The Museum of Australian Democracy acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

The museum respectfully acknowledges the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.

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Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
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Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
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    Articles tagged with: collection

    Latest articles

    9 minute read

    Mon 25 Mar 2019
    Jessica Curtain

    The Last Moments collection: a treasure trove of stories

    How does a set of old photos hold the power to transform a visitor’s experience of our building?

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    20190328 084249

    5 minute read

    Thu 21 Jun 2018
    Daryl Karp

    The Director’s pick: Finders Keepers Collectors and their Stories

    MoAD Director Daryl Karp picks five objects from our exhibition and tells us why these are her favourites.

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    2009 2117 kay patterson collection   shelley vase

    2 minute read

    Mon 4 Jun 2018
    Monica Glasgow

    Welcome to Australia

    New citizens are welcomed with heart-felt messages from our visitors. 

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    Gifting democracy gallery 1

    7 minute read

    Thu 17 May 2018
    Kate Armstrong

    Hanging on the Computerphone

    The Telecom Computerphone had its glorious moment in the sun and on desks in the mid-1980s. It promised an all in one office solution of computer combined with phone *mind blown*...

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    07 finders keepers telecom computer

    5 minute read

    Sat 16 Sep 2017
    Libby Stewart

    Isobel and the koala

    Nearly 60 years ago a young Scottish immigrant, Isobel Saxelby, was given a toy koala, a symbol of a new life and her new home in Australia. It remained a treasured possession until ‘Kookie’, as Isobel called it, found a new home in the museum.

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    Kookie isobel and daryl

    5 minute read

    Thu 18 May 2017
    Libby Stewart

    International Museum Day 2017

    International Museum Day 2017 is based around the theme ‘Museums and contested histories: Saying the unspeakable in museums.’ Like all museums, sometimes at MoAD we need to talk about difficult subjects, and we use the power of the items in our collection to help us do that.

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    Massacre%20mountain%20by%20kevin%20gilbert

    12 minute read

    Tue 16 May 2017
    Stephanie Pfennigwerth

    A Horse’s Tale: Bill, Bertie and Bairnsdale 303

    Horses were a vital part of the Parliament House opening ceremonies. What did they make of all the fuss? Three photographs of Bill, the horse ridden in Canberra by the Duke of York, provide a fresh insight into the day’s events.

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    Duke perching

    7 minute read

    Tue 9 May 2017
    Stephanie Pfennigwerth

    The Thieving Diva: Behind the scenes of the opening ceremony at Parliament House

    Hilda Abbott was a distinguished guest whose recollections reveal that behind the public performance, VIPs are only people after all.

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    Dame nellie opening ceremony

    9 minute read

    Tue 2 May 2017
    Stephanie Pfennigwerth

    Flags, snags and bags: Putting the finishing touches on the opening of Parliament House

    It took determination, ingenuity and a small piece of string to get Parliament House finished in time for its grand opening in 1927.

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    King george v statue

    12 minute read

    Thu 23 Feb 2017
    Stephanie Pfennigwerth

    Charley’s Choice: The breastplate of Charley, King of Burran

    An object now in display in our Designing Democracy gallery documents one man’s life-or-death decision on Australia’s pastoral frontier.

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    Charley king of burran breastplate

    4 minute read

    Fri 16 Dec 2016
    Libby Stewart

    A very Green collection

    In 2015 Greens leader, Senator Christine Milne, resigned as party leader and ended her decades-long career in formal politics. As something of a self-confessed hoarder, she distributed some of her material, relics from her long and successful career, to museums and libraries. MoAD has been lucky to receive a large collection of her items, and we’ve found that it reveals some fascinating insights into her life and work.

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    Christine milne card

    12 minute read

    Thu 8 Dec 2016
    Stephanie Pfennigwerth

    A Present from the Past: Sir Robert Menzies and the Fishes Royal

    In 1965 Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Robert Menzies a gift so special that he had to contemplate burying it on a beach. What was it?

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    Menzies by frith

    7 minute read

    Fri 28 Oct 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    Would you vote for conscription? Five objects to help you decide

    A hundred years ago, Billy Hughes put the question of overseas conscription to the Australian people, in the hopes of gaining support for his plan to boost troop numbers in Europe. If you had been a voter in 1916, what would your answer be? Here are five objects from the Museum’s collection to help you make up your mind the way they helped Australian voters a century ago.

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    Vote yes feature

    4 minute read

    Thu 27 Oct 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    A Projector for a Prime Minister

    Robert Menzies was prime minister for almost two decades in total, but he was also a man of many interests and talents. One of his interests was in film, and in 1954 he was presented with a gift that let him indulge that passion. The Menzies projector is a new acquisition into the MOAD collection that sheds light onto Menzies’ life outside politics.

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    02 menzies projector

    6 minute read

    Sat 20 Aug 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    Deakin’s Great White Gamble

    On this day 108 years ago, a prime minister took a stand and invited some warships to visit Australia. Did he realise at the time what a monumental impact he would have on Australia’s place in the world?

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    Us%20navy%20fleet%20visit%20stereograph

    7 minute read

    Thu 21 Jul 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    On a Knife-Edge: Six other times Australia’s elections were down to the wire

    With the election over, people are now analysing the very close result. The government’s very small majority is not unusual in Australian history, and plenty of elections have come down to the wire and shown a very close result. Our researcher Campbell has examined six of them.

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    Rz 1940%20 %20menzies%20jug

    5 minute read

    Mon 4 Jul 2016
    Libby Stewart

    Artists and activists: The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray

    To celebrate NAIDOC week, Libby has written a post about Indigenous artist Lin Onus and his series of works, The Ongoing Adventures of X and Ray.

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    Feature detail

    12 minute read

    Wed 29 Jun 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    On Paper: some election ephemera

    As the election campaign wraps up, our researcher Campbell has unearthed some ephemeral items from our collection; things designed to be thrown away that have been preserved to tell us stories about past elections in Australia.

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    13364

    9 minute read

    Tue 21 Jun 2016
    Campbell Rhodes

    On this day: a Catholic forgives

    Arthur Calwell was shot fifty years ago today. He survived, but the story of his brush with death doesn’t end outside Mosman Town Hall; it is a story of a Catholic faith that never wavered even when looking death in the face.

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    Large medals

    5 minute read

    Thu 9 Jun 2016
    Emma McManus

    National Reconciliation Week in PLAY UP

    Last week we welcomed early learners and their parents to PLAY UP for a special National Reconciliation Week event introducing museum items and activities to this small but mighty audience. 

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    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

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    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts