What's On at Inveresk
(last updated 12 August 2008)

QVMAG Exhibition Archive
Temporary exhibitions at Inveresk

Mueller's microscope, c. 1857
State Botanical Collection

Hidden in Plain View: The Forgotten Flora
16 August – 16 November 2008
QVMAG at Inveresk

What do fungi and stonewash jeans have in common? What has a moss got to do with the Tyrolean iceman? What are the tallest mosses? What is a reindeer moss? How can lichens read pollution?

The answers to these questions and many more will be answered in a remarkable free touring exhibition, Hidden in Plain View: the forgotten flora, staged by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

Currently touring nationally, Hidden in plain view: the Forgotten Flora is on at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston from 16 August to 16 November.


The exhibition is about encouraging people to investigate the influence of the forgotten flora on their daily lives through curiosities, rarities, and everyday items, and gain an understanding of the importance of conserving the ‘often overlooked’ in our world.

Hidden in plain view: the Forgotten Flora features over 100 objects including original botanical paintings, historical and contemporary illustrations, books and textiles, and herbarium specimens from the Victorian State Botanical Collection held at the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Great Railway Journeys of Australia: The Workshops Rail Museum - Queensland Museum Travelling Exhibition
12 July – 28 September 2008
Mezzanine
QVMAG at Inveresk

Since the introduction of the railways in Australia over 150 years ago, train travel has played an important role in Australian cultural life. This new exhibition, produced by The Workshops Rail Museum, explores the development of Australia’s rail network and showcases some of the most famous railway journeys in Queensland and Australia.

The exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia.
On board the Sunlander
Conductor on the Sunlander, 1978
Image courtesy of QR

360 Professions - China Trade Paintings
28 June to 7 September 2008 12 October 2008
Small Gallery
QVMAG at Inveresk
Admission free

360 Professions highlights the street trades and professions of 19th century China. This exhibition touches upon the rich diversity of 19th century China and includes images ranging from Imperial noblemen and women to sandal makers and chicken castrators. All of these watercolours were made before the age of photography and provided vivid reminders of life in what was for much of the Western world an unimaginably exotic country.

Also included in the exhibition are a number of oil paintings featuring Chinese gardens and landscapes which only serve to further emphasise how exotic and different was this country just beginning to open its ports in a large way to European and American merchants.

All of the works in this exhibition are drawn from the QVMAG collections and have never been exhibited before.

 Feather duster peddler
Feather duster peddler (mid-19th century)
Unknown artist
Watercolour on pith paper
Chinese
Collection of the QVMAG
Artstart—Reflections
 23 May – 14 August 2008
QVMAG at Inveresk

Artwork by primary school students from northern Tasmania
.Artstart galleryArtstart galleryArtstart gallery
Permanent exhibitions at Inveresk


Phenomena Factory is the result of a successful partnership between Rio Tinto Alcan and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, with generous support from the Tasmanian State Government and Launceston City Council. The objective of the partnership is to encourage the community to explore and engage with science and technology.

Entry to Phenomena Factory is free, providing provides free hands-on, minds-on, curiosity-on science education for kids of all ages. The centre includes over 30 permanent exhibits with regularly changing programs and displays.

Fire your own EX-1 Rocket, challenge yourself in the Perception Tunnel, or test your reactions while you touch, switch, pull and crank your way around the Factory, actively learning about science along the way.

Aspects of Tasmanian art
Over 100 paintings, prints, watercolours and sculptures exploring the two dominant themes in Tasmanian art—landscape and portraiture. The exhibition celebrates the richness of the Museum's art collection from colonial to contemporary times.

A guide to the exhibition is available from the Museum Shop.

The Great Dying: extinctions that changed life on Earth
ongoing
Ian Potter Gallery
QVMAG at Inveresk

The best known of all extinction events saw the end of the reign of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, when 50% of species were lost.

