Before I start to talk about the exhibition I would like to say a little bit about the building. The museum is a huge modern construction where most of the walls are made of glass. This gives plenty of natural light. It is very open and comfortable to walk around in, with generous spaces for the individual sections and exhibitions. There are a lot of seats for rest stops, and if you’re feeling hungry or thirsty it is only a few steps into a restaurant, balcony cafe, or theatre cafe. If you are looking for a souvenir then there are many interesting things in the Museum Shop.

Most of our time was spent in the Australian Aboriginal section. It was nice to see that the museum recognised the importance of aboriginal culture and heritage by giving a generous amount of space to this important part of our history.

I learned that it was not only European style artists like Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton or Charles Condor who painted the Australian landscape so beautifully. I learned about the great aboriginal artists like Albert Namatjira, Oskar Namitjira, Ivy Pareroultja and Carol Rontji and also that the land is the centre of Australian Aboriginal culture. I loved the watercolours and also the traditional dot style paintings on canvas, bark weapons and cooking implements, they were very beautiful. Throughout this exhibition, "Aboriginal people are giving voice beyond anger, speaking again with pride about the land called Australia and their long, strong, enduring and once again confident relationship to it." -(A quote from the exhibition by Djon Mundine 1991)

The other section we spent a lot of time in was the Australia Gallery that had information about many Australian heroes in it. People like Ned Kelly, Don Bradman and even Kylie Minogue. But the hero that made the biggest impression on me was the 1930’s Great Depression hero, Phar Lap. This racehorse, which is preserved so well, is our true legend, with his beautiful posture and bright eyes that I will remember always. Because of his outstanding achievements he was called the star of the track and screen and he gained wide media exposure. He was a hero who, by winning so many races, brought bread and butter to many ordinary Australians and their families during the crippling Great Depression. By being there in the museum, I could explore the history of his amazing winning statistics, the memorabilia, and the photos and also learn about his sudden death in the USA.

The last exhibition we visited was called Forging A Nation where we could explore items from the first twenty years of the Federation of Australia. This was a time when Australians moved from being citizens of six separate, self-governing colonies, to people living in a confident, unified, and federated nation. On display were some significant paintings such as; The Opening of Federal Parliament, 9 May 1901 by Charles Nuttall. This event happened in the Exhibition Buildings, which are right next to where the new Melbourne Museum now stands. There was also a wonderful and moving painting that was on loan from the War Memorial in Canberra called, ANZAC, the Landing 1915, by George Lambert. This painting showed the many heroic men landing at Gallipoli where so many of them lost their lives.

Some other interesting items I saw were the first single engine plane to fly from England to Australia, and the ceremonial horse-drawn carriage used in the procession at the opening of Federal Parliament in 1901 in Melbourne.