Australian Museum
Want to see some of Australia’s famously deadly wildlife from behind the safety of glass? Then visit Australia’s oldest museum next to Hyde Park for as many taxidermied critters you can handle. The Australian Museum has earned global acclaim for its work in natural history and anthropology, particularly documenting the achievements of Indigenous Australians, one of the longest continuously surviving cultures on earth.
Australian Museum, 1 William St, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 9320 6000
Maritime Museum
Few cities are as entwined with the water as harbour-front Sydney, so the government decided to commemorate those maritime links with a new museum to be unveiled for Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. Political infighting (unbelievable, right?) delayed the opening date to 1991, but the Maritime Museum has been welcoming visitors ever since to its six permanent galleries and a small fleet open to the public, including the HMAS Onslow submarine, the HMAS Vampire big gun destroyer and a replica of the HM Bark Endeavour, the vessel Captain James Cook skippered on his first voyage to Australia in the late 1760s.
Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 9298 3777
Hyde Park Barracks
Built by fabled convict architect Francis Greenway, these World Heritage listed barracks have gone through four incarnations in their two-century history — first transporting convicts (1819-1848) and female immigrants (1848-1887), then housing the local courts (1887-1979) before being transformed into a museum following an extensive archeological dig. Step through the reconstructed living quarters to learn just how grim life was for those colonial-era convicts transported primarily from Ireland to a penal colony 17,000km away.
Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Queens Square, Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 8239 2311
Museum of Contemporary Art
After a major redevelopment was revealed in 2012, the MCA houses 4,000 envelope-pushing paintings, sculptures, photographs and moving image projects by modern Australian artists — and the monumental art deco sandstone building that houses the collection is as much of an artwork as anything hanging on the walls inside.
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 140 George St, The Rocks, NSW, +61 2 9245 2400
Museum of Sydney
You’d hope this museum does a good job tracing the changing face of Sydney since European colonisation — it is the exact spot, after all, where Governor Arthur Phillip built the first NSW Government House in 1788, the centre of the city’s political and cultural life for the next 57 years. The museum is built above the remains of those original foundations, and deftly documents the interactions of the local Gadigal people and their British colonisers before telling Sydney’s story thereafter.
Museum of Sydney, 37 Phillip St, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 9251 5988
Powerhouse Museum
The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences — known as the Powerhouse to locals because it’s built in an old power station near Darling Harbour — is like a candy shop for science nerds, home to more than 250 interactive exhibits and 400,000 objects, including New South Wales’ first ever locomotive. And hey, you need 400,000 artefacts to tick off 12 permanent exhibits covering science, technology, design, fashion, architecture, engineering, health, medicine and contemporary culture.
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, 500 Harris St, Ultimo, NSW, +61 2 9217 0111
Sydney Jewish Museum
Sydney is home to one of the most thriving Jewish communities in the diaspora, made up of 50,000 people, six schools and 30 synagogues around the city. And you can hear their stories at this state-of-the-art museum that walks you through the Jewry’s experience in Sydney since the first free Jewish settlers arrived in 1821, including a touching treatment of the Holocaust when thousands of Jews found refuge on Australian shores.
Sydney Jewish Museum, 148 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst, NSW, +61 2 9360 7999
Justice & Police Museum
This old water police station channels the thousands of criminals who have passed through its doors since the 1850s, placing the macabre side of Sydney’s past under the magnifying glass with mugshots of the city’s most infamous delinquents as well as a reconstructed charge room, remand cell and courtroom. In other words, the perfect museum for parents travelling with kids they’d like to scare straight.
Justice & Police Museum, Albert St & Phillip St, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 9252 1144
Art Gallery of New South Wales
This is one of the Harbour City’s favourite cultural institutions — there’s not a student who grew up within 50km of Sydney who didn’t visit the Art Gallery in primary school. Overlooking the Domain, the museum houses collections of Australian, Asian and European art, and also hosts the beloved Archibald Prize each July, celebrating portraits of famous Australians.
Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery Rd, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 9225 1700
Susannah Place Museum
The charm of these four terraced houses in the heart of the Rocks? They’re totally and utterly ordinary, making them the perfect time capsule of what life was like for the impoverished Irish families who built these tiny cottages in Sydney’s oldest neighbourhood way back in 1844.
Susannah Place Museum, 58-64 Gloucester St, The Rocks, NSW, +61 2 9241 1893