Australian Museum announces 2020 reopening date with free entry
After a multi-million renovation, the much-loved Australian Museum is set to reopen with a blockbuster new program — and for the first time in decades, entry will be free.
NSW
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The Australian Museum has sent general admission fees into extinction and will welcome all visitors free of charge at the door for the first time since 1992.
The museum yesterday announced it will reopen on Saturday November 28 after a $57.5 million renovation called Project Discover.
New facilities, vast new exhibition spaces and free entry will double the museum’s audience numbers in five years or less, director and CEO Kim McKay said.
The extra money spent at the new family cafe, the new shop and at various events and programs will make up the cost of foregone admissions, McKay said.
Before the museum closed for Project Discover in August 2018, adult visitors paid $15 to enter the building and children under 16 paid $8.
Younger children have been admitted free since 2015.
But McKay, who joined the museum six years ago, was determined to abolish fees for everyone.
“When we’ve had the free weekends here, the families who come are from three generations and they come on the train from Western Sydney, and it’s an important day out,” McKay said.
"But they would only come when it’s free. Now everyone can come all the time. I want them to just pop in to the museum.”
Project Discover, with $50 million from the NSW Government and the remainder from donors, has introduced two vast exhibition halls the length of three tennis courts. They will cater for events and entertainment as well as major international exhibitions.
The new Touring Hall was built to take the blockbuster Egyptian exhibition, Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, announced in 2018. Covid has delayed the exhibition indefinitely but it is still “in the schedule”, McKay said.
The museum will reopen with two new exhibitions. Tyrannosaurs — Meet The Family is an update on one of the museum’s most popular exhibitions which has been touring overseas for the last five years.
Exhibition tickets for non-members will be $20 adults, $16 concession, $10 child, with family packages available.
The other exhibition, Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, will be free.
Neeson Murcutt architects and Cox Architects reclaimed storage and office areas to add another 3000 square metres of public space to the museum.
It now has one of the largest exhibition spaces in Sydney, placing it to compete robustly with Melbourne and Brisbane for international touring shows, McKay said.
A new, permanent climate change display will be part of the newly-opened museum.