crossing of the
Southern Cross by Charles Kingsford Smith passed between crewmen
during the flight.

Parts of plastic chairs used by the notorious Brenden Abbott, the
'Postcard Bandit', to escape from maximum security prison on
November 5 1997.
The Queensland Museum has an extensive library with a rare books room
that houses, among other treasures, an original 1830s copy of John Gould’s
Birds of Australia.
The Museum has a working conservation lab where staff use specialised
techniques to maintain precious objects and specimens and treat them prior
to display or loan.
Some of the smallest items at the Queensland Museum are our collection of
almost 50,000 bird malaria parasites –10 micrometres long and visible only
via a high power research light microscope.
The largest natural history specimen in the collection is a 15 metre adult
humpback whale skeleton.
A rare collection of Commonwealth Patents dating from 1904 to 1965
occupies approximately 25 shelf metres.
The largest cultural heritage item is the Mephisto tank, the only surviving A7V
tank in the world. The German tank was captured by a mainly Queensland
Battalion during the First World War.
The Queensland Museum’s geological and fossil collection is among the
largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Queensland Museum has a dermestid beetle room. These flesh eating
scavenger beetles and their larvae are used to clean skeletons being
prepared for the collection and display http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IurkCaDBQmg
As of 31 December 2011, more than 3,774 natural history species, including
fossil specimens have been officially described by Queensland Museum
researchers – the first mention of them as a new scientific species.
More than 1,954 papers have been published in the Museum journal, the
Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. In 2012 the Memoirs turn 100 years
old.
The Museum is home to world class researchers and historians, a publishing
business and many regional outreach services.
In 2010-11, the Museum network connected with more than 2.4 million people
through visits to our museums, hands-on loan kits sent throughout
Queensland, our virtual museum online and through our best-selling
publications.
The Museum has had 12 Directors in charge, the current CEO being Dr Ian
Galloway.
The Queensland Museum network includes four public tourist attractions,
Queensland Museum & Sciencentre in Brisbane, the Workshops Rail
Museum in Ipswich, Cobb+Co Museum in Toowoomba and the Museum of
Tropical Queensland in Townsville.
In 2012:
Queensland Museum celebrates 150 years
Cobb+ Co Museum celebrates 25 years
The Museum of Tropical Queensland celebrates 25 years
The Workshops Rail Museum celebrates 10 years.
Fast dates
1862 Queensland Museum was founded on 20 January 1862 by the
Queensland Philosophical Society, operating in a room set aside in
The Old Windmill on Wickham Terrace
1871 The Government officially assumed responsibility for the Museum.
1871 Charles Coxen was appointed the first curator. A naturalist, politician
and public servant, as the honorary curator, he was credited as the
founder of the Queensland Museum.
1873 The first permanent staff member was appointed – K.T. Staiger,
government analyst and museum custodian – to do mineral essays as
well as look after the Museum.
1876 The first Board of Trustees was appointed.
1880 In March the first purpose-built museum was opened in William Street,
Brisbane.
1901 On 1 January, Federation Day, the Museum opened a new site on
Gregory Terrace, now fondly known as The Old Museum.
1970 The Queensland Museum Act was developed.
1986 Queensland Museum moves to the Cultural Precinct at South Bank.
2004 The Sciencentre joined the Museum at the Cultural Precinct.
2011 Renovations at the Queensland Museum & Sciencentre enhance
visitor accessibility.
2012 Queensland Museum celebrates 150 years of collecting and
connecting.