Explore the character, cultures and soul of the city

Built over and around the remains of Sydney’s First Government House, the Museum of Sydney is a special place. Join us on Gadigal Country for a changing program of exhibitions, events and conversations that explore the character, cultures and soul of this city, and celebrate the diversity, strength and resilience of its First Nations custodians.

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[First Government House, Sydney] / watercolour drawing by John Eyre
Museum stories

First encounters

The Museum of Sydney is built on and around a site that links us to the very beginnings of modern Australia

Corner Phillip and Bridge streets, Sydney NSW 2000

Museum of Sydney

Gadigal Country

Corner Phillip and Bridge streets, Sydney NSW 2000
  • Cafe
  • Wheelchair accessible
Plan your visit

Exhibitions & displays

The first three decades (decade 3), Coomaditchie artists and community members, 2022, acrylic on unstretched canvas, 302cm x 213.5 cm. 
Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation
Now showing
Featured exhibition

Coomaditchie: The Art of Place

Experience community life by the ocean through the works of First Nations artists in Coomaditchie: The Art of Place at the Museum of Sydney. These loving and lyrical artworks, which include paintings, ceramics and screen-prints, speak of life in and around the settlement of Coomaditchie, its history, ecology and local Dreaming stories

Saturday 30 March
Ngaya (I am)
Now showing
Featured exhibition

Ngaya (I am)

‘A cut-and-paste, punked-up look at my Country’ is how Peter Waples-Crowe describes his video installation, a self-portrait of the artist as a queer Ngarigo person from the Snowy Mountains region of south-eastern NSW

Saturday 16 March
Cast in cast out, Denis Golding, 2020, epoxy resin, iron oxides, concrete, acrylic, edition etching rag
Now showing
Featured display

Cast in cast out

An evocative artwork by Sydney-based Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding

Saturday 16 March
Madjeri
Featured display

Madjeri

Madjeri (pronounced mud-jer-ee) is the Dharawal word for canoe or small floating vessel

Saturday 3 August
Edge of the Trees installation, Museum of Sydney forecourt
Permanent display

Edge of Trees

This site-specific piece commissioned for the forecourt of the Museum of Sydney at its opening in 1995 was created by artists Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence

Sunday 1 January
Permanent display

Yura Nura: People & Country

Yura Nura: People & Country presents contemporary Aboriginal reflections on the history of Sydney and colonisation

Wednesday 1 January
First Fleet ship models, Museum of Sydney
Permanent display

First Fleet Ships

This display explores the journey, arrival and first contacts of this fleet’s largely unwilling human cargo

Sunday 1 January

Stories

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Coomaditchie: The Art of Place marketing photoshoot
First Nations

Do touch

We all know we can’t touch collection objects or artworks displayed in museums. However, the new display Cast in cast out by First Nations artist Dennis Golding at the Museum of Sydney includes a ‘do touch’ element

View of the archaeological dig on the site of the first Government House from the rooftop of Colonial Secretary’s building, photographer Lindy Kerr for the NSW Department of Planning, 28 October 1983.

Excavating Australia’s first Government House

Did you know that when you walk into the Museum of Sydney, you’re walking over the remains of one of the most significant buildings in Australia’s history?

Coomaditchie Lagoon
First Nations

Coomaditchie: The Art of Place

The works of the Coomaditchie artists speak of life in and around the settlement of Coomaditchie, its history, ecology and local Dreaming stories

[First Government House, Sydney] / watercolour drawing by John Eyre
Museum stories

First encounters

The Museum of Sydney is built on and around a site that links us to the very beginnings of modern Australia

Learning programs

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Two girls in school uniform making string in exhibition space with other students behind.
Onsite

Garuwanga Gurad (stories that belong to Country)

During this program at Museum of Sydney, on the site of first Government House, students have a unique opportunity to explore links between Indigenous and European histories, cultures and perspectives in the expanding Sydney colony of the 1800

Students exploring the Edge of the Trees sculpture at Museum of Sydney for Whose Place program
Onsite

Whose Place?

During this thought-provoking and engaging program, students learn that this place was an important site of contact between British and Aboriginal people

Annual Giving: Sharing our stories

Your support will help us to preserve and share the stories of NSW through our places, collections, archives and programs

Find out more