Queensland Museum
For over 148 years, the Queensland Museum has been documenting, discovering, preserving and sharing Queensland’s natural and cultural heritage. More than a million items and specimens make up the State Collection that tells the changing story of Queensland.
- www.qm.qld.gov.au
- Corner of Grey & Melbourne Streets, South Bank
- South Brisbane
- Queensland
- 4000
- Australia
- +61 7 3840 7555
- Send Email
| ID Local | Title | Description Brief | Updated |
| QM00030 | Bark Cloth Collection | An extensive collection of bark cloth or tapas from the Pacific region, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga. The collection ranges from ceremonial items including masks to tools used in the production of bark cloth and stencils used to create decoration. The cloths date from the late 18th century to the present day. Coverage: Fiji; Vanuatu; Samoa; Tonga; Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; 1890 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00003 | Builder's Plate Collection | The Workshops Rail Museum's collection of over 300 Builders Plates contains a range of plates from Australia and international manufacturers, representing locomotives from steam to diesel electric as well as rolling stock of many types. Coverage: Glasgow, UK; Maryborough, Qld, Australia; Eagle Farm, Qld, Australia; Granville, NSW, Australia; Philadelphia, USA; Ipswich, Qld, Australia; Leeds, UK | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00023 | Charles & Kati Marson Musical Instrument Collection | This collection consists of 830 traditional musical instruments from around the world, with particular emphasis on African, Asian and Pacific cultures. The breadth of the Charles and Kati Marson Collection demonstrates the wide diversity of ways in which different cultures have made music, and how significant music is to all cultures. Coverage: Africa; Asia; Pacific | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00018 | Cinema and Projection Equipment | The Cinema and Projection Equipment Collection contains a representative sample of late 19th and early 20th century technology including magic lanterns, a Mutoscope, a Lumiere cinematographe, 8mm and 16mm motion picture projectors, home movie cameras, film reels and editing equipment (film cement and splicers etc.) Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00019 | Cobb and Co Museum Carriage Collection | Horse and bullock powered transport including coaches, carriages, buggies and sulkies, carts and wagons. Coverage: Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia; Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 1860 - 1930 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00032 | Coghlan Collection | The collection includes a diverse range of objects of Aboriginal material culture including spears, boomerangs, stone tools, knives, bags and baskets collected from 1891-1896, almost exclusively drawn from the Glenormiston and Boulia districts. The collection of Jeremiah Andrew Coghlan was both donated and sold to the Queensland Museum over the course of the 1890s, with some material being donated by Coghlan's brothers and daughter in the following decade. Coverage: Glenormiston, Queensland; Boulia, Queensland; Central-West Queensland | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00020 | Communication Technology | Postal objects include letters, postcards and stationery designed or used by Queenslanders to communicate with family, friends and colleagues in Australia and overseas. There is telegraph equipment, and telegrams, morse keys and telephones which exhibit the evolution and increasing speed of technologies across the State. Queensland Museum also has a large collection of radios and radio components, as well as televisions and, more recently, computers. The majority of the collection dates to the early twentieth century | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00022 | Daintree Photograph Collection | The Daintree Photograph Collection consists of over 200 photographs of Queensland in the 1870s. Daintree, a photographer and geologist, took these photographs during his visits to north Queensland. They were displayed at a range of colonial exhibitions in Australia and Europe. Coverage: North Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00008 | Ellis Rowan Collection | A collection of 125 exquisite paintings by celebrated Australian artist Ellis Rowan. Rowan painted a range of flowers, plants, bird and butterflies during her career. The Queensland Museum collection focuses on plants and flowers, including spectacular Queensland species like Brisbane Golden Wattle. Coverage: 1827 - 1922 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00029 | Explorers & Adventurers Collection | A small collection of objects which belonged to noted explorers and adventurers. The objects range from aviation history including Bert Hinkler’s Avro Baby G-EACQ aircraft, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s wrist watch and Lorres Bonney’s camera to Ludwig Leichhardt’s chest and a compass attributed to a seaman on Captain Cook’s Endeavour. Also included are surveying instruments and an inscribed message from the shipwrecked sailor John Renton. Coverage: Queensland; 1848 - 1940 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00025 | Expo 88 Collection | The 1988 World Exposition was held in Brisbane. Commonly known as Expo 88, it attracted large numbers of tourists and was known for its innovative technological and cultural displays. Queensland Museum holds a wide range of souvenirs from Expo 88 including t-shirts, plush toys and a novelty passport. Additionally, the Museum holds clothing including the attendant's uniform as worn at the Queensland Pavilion and an Expo Oz costume. Coverage: Brisbane; 1988 - 1988 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00009 | Fainges Toy Collection | The Fainges toy collection comprises 20th century toys including teddy bears, dolls, cars and trucks, wooden toys, puzzles and board games. Amongst the many well-known toy producers are Toltoys, Boomaroo, Fethalite and John Sands; however smaller, local toymakers are also represented. Coverage: 1930 - 1970 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00026 | Games memorabilia collection | The Museum holds a collection of souvenirs and official mementos from various Commonwealth, Olympic and Goodwill games. For