The 3 best Melbourne history museums

The best Melbourne history museums are the Immigration Museum, the Melbourne Museum and the Old Melbourne Gaol. You can expect plenty of stories and surprises in all three.

Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, has got a fantastic cultural scene. But some of the city’s museums are better than others. If you want to learn about Melbourne’s backstory – and Australia’s past – these are the three best Melbourne history museums for visitors.

Best Melbourne history museums: The Immigration Museum

The Immigration Museum brings together stories of how Australia has been settled since the first Europeans arrived in 1788.

Many are individual accounts blazed on video screens, but there’s also a reconstruction of a convict ship that shows how grim conditions on the long voyage were.

Most shocking is the exploration of the exceptionally racist tests potential immigrants were once subjected to. Questions had to be answered in a European language – and those immigration officers didn’t like the look of would have to answer in something obscure like Gaelic or Maltese, irrespective of where they were from.

Tickets cost $15 including GST when booked in advance.

Immigration Museum in Melbourne — The Immigration Museum is arguably the best museum in Melbourne.

Melbourne’s best history museums: The Melbourne Museum

The Melbourne Museum is not strictly a history museum, but it sure covers plenty of history. Melbourne’s flagship cultural institution is fantastically varied, with genuine “woah!” exhibits coming thick and fast.

The Melbourne Museum has a mind-boggling collection of stuffed animals, including the extinct thylacine and pig-footed bandicoot. There are skeletons of giant marsupials that once roamed Oz. Then there’s a cross section of a gigantic 619-year-old tree felled in Queensland, time-lapse maps of how Melbourne has grown and 3D grids showing how Victoria’s indigenous people are part of 11 separate language families. It’s multi-faceted and regularly fascinating.

Melbourne Museum tickets can be booked online.

14 fantastic experiences that make the most of your free time in Melbourne

Get the very best views – on a hot air balloon flight over the city.
See the changing colours of the river – on a sunset kayaking tour – with dinner. (Highly recommended ✅)
Feast and see the sights at the same time – on a four course dinner cruise along the Yarra River.
A genuinely excellent street art tour, led by prominent street artists. (Highly recommended ✅)
The also superb Aboriginal heritage, plants and bush food tour in the Botanic Gardens. (💲 Great value 💲)
Best of Melbourne bike tour – you can see more on two wheels than walking.
Hidden laneways bar crawl OR foodie discovery tour OR chocolate and dessert tour.
Combo ticket for Australian Sports Museum and MCG tour.
Hassle-dodging advance tickets for the Melbourne Skydeck, Melbourne Zoo, the Ice Bar (with cocktails) and Sea Life Aquarium.

Best Melbourne history museums: Old Melbourne Gaol

The home-made armour of 19th century outlaw Ned Kelly draws people into the Old Melbourne Gaol. But it’s the grim cells and tales of bloodythirsty colonial era justice that ramp up the “rather them than me” factor.

Again, tickets can booked online.