Museum Up Late – Capturing the Extinct

Join us for our next Museum Up Late to celebrate the opening of Capturing Nature: Early photographs at the Australian Museum 1857-1893.

Travel back in time with us and wonder! Watch and interact with giant Diprotodon puppets roaming the Museum and surrounds in a one-of-a-kind puppetry performance, explore the fascinating exhibition of Australia’s first photographs of natural history, embody an endangered species and be captured on film by one of our archivists, and more.

A night inspired by our fascination with capturing all things in the natural world and how we have altered this land’s creatures and landscape.

Our courtyard will also be activated with mini-fossil-dig activities, bags of popcorn for grazing creatures, live music, along with food and a variety of drinks by The Gin Experience to purchase throughout the night.

Capturing Nature  |  the exhibition

Capturing Nature: Early photographs at the Australian Museum 1857-1893 travels back to a time when photography was revolutionising science, art and society. These images, reproduced from the Australian Museum’s collection of glass plate negatives from 1857 to 1893, are some of Australia’s earliest natural history photographs. They tell the story of pioneering natural history and science research as well as the advent of photography in Australia.

The exhibition also features natural history specimens from Tweed Regional Museum’s collection, alongside a special installation of giant Diprotodon puppets created by Dead Puppets Society.

Ancient giant diprotodon’s brought to life  |  live puppetry performance by Dead Puppet Society  |  multiple performances

Follow ancient giants from a forgotten time as they roam the Museum and surroundings, lost in a jungle made of concrete, finding food and interacting with humans along the way. Let your imagination soar as you experience this exquisite, one-of-a-kind open-air puppetry performance from Australian visual theatre masterminds Dead Puppet Society. Inspired by the natural world and renowned for their timeless and innovative approach to design-led theatre and storytelling, don’t miss out on this unique experience.

At the end of the night, the giant Diprotodon’s will take refuge in a prehistoric installation in the Museum for the exhibition, until they leave to roam this land again at the final Museum Up Late street party, Saturday 28 January 2023.

Embody an endangered creature & be captured on film by a Museum Archivist  |  4 – 7pm

Have your face exquisitely painted by our creature creators into one of our local endangered species and learn about their life and now fragile existence. Morph into your endangered species, roam with the giant Diprotodon puppets and get captured in the wild by our Museum Archival photographers!

Diprotodon Dig!  |  self guided fun  |  4 – 7pm

Alert all little explorers, paleontologists, and archivists! Real fossils have been found in the Museum. What is it? Fossil, plant, shell, fish, gem or mammal? We need your help to dig, discover and identify it!

All ages event. Bookings essential due to limited capacity.