Written by Geoff Thompson, Collection Imager, Queensland Museum For such small creatures, capturing an insect’s close-up is a big job. When that close-up is to be displayed on the side of a building – at roughly the height of a bus – it’s an even bigger job! This was the certainly the case when I was tasked with creating an image to feature in a new building banner at Queensland Museum Kurilpa. The process involved selecting several candidate species, obtaining fresh specimens, capturing hundreds of source photos, and meticulously applying focus-stacking and extensive editing over many hours ..read more

To celebrate the release of Queensland Museum’s new field guide, Dragonflies and damselflies of south-east Queensland, we chatted with the author Dr Chris Burwell, Senior Scientist and Curator of Entomology. What got you into entomology? I was very lucky to grow up on a small rural property and was fascinated by the natural world. I spent most of my free time looking for birds, reptiles, frogs, and mammals but also invertebrates, particularly insects. After high school I enrolled in a science degree at The University of Queensland (UQ). On my father’s advice I did a lot of chemistry subjects ..read more

By Tess Shingles – Assistant Curator, Queensland Stories The first Monday in May. When celebrities, fashion, and museums collide at the Met Gala. A glamourous way to raise money and awareness for one of the world’s most renowned museums, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tickets for the first Gala in 1949 cost $50, but the event has grown so dramatically that tickets in 2023 cost $50,000. That is, if you make the exclusive guest list. The theme for this year’s Met Gala is “The Garden of Time” and it coincides with the Met’s spring exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakenin ..read more

No need to hop on a plane or find your passport! You can now see five iconic cities at Queensland Museum Tropics, Townsville made entirely of LEGO® bricks in Brickman Cities. We’ve pulled together a list of the top five things not to miss on your next visit! 1. Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo The Shibuya Crossing is known to be the busiest crossing in the world. As many as 2,500 people cross the street at the same time. The crossing took 141 hours to build and is made with 23,851 LEGO® bricks. 2. Burj Khalifa, Dubai Ever wanted to see the biggest building in the entire world? Standing next to the oth ..read more

Do you believe in fate? A preordained destiny? A woman living in Mt Morgan in November 1900 believed enough to pay for a palm reading. The well-worn but carefully kept document hints at how its owner valued these six pieces of paper. While her name has been lost to time, her handwritten fortune is held in the Queensland Museum’s collection and from it we can learn a lot about fears and desires at the start of the 20th century.  Many of the themes would not be unusual in a palm reading today; family, wealth, travel, sickness, and mortality but looking more closely we start to see co ..read more

Did you know that in 1900 you could pay to have your palm read by post? Did you know that to do so was illegal? The Queensland Museum collection holds one such illicit fortune from 1901. While the recipient remains a mystery, the writer, a palm reader named Beta, gives us a glimpse into the world of fortune telling in Queensland at the start of a new century. The first page of a hand written palm reading, dated 3 November 1900, by a man known as “Beta”. The first page of a hand written palm reading, dated 3 November 1900, by a man known as “Beta”. The first page of a hand written palm readin ..read more

Written by Dr Liz Bissell, Senior Curator Queensland Stories TRIGGER WARNING: This post discusses mental health issues and references suicide. It may not be appropriate for everyone. Please also note that, in discussing historical institutions and processes, this post may contain terms or language that may be considered offensive today. The statistics on mental health and wellbeing in Australia are alarming. One in six Australians is currently experiencing depression or anxiety. A third of First Nations peoples experience high levels of psychological distress, and the migrant population also r ..read more

Big back drops, toothy smiles and bones to boot – there’s more than a few photo opportunities awaiting visitors to Dinosaurs of Patagonia. With just over one month to go until the incredible Dinosaurs of Patagonia exhibition leaves Queensland Museum for their next destination, now is the time to capture your best memories of these international prehistoric treasures. Here are our picks for snap-worthy scenes in Dinosaurs of Patagonia. Teeth There’s a set of teeth around every corner of the exhibition including giant, real fossilised fangs that were found at the dig site in Patagonia. The Thera ..read more

Written by Dr Liz Bissell, Senior Curator Queensland Stories; and Damien Fegan, Information Officer, Queensland Museum The term synchronicity was coined by Carl Jung – the famous Swiss author, thinker, and psychologist – as “a meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.” Synchronicity as a theme is particularly apt for museum curators because it is our job to connect people with objects and stories, across past and present. Sometimes, these seemingly random interactions can take us by surprise. This was the case when we recentl ..read more

There’s a fascinating story behind the discovery of the world’s biggest dinosaur.   It begins in 2012 with a man and his dog, tracking down a herd of lost sheep on his ranch in the Chebut Province of Patagonia. After searching for many hours, he and his trusty sheepdog finally found the herd, but that wasn’t the only discovery of the day. He also spotted a suspiciously round rock poking out of the ground. As he approached and his dog sniffed curiously around the area, he pondered its usually precise, round shape. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Weeks later, the farmer visite ..read more