example, from the Brisbane Commonwealth Games of 1982, the Museum holds batons, commemorative coins, uniforms and flags. Examples from the Sydney Olympics of 2000 include a uniform and a ball signed by the gold medal winning volleyball team. Coverage: 1956 - 2001 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00033 | Greg and Helen Langley Diving Collection | The Langley Diving Collection comprises 36 diving helmets, plus 28 other standard dress diving objects including: air pumps, diving knives, torches, suits, boots, and communication equipment. Standard dress diving (as opposed to open helmet diving, free diving, or SCUBA) refers to the type of diving in which diver's wore a helmet or 'hard-hat' sealed to a water tight canvas suit. The collection was built up over a 30 year period by former abalone diver, Mr Greg Langley of Hobart. The Langley Diving Collection was donated to the Queensland Museum through the Federal Government's Cultural Gift Program between 2008 and 2010 Coverage: Torres Strait, Australia; Queensland, Australia; 1840 - 1969 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00034 | HMS Pandora archaeological collection | The Queensland Museum holds over 6,800 artefacts from the wreck of the Royal Navy warship HMS Pandora (1791). Pandora was lost on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791, and its wreck was discovered in 1977. Coverage: Great Barrier Reef, Australia; 1791 - 1971 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00005 | Locomotives and Rolling Stock | The Workshops Rail Museum holds a small collection of locomotives and rolling stock used on Queensland Rail in twentieth century. The oldest locomotive in our collection is a B13 1/2 Class 0-6-0 steam locomotive, built in 1904. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00027 | MacGregor Collection Anthropological Collection | The MacGregor Collection consists over 4000 objects from British New Guinea. The collection includes domestic utensils, dress, musical instruments, tools, hunting, weapons, head ornaments, watercraft, fishing, raw material and ceremonial objects. The material collection dates 1888 to 1898. Coverage: Papua New Guinea | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00028 | Marks family collection | The Marks Collection comprises over 3000 items donated by members of the Marks family, many of whom were prominent Brisbane doctors and scientists. The collection includes domestic and personal objects, weaponry, scientific instruments and Aboriginal artefacts. Coverage: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00011 | Photographic Equipment Collection | This collection contains a representative sample of 19th and 20th century technology for both studio and outdoor photography, including cameras, printing frames and photo folders, burnishing rollers, light masks, change bags, back sheets, developing tanks and trays, timers, enlargers, tripods, plate holders, flash guns, and exposure meters Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00007 | Queensland Environmental Science Technology Collection | A large collection of items relating to the research, preservation and exploitation of Queensland's unique landscape. Environmental science objects in the QM collection include implements aimed at the control of introduced pests such as rabbits and prickly pear, as well as microscopes and testing equipment from centres of research like the University of Queensland or the Department of Environment and Heritage. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00016 | Queensland Museum Aviation Collection | The Queensland Museum Aviation collection consists of a range of objects including aircraft, flying equipment and personal memorabilia. Also a rich archival and photographic collection pertaining to aviation history in Queensland and famous Queensland Aviators and Aviatrix. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00021 | Queensland Museum Cross-cultural collection | The Museum has a growing collection representing the diversity of cultural communities in Queensland. This collection includes musical instruments, flags, national costumes and dolls. A significant subset includes a large collection of shop stock from Kwong Sang & Co, Chinese merchants based in Toowoomba. Coverage: Indonesia; China; Finland; Toowoomba | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00015 | Queensland Museum Domestic Life Collection | This collection includes objects for personal use, such as spectacles, toothbrushes and vanity sets along with objects found around the home, like cutlery, mixing bowls or washboards. New inventions represented in the domestic life collection include the prototype pineapple peeler and innovative home medicine solutions. Objects date from across the 19th and 20th centuries, with the largest subsets created between 1920 and 1950. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00014 | Queensland Museum Furniture Collection | A collection of silky oak furniture, including a table inlaid with the federation coat of arms, believed to have been given to Sir Leslie Wilson, Governor of Queensland. Notable local cabinet-makers represented include John Mason of Maryborough, as well as Lewis J. Harvey and Ed Rosenstengel of Brisbane. Examples of recycled, homemade furniture - kerosene crate and cotton-reel shelves are also represented. Queensland furniture from the 1820s was largely Classical in design. Useful rather than ornamental furniture was the first requirement, and much of Queensland Museum's collection, albeit mostly 20th century, reflects this earliest tendency to simplicity and pragmatism in design. The furnishings of the main rooms of Queenslander houses changed with the transition from the Colonial/Victorian era to Federation. Red cedar disappeared from fashion to be replaced by silky oak, Queensland maple, white cedar and stained pine. The timbers were often fumed with ammonia to enrich their colour to a warm brown. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00013 | Queensland Political Collection | A range of objects relating to Queensland and federal politics. The collection includes official State material, campaigning ephemera, promotional t-shirts and novelty items, as well as personal items belonging to politicians. Some of the earliest objects relate to Queensland's 9th Premier Samuel Griffith. The largest collections relate to former Premiers Peter Beattie and Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whilst more recent acquisitions include objects relating to the Prime Ministership of Kevin Rudd. