Landmarks | National Museum of Australia

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Location: National Museum of Australia

Landmarks: People and Places across Australia is temporarily closed while we create a new space for more Australian stories. Explore what's on at the Museum

Exhibition highlights

Landmarks explores Australian history since European settlement in 1788, with stories of people and places across the continent.

Landmarks considers 10 big themes in Australia’s past, each focusing on an idea, ambition, philosophy or problem. It takes visitors on an imaginative ‘tour’ to explore how these themes have unfolded in particular places and inspired people in their approach to living in this country.

An open face pocket watch with an attached gold chain and key. - click to view larger image — William John Wills’s pocket watch

A photo showing part of a metal structure. - click to view larger image — Walter Burley Griffin’s knitlock brickmaking machine

Black painted, steel framed, 'visible' typewriter with circular white pre-decimal keys. 'L.C. SMITH & BROS TYPEWRITER' is printed along an inverted arch across the front, which cradles the typeface heads. It is rusty and the ribbon is missing. - click to view larger image — Mary Gilmore’s typewriter

A rusty, concave-shaped iron bucket from a mining excavator. - click to view larger image — Excavator bucket

A photo of the top section of a windmill on display indoors. - click to view larger image — Kenya station windmill

A horse's heart in a container filled with liquid. - click to view larger image — Phar Lap’s heart

A blue-gunmetal grey sedan with chrome-plated bumper bar and radiator grille which bears a single Holden red lion badge with a small gold-coloured frame around it. - click to view larger image — Holden Prototype No. 1

A black telescope made from cast iron and brass attached to a grey cast iron base. - click to view larger image — Grubb refractor telescope

A crescent shaped, brass breastplate with a hole at the edge of each horn to attach a chain. ‘KING JOHN CRY / CHIEF OF / the / Duedolgong Tribe, Argyle’ is engraved on the anterior surface. A man with a rifle is engraved on the left horn, and a fox is engraved on the right horn. - click to view larger image — King John Cry's breastplate

A large anchor, dark brown in colour, and rusted in appearance. - click to view larger image — HMS *Investigator*’s stream anchor

A bright yellow bicycle with a wooden box fixed to the front and a sign affixed to the rack that reads ‘DON’T RUBBISH ROTTNEST’. - click to view larger image — Darrell Hick’s ‘Hernia’ bicycle

A brass nameplate engraved with the name ‘Ludwig Leichhardt’ in capital letters and the year 1848. - click to view larger image — Ludwig Leichhardt nameplate

A long-barelled gun with a wooden stock and brass furnishings. - click to view larger image — Musket used at Eureka Stockade

A bronze topographic plaque depicting the topography of the Snowy Mountains, mounted on a brown wooden plinth with the engraving ‘SNOWY MOUNTAINS / HYDRO ELECTRIC / DEVELOPMENT’ and a black electrical cord coming from the top left of the plaque. - click to view larger image — Snowy Mountains Scheme model presented to Ben Chifley

A stripper harvester with the word 'Sunshine' pressed into a sheet of metal at the top of the machine. - click to view larger image — Sunshine Stripper Harvester

A horse-drawn, four-wheeled, eight-passenger ‘stage’ coach made from wood reinforced with iron strips and brackets. - click to view larger image — Thoroughbrace coach

Delve deeper into the Museum's collection, to explore more about the first British colonies established on First Nations lands, how settlers moved across the continent, discovered gold, developed democracy, expanded agriculture, mining and manufacturing, and built the highly urbanised nation we know today.