Museums

We decided to visit 2 museums in the city yesterday, which we'd been meaning to do for some time. Rebecca had a friend stay overnight and we encouraged them to come along with us, so we drove to Old Cremorne and caught the ferry across the harbour, noticing that the main wharf at Cremorne Point had now reopened after sinking in the storm damage in June, so we'll start using that route again next time.

First stop after walking up from Circular Quay was the Hyde Park Barracks museum. This is a small museum over 3 floors in the old building that was first used to house male convicts working on building projects in Sydney after 1820. It then became a lodging for female immigrants and eventually was used as government offices and courts, before being saved from demolition and being turned into a museum. It recreated the sleeping accommodation for the convicts and also had displays of items found beneath the original floorboards and from other excavations - very interesting.

We then had a short walk to the Australian Museum, which was more of a traditional museum and the oldest in Australia. It had a big collection of stuffed birds, insects and a large collection of rocks and minerals, plus a 'skeleton room' and Aboriginal collection. It wasn't too large to get around but we were starting to flag by this point and this museum didn't grab our attention as much as the previous one, so we headed home by mid-afternoon.