Day 15: Australian Museum, Chinatown, museum of contemporary art

We are getting better at using the Sydney public transit system. We now all reliably "tap on & tap off" as we ride. We even felt comfortable taking a bus to the museum -- easy peasy.

Today was a museum day as the expected 20 mph winds made beach-going seem a bad choice. But the weather was so nice, warm and dry with a breeze, that we are looking forward to the beach tomorrow. 

Before we got going we tried to use the espresso machine. Just like the grinder at our Martha's Vineyard espresso machine, this one is jammed. We ended up using instant coffee from Amazon. I think tomorrow I will go to the coffee shop down the street. 

First stop, Australian Museum. This cultural/historical gem is free!! USA museums could take a lesson here. Wow. 

On the way to the museum we walk by the WWI ANZAC memorial.

Eternal flame

The Crucifixion of Civilization

As you walk in to the AM there's a gallery displaying the top 200 treasures from the history of the museum. Amazing! And there is a solid emphasis on Australian natural history and First Peoples. Worth the visit by a lot! 

Every institution here has a land acknowledgement​ like this. Given how we have driven extinct multiple species and brought the land closer to not supporting itself, people here are farther along than the US in recognizing the need to listen to those who practiced sustainable agriculture and hunting for 40,000 years. 

Design from Aboriginal Shields 

Lord Howe Island diorama

In one of the first expeditions of its kind anywhere in the world, the Australian Museum Trustees dispatched a team to Lord Howe Island in 1921 to collect photographs, sketches, specimens, rocks and grasses for three new dioramas. Opened to the public in 1923, only one of these dioramas remains. Still residing in its original position at the entrance of the Westpac Long Gallery, it's the oldest surviving natural history diorama in Australia and a masterpiece of its time.

Australia's first bank note and large gold nugget 

TREASURE (top)

Australia's first bank note

Bank note 55, printed 8 April 1817 Courtesy of Westpac Group Archives, item no. WGAI-0001

This bank note was integral to establishing the foundations of the Australian economy. Issuing currency - guaranteed legal tender was one of the foundation purposes of the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) which was established by Charter signed by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1817. Prior to this there was no reliable form of local currency in the colony. The note represents stability, uniformity and trust.

TREASURE (bottom)

2 Maitland Bar Gold Nugget

Discovered June 1887, Meroo Creek, southwest of Gulgong, New South Wales Courtesy of NSW Department of Planning and Environment

The Maitland Bar Gold Nugget is a priceless historical specimen with value far beyond its gold content. It is the only surviving example of a large gold nugget (10.7 kilograms) from the early gold mining years of New South Wales. This state treasure was initially used by the fledgling colony as a display of its wealth at international expositions in London and Chicago. The nugget was also known as the Jubilee Nugget as the NSW Department of Mines purchased it during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee (1887). Lost in the 1930s, it resurfaced in 1956 in a box that Treasury officers had unwittingly used as cricket stumps.

Aboriginal Shields and the extinct paradise parrot. 

Check out the mask, top right. 

This fish is made from "ghost nets" which are lost/discarded fishing nets that float along in the current and wash up as flotsam. Some groups of First Peoples collect these to clean the environment, then make art of them so the display can more memorably deliver the message that we must protect and preserve a clean environment. 

Look after Country and County will look after you. 

Historical designs on cotton fabric.

Opals from the amazing mineral collection. Any one item in the collection is worth study, multiple photos, etc. With 100s of them the sensory overload kicks in... Really magnificent collection. 

Opal is formed when silica leaches into spaces in rock, including organic matter like shells or bones, slowly replacing the matter and crystalizing into opal. 

Opal is found primarily in Australia because there was a massive inland sea ages ago. As the sea dried up the opals were formed. 

This also raises the question of whether the inland sea existed because of higher water levels world wide, or just the Australian tectonic plate being at lower altitude. 

Massive iron meteorite.

Queen Victoria Building or QVB to the locals. We pass by it taking the light rail back from Chinatown after lunch.

Sydney Opera House from Circular Quay, which we walk by multiple times. Such a beautiful building! 

Interesting bamboo Hall with ecological messages written on each slat of wood.

At the museum of contemporary art. Art, bridge and cruise ship all in one. 

Shell art in the shape of Sydney Opera House by a First Peoples woman 

How to get more parking when the streets seem too narrow. Leave the tree as parking delimiters.