Newcastle Museum in my opinion is very overlooked. It’s not something you hear much about, and it’s probably not the first activity you think of when you’re bored and want something to do on your days off work or school. Being my ignorant, teenage self, the museum would be the last thing I wanted to do during the school holidays. But now that I’ve started this blog, I’m learning that things I wouldn’t think I would enjoy, actually end up surprising me the most. Creating The Travel Journal Blog has inspired me to explore new things and go places I wouldn’t usually go, even if I’m not sure I’ll like it. Even then, this blog is all about transparency anyway, so why not have fun with it? Anyway, enough rambling. My partner and I had a day off work, so we decided to go on a date to the Newcastle Museum!
Newcastle Museum is home to a few permanent exhibitions, including A Newcastle Story, Supernova, and Fire and Earth. These all offer a range of multisensory experiences for all ages to learn about Newcastle’s history. There are also a few other items on show within the museum that do not belong to these exhibitions but are just as interesting. There’s a lot to see and do! The outside of the building is a great photo opportunity, with the gorgeous brickwork and classic red hooks in front of the entrance. If you live in New South Wales, I’m sure you’ve all seen these hooks, even if you didn’t know they were part of the Newcastle Museum.
There is no entry fee to the museum, so you can see all of the permanent exhibitions for free! Places like these are so important to the community, as they offer the opportunity to learn, without valuing money over their visitors. It’s a great way to spend the day if you want to do something different without spending a penny! The museum’s website also offers “Learn & Discover” videos, displaying some of the exhibitions and items so that you can learn from home if you can’t go to the museum in person. You can appreciate that Newcastle Museum really cares about its visitors and community.
The first exhibition we saw was A Newcastle Story. I thought this would be a great starting place for the museum. I also expected it to be the only exhibition we would get to see in the few hours we had there, but turns out you can look through the whole museum in half a day if you want to. Anyway, this exhibit was really interesting to me. There was a mix of convict history, Indigenous Australian history, as well as personal pieces and stories from people I’d never heard of before that held a large part of Newcastle’s past. They had stories from different events in our history, like the Newcastle earthquake and our participation war.
Newcastle Museum is also home to some really unique vehicles. My partner and I got a kick out of the 1923 Model T Ford that was parked in the Newcastle Story exhibit. It just looks so cute! They also had the last surviving Newcastle tram, that you could actually climb aboard and sit in! Let me tell you, my partner and I had some fun with this, respectfully of course. The photo opportunities with this tram are adorable, especially if you want to add a little historical touch to your photography. I’m not the most comfortable when it comes to modelling and posing for photos but when I looked back on the shots my partner took of me here, I just fell in love. I’m usually really awkward in photos, but something about this just didn’t allow that to show through.
The Supernova exhibition was a cute hands-on science experience. I think it is targeted towards the younger folk and their innocent curiosity, but my partner and I enjoyed it as part-time nerds. I believe this exhibition is really important for the development of children as they are growing and exploring the world around them and becoming more curious about how things work. After all, learning doesn’t have to be as boring as sitting behind a desk all day. The activities there were really interesting and unique, especially demonstrating the idea of leverage through lifting a car with ropes. Who said science was boring?
The Fire and Earth exhibition was probably my favourite throughout the museum. Here, you got to experience what life was like as a miner and steel worker. The place was set up as if you were stepping into the job yourself, with all the different equipment, machinery, and scenes of the profession. There are even speakers playing sounds of what it would have been like to work in the mines. This was a really important touch in my opinion, though, my partner and I had to pause for a bit to make sure the alarms were just from the mine speaker and not the actual museum being evacuated. Something about the Fire and Earth exhibition was just so haunting to me, but also kind of familiar. I’m not sure if I had any miners in my family history, but I felt very connected to the whole experience. It was kind of eerie.
Something interesting I found about the Newcastle Museum, was that it incorporated personal stories from real people within each exhibit. We weren’t just reading about the history or events, we were experiencing them through the lives of others. This added a personal small-town touch to the whole museum, as well as making it all the more enjoyable. Everyone has different ways of learning and relating stories, and this is a great way to incorporate one of many. I also loved how hands-on it was. Most museums have the “look don’t touch” rule. But there are many items at the Newcastle Museum that you’re allowed to experience with more than just your eyes. Like the old Newcastle Tram, and the whole Supernova exhibition. Some people need more than just words and objects behind a glass box to understand what they’re learning, and the Newcastle Museum is a great example of that.
The Newcastle Museum explores the importance of Newcastle’s history as a small town, as well as its contribution to the wider Australia and the world. There are so many different things to see, hear, and feel as a visitor, and the learning opportunities are endless. The exhibitions allow you to connect to what you’re reading about through personal stories, as well as letting you experience things for yourself. If you’re looking to learn more about Newcastle’s history, or Australia’s history in general, Newcastle Museum is a great place to visit!
All photos in this post were taken by me or my partner.
For more information, visit https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/
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