History

Queensland Museum Network

For more than 160 years, we’ve 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.

Significant dates

1862 – Queensland Philosophical Society founded the Queensland Museum in Brisbane on 20 January, operating from a room set aside in the Windmill

1868 – Moved to the Parliamentary building in Queen Street, Brisbane

1871 – The government assumed primary responsibility for the Museum

1873 – Relocated into the old Post Office building

1879 – First purpose-built museum building completed, William Street, Brisbane

1899 – Moved to the Exhibition building

1982 – Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying opened in Woolloongabba, Brisbane

1985 – Closed the Museum’s home of 86 years, Brisbane’s Exhibition building

1986 – Queensland Museum opened in the heart of Brisbane’s cultural precinct

1987 – Cobb+Co Museum opened in Toowoomba

1987 – Museum of Tropical Queensland opened in Townsville

2000 – Museum of Tropical Queensland – brand new, landmark building opens on Flinders Street in the centre of Townsville

2002 – The Workshops Rail Museum opened in Ipswich

2010 – Cobb+Co Museum expansion opened

2012 – Queensland Museum celebrates 150 years of connecting and collecting

2013 – Queensland Museum opens Lost Creatures 

2016 – Queensland Museum opens Wild State Gallery 

2016 – Queensland Museum Network hosts the first World Science Festival Brisbane  

2018 – Queensland Museum opens Anzac Legacy Gallery 

2018 – Queensland Museum opens SparkLab, Sciencentre 

2018 – Museum of Tropical Queensland – Sciencentre opens

2019 – Queensland Museum relocates Discovery Centre to Level 4

2019 – The Workshops Rail Museum’s Sciencentre opens

2019 – Queensland Museum opens a newly refurbished 1000 square metre exhibition space on Level 3