The Australian Museum, with St Mary's Cathedral in the background, in Sydney, Australia
by Greg O'Beirne, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:AustralianMuseum_gobeirne.jpg, used under GNU Free Documentation License
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The Australian Museum, located in College Street, Sydney, is the oldest museum in Australia. It has an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology, and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology. The museum is also involved in indigenous studies research and community programs.
The Australian Museum was originally called the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. It was founded on 30 March, 1827, by Earl Bathurst, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was only in June 1836 that a sub-committee meeting resolved over an argument to rename it the Australian Museum.
At the beginning, the museum operated from a room in the offices of the colonial secretary. For its first 30 years, it was moved from one located to another. It only moved into its current location in 1849. The museum building was designed by James Barnet, the New South Wales colonial architect, and was opened to the public in May 1857.
The Australian Museum was administered directly by the colonial government until June 1836, when a Committee of Superintendence of the Australian Museum and Botanical Garden was established. Well-known naturalist George Bennett was appointed the first curator of the Australian Museum in 1835. He was the first to catalog the museum's collection. The position of curator was renamed Director and Curator in 1918, and then, to Director, in 1921. The present director of the Australian Museum is Frank Howarth.
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