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00004 | Queensland Railways Crockery and Cutlery | This is a large collection of crockery, cutlery and silverware used at Queensland Railways Refreshment Rooms and for on board train services throughout the twentieth century. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00012 | Queensland Social History Photograph Collection | A collection of some 5000 photographic images relating to Queensland's social history. These include photographs, slides, negatives and examples of early photographic processes such as ambrotypes and daguerreotypes. The subject matter ranges from personal family photographs to commercially produced educational slide sets. Coverage: Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00010 | Roberts Photograph Collection | This collection contains the photographs of AE Roberts, holding over 1000 photographs depicting life in SE Queensland around 1900. Coverage: Ipswich, Queensland; South East Queensland; Moreton Bay, Queensland; 1890 - 1920 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00002 | Ronalds Collection | Benjamin Charles Ronalds (1892-1970) was a Brisbane-based glass worker who collected porcelain, ceramics and glass. His complete collection, of about 800 items, consists primarily of Royal Worcester porcelain and also contains comparative pieces from other British, European and Oriental ceramics manufacturers, a wide range of glassware, and a few selected pieces representing other applied arts. Coverage: Queensland, Australia; 1801 - 2000 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00031 | Roth Collection | The Roth Collection comprises over 300 objects collected, as Roth claimed, in his capacity as Protector of Aborigines from 1898-1906. The material primarily comes from North Queensland, with a strong concentration of objects in the Cape, and Central Queensland districts. The collection includes Aboriginal material culture incorporating spears, stone tools, bags and baskets. The collection also includes duplicates of photos taken by Roth which he sold to the Australian Museum. These photos are of Aboriginal people and dwellings. Coverage: Central Queensland, Australia; Cape York, Australia; 1898 - 1906 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00024 | Royal Queensland Show 'Ekka' Collection | The Ekka collection includes an array of show bags (sample bags) and their contents ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s. The contents include confectionery packaging, novelty objects and toys, while the bags themselves range from cloth drawstring bags to printed plastic bags. The Museum also holds prize winning examples of embroidery and other handcrafts, along with the medals and certificates awarded to winners of craft and agricultural displays. Coverage: Brisbane; 1930 - 1989 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00035 | The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology Collections | The archaeology collections consist of over 800 archaeological assemblages derived from known archaeological contexts. Some of these such as Kenniff Cave, Princess Charlotte Bay, Cathederal Cave and Lawn Hill have played a prominent role in rewriting the Aboriginal prehistory of Australia. The collection represents one of the most valuable archaeological assemblages in Australia for understanding complexity and change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society prior to the arrival of Europeans Coverage: Princess Charlotte Bay, Queensland; Lawn Hill, Queensland; Mer Island, Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00036 | The Embroidery Collection | The Embroidery Collection consists of over four hundred and fifty pieces of embroidery and embroidered garments, as well as related material including, embroidery equipment, fabric, threads, patterns, prize certificates and sashes, samples, threads, and transfers. Coverage: Toowoomba, Queeensland; 1712 - 1970 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00039 | The Janet Walker Costume Collection | The Janet Walker Collection consists of twelve women's garments from the early 1890s to the late 1920s. The collection includes ball gowns, wedding dresses and daywear. Coverage: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 1890 - 1929 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00040 | The Olive Ashworth Collection | The Olive Ashworth Textile Collection consists of artwork, fabric and clothing samples, fabric yardage, fashion photographs, price lists and press clippings. Most of the objects in this collection were executed during the 1970s, with a very small number from the early 1980s Coverage: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00037 | The Patrick Ogilvie Hat Collection | The Patrick Ogilvie Collection consists of approximately thirty-two hats and head pieces designed and made in Brisbane during the 1960s Coverage: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 1969 - 1969 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00038 | The Paula Stafford Beachwear Collection | The Paula Stafford Collection consists of approximately forty beachwear outfits which were designed and manufactured on the Gold Coast predominately during the 1960s and 1970s Coverage: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; 1960 - 1979 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00017 | Thomas Macleod Queensland Aviation Collection | The Thomas Macleod Queensland Aviation Collection is a collected archive of documents, photos and objects relating to the early aviation history of Queensland. Coverage: Brisbane; Bundaburg; 1910 - 1968 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00006 | World Wars I and II Collection from Queensland | A large collection of World War I and World War II relics, medals, memorabilia, weaponry, uniforms, documents and personal effects of soldier's as well as their wives and mother's back home relating to Queenslanders' professional and private experiences of war. Coverage: 1918 - 1945 | 30 May 2012 |
| QM00001 | X-Ray Technology Collection | A collection of over 70 objects associated with x-ray technology in Queensland. Coverage: Queensland, Australia; 1898 - 1975 | 30 May 2012 |