Australian for Museum
With the important sounding name of National Museum of Australia, you'd think this 6,600 square meters of exhibition and display space in the capital city Canberra had been around for decades. In fact it's relatively new, opening in 2001 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Australian federation. And because it's new, we find it pretty impressive. It's housed in quirky colorful buildings, sometimes without any apparent structure or meaning, but somehow it works (and doesn't fall apart).
Featuring collections exploring both the settlement of Australia since 1788 and the much longer history of Aboriginal life, you'll find the skin of a now-extinct Tasmanian tiger (not to be confused with the much less elegant Tasmanian devil) and the heart of super-fast Australian racehorse, Phar Lap. You can even see the dress of baby Azaria Chamberlain, the child allegedly taken by a dingo whose story inspired Meryl Streep's whine of "a dingo took my baby" in A Cry in the Dark. Right now, curators are preparing 2007's special exhibition on the Miss Australia quest, which used to find Australia's most glamorous woman until it was deemed politically incorrect in 2000. Don't worry though, they just renamed it and carried on with a politically correct version.
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