The Mupersan's Australian Adventure: The Powerhouse Museum

Easter Monday.......

A quick note before I start.... please remember that you can click on the pictures to see them in full size.

The Powerhouse Museum (as described on their website), Australia's largest and most popular museum, is located in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Its unique and diverse collection of 385,000 objects spans history, science, technology, design, industry, decorative arts, music, transport and space exploration.

We'd read about this museum before we arrived in Sydney. This is one of the places high up on Scott's list of priorities - a MUST see. In fact, my dad's pretty keen on seeing it too when they come out in June. Scott was tasked with doing a reccie so that he can take my dad to see all the best bits!

There was SO much to see. We arrived shortly after it opened and left just before it closed - mostly because our feet were sore by that stage. I took plenty of pics of Scott playing with all the cool toys! It's a fascinating museum. The displays are great - not your usual museum where all the exhibits look somewhat moth-eaten. There are different sections - the transport hall, cyberworld (computers), the steam hall, design (clothing, jewellery, art, furniture), space, shopping (1880 - 1930), musical instruments, engineering, experiments. It's a magical place for kids of all ages. And Scott was no exception!

There's also currently an exhibition on called "Diana: A celebration". It's travelling around the world - a collection made up by her family with everything from her primary school uniform to tiara's to home movies to her wedding dress. I didn't think I'd enjoy an exhibition like that, but it was brilliantly done and had some fascinating stuff. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside so you'll just have to take my word for it!

Enjoy the pics!

Me outside the apartment on our way out

Scott outside Powerhouse

Walking up the stairs in the transport hall

Scott in the transport hall

Sorry it's a bit dark, but this is the transport hall

Me looking through a microscope at something interesting

Me in the space shuttle anti-gravity simulator. This was brilliantly done - basically you stand on a steel platform in the centre of a slowly rotating barrel. The inner wall of the barrel has all the components of the inside of a space shuttle. You really do feel quite disorientated in there!

In the innovations & inventions section we were very surprised to see Castle lager in the tab-top can exhibit.......

Berlei have been making lady's bra's and corsettes since around 1917 in Australia (and the UK since 1930). I've bought a couple of their bra's here and they really are awesome.

Scott in the foyer outside the transport hall

An old fashioned "peep" show. Everytime you put a coin in, the next picture of a scantily clad lady reclining on a bed flips over.

The Merryweather Fire Pump: This horse-drawn steam fire pump spent a busy working life in the NSW town of Broken Hill. Between 1896 & 1922 it fought more than 1000 fires. It was made in England in 1896.

Some sort of pressure thingy which kept Scott amused for a while

The steam hall

Scott with more planes - this one was really tiny and I'm really surprised that it actually did fly at one stage!

The old train timetable display - I think from Central station

Scott with one of the steam trains

Traffic signs in Oz - slightly different to ZA

Me on the steam-powered Carousel

Scott's turn on the steam-powered Carousel

Scott doing funky things with lights

Scott experimenting on some complicated machinery

Mr Pixel himself! Very cleverly disguised as a responsible adult indeed.....

Astronaut Scott about to board the shuttle

Astronaut Scott once again - this time with some or other space thingumy-jig

Aaaaah.... And here we have the very first portable laptop computer!

I though this was hysterical considering my gran has recently had a pacemaker "installed"! (Mom, please make sure you print this out for Gran!)

Heee! Heeee! Scott controlling the blue light thingy (Visions of Pinky & The Brain spring to mind......!)

I think this was a static electricity experiment.....?

Oh! This was a good one! There were about 5 components which go into making up a bomb. Scott had to choose his bomb components (saltpeter & chlorine?), type of fuse, cannister/casing type, etc. After he made all his selections, the projector above started up and projected the whole making of his specific bomb on the screen. But at the end of the process, it just went ppppppfffffffftt instead of kaaaaaahboooooom! Apparently he used the wrong fuse or something. LOL!

Aaaah.... The good ole Commadore....