However, life on earth came very close to being totally destroyed in an event at the end of the Permian era, 251 million years ago, when it is thought that as few as 10% of all species of plants and animals survived.
Inostrancevia


Carnivorous mammal-like reptile
Inostrancevia
Collection: QVMAG


The cause of these worldwide extinction events has been debated ever since they were recognized more than a century ago.

Many different reasons have been proposed for the extinction of animal groups as diverse as trilobites and dinosaurs. Only recently it has become apparent that two key events, a huge asteroid impact with the Earth and massive volcanic eruptions, have been responsible for the largest and best-known extinctions on Earth.
World wide attention has focussed on the recent discovery off the WA coast of an impact crater which was created 251 million years ago which co-incides with this massive extinction.

Download the Teachers Education kit
(4.5MB pdf)
Bark belt

Bark belt
Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
Collected pre 1897 by the Officers of the John WilliamsIV
 Pacific Encounters (closed from 13 July 2008)

An exploration of the extraordinary diversity, creativity and ingenuity of the material cultures of the Pacific Islands. The exhibition explores the historical and continuing links between Tasmania and our Pacific neighbours by tracing the development of the Museum's collection.
Carved wooden sculpture
The face is part of a large carved wooden sculpture
Male Figure (Moguru ceremony)
Bamu River, Western Province, Papua New Guinea
Collected pre 1927
Shell necklace Strings Across Time—Tasmanian Aboriginal Shell Necklaces
An exhibition to acknowledge the contribution, both past and present, that Tasmanian Aboriginal women have made to the continuation and development of their cultural traditions and practices.
Transforming the Island: Railways in Tasmania
The story of how the railways shaped Tasmania, changing the way we live and work. It recounts the important role played by the Railway Workshops. They were the largest, integrated engineering workshops in the State: a centre for precision engineering, servicing not only the railways but also the automotive, aeronautical, munitions, mining and manufacturing industries.

....... ....... ............
1901 - 2001
A Federation Fund Project
The Launceston Railway Workshops Redevelopment was supported by the Commonwealth Government through the Federation Fund.
Blacksmith Shop The Blacksmith Shop
Here, amidst the array of forges, hammers, furnaces and the earthen floor, it becomes possible to comprehend the raw energy and forces of the Industrial Revolution. A walkway guides you through this unique experience with the voices of workers and sounds of machinery. Combine this with the WhistleStop Tour where you'll see a blacksmith at work with furnace fired and machinery powering and this unique experience becomes one of sight, sound and smell.

Past Lives, New Beginnings . . . Migration and Tasmania
Covers the highs and lows of being a migrant in Tasmania, particularly since Federation. The exhibition is divided into sections: Leaving Home; The Journey; Arrival; Settling In and The Impact on Tasmania. They are based on the migrants' own stories. A timeline highlights aspects of Tasmania's rich migration history.

Treasures and Traditions is a changing display within the Past Lives exhibition which showcases different aspects of migrant culture.

A Teachers' Resource Kit is now available for this exhibition.
migration exhibition

1901 - 2001
A Federation Fund Project

Replay<<Sporting Life in Tasmania

Esk cricketers Courtesy of NTCA

An exhibition which explores the historical background of a variety of sports in Tasmania then examines some of the characters and events which contributed to the growth of that sport.

It is based on individual stories and pictorial evidence of Tasmania’s sporting heritage, aimed at rediscovering the human side of sporting endeavour and the contribution it has made to encouraging community cohesion and reflecting qualities of citizenship.

 These stories, supported with objects, photos and documents, capture the romance, drama and the sacrifice, from the ordinary to the elite, inviting visitors to consider a deeper interpretation of sport.

PlayZone
Located within the exhibition space for Transforming the Island: Railways in Tasmania. Safe and cosy, this is a fun learning place for children under six and parents to play and explore using a range of toys and resources—train sets, books, puzzles and puppets—their first museum experience! (Baby feeding room and change table available.)
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