The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia, and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the world, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It was first conceived and developed along the contemporary European model of an encyclopedic warehouse of cultural and natural history and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology and anthropology. Apart from exhibitions, the museum is also involved in Indigenous studies research and community programs. In the museum's early years, collecting was its main priority, and specimens were commonly traded with British and other European institutions. The scientific stature of the museum was established under the curatorship of Gerard Krefft, himself a published scientist.
The William Street exterior and Crystal Hall entry to the Australian Museum in 2016
Hyde Park with the Museum under construction in the distance by John Rae (1842).
The completed Barnet wing of the museum c. 1870.
The Barnet Wing.
William Street is a 1.4-kilometre-long (0.87 mi) major thoroughfare in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The street was named in honour of king William IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland upon its opening in 1834.
William Street, Sydney
William Street from the air in the 1950s
William Street near Australian Museum
William Street as seen from Kings Cross