Blog

A new museology for generation Z: The impact and revolution of Japanese digital art

29 May 2020

The museum's CEO & Director Kevin Sumption recounts visiting the Digital Art Museum (DAM) in Japan where ground-breaking art technology is changing the primacy of physical collections in museums.

Photojournalist Justin Gilligan standing in front of his photograph, Colliding Views

Q&A with WPY finalist Justin Gilligan

22 May 2020

As a finalist in the 55th Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, we caught up with photojournalist Justin Gilligan to find out more about his love for the ocean, photography and what it means to have his work selected and displayed in one of the world's most prestigious photography competitions.

James Hunter (left) and Kieran Hosty use baseline-offset mapping to record the hull structure in South Australian's bow

Bound for 'South Australian': South Australia's oldest known shipwreck found

22 May 2020

Nearly 200 years after its loss, the barque South Australian was relocated by a research consortium that included the museum's maritime archaeology team. Dr James Hunter and Kieran Hosty share the story of South Australia's oldest recorded European shipwreck, and the effort to find, document and preserve it.

Arthur Pringle as a lieutenant in 1899. Image courtesy of Eliots of Port Eliot

'Ever your loving son': Arthur Pringle and his letters home

21 May 2020

Arthur Pringle as a 13-year old boy wrote to home to his mother while training for the Royal Navy on HMS Britannia. The letters, in true teenage style, are hardly full of information, but they tell enough to show this young boy was keen to impress his parents back at home.

Mythbusting Cook: Fact fiction and total fallacy

20 Apr 2020

For someone who looms so large in the Australian consciousness, there’s a lot about James Cook that Australians get wrong. Dr Stephen Gapps and Steve Riethoff straighten out some of the misconceptions.

Paths for peace: High school students reflect on World War II in the Pacific

15 Apr 2020

The museum’s ground-breaking five-year War and Peace in the Pacific 75 international learning program commemorates the 75th anniversary of World War II and promotes peace and reconciliation across the Pacific. Jeff Fletcher profiles the latest iteration, which culminated in student ambassadors from three continents meeting in Japan.

Military personnel photographed boarding Orsova in 1916

A deadly shipmate: Surviving 'Spanish flu' aboard HMAT Orsova

19 Mar 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 is turning many eyes back to 1919. Coinciding with the end of World War I, the risk of ‘Spanish’ flu coming to Australia aboard troop transports was very real. Dr Peter Hobbins explores what troopship records reveal about life, death and discipline during the pneumonic influenza pandemic.

Recognising the first anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks

16 Mar 2020

Yesterday the museum hosted a small, private event to mark the first anniversary of the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre.