For many decades, Sunshine Harvester Works was a significant landmark in Sunshine, a suburb in Melbourne’s industrial west. Museum curator Leah Bartsch explores research into the stories and objects of Sunshine.

Curator Anthea Gunn talks about her research on the colonial settlement of Hobart and the expansion of Van Diemen’s Land in the early 1800s, as part of her work on the Creating a Country gallery.

Curator Jennifer Wilson talks about her research into the fishing port of Robe in South Australia in the late nineteenth century, as an example of a place where people endeavoured to create a just society with equality of opportunity and participation.

Curator and historian Roslyn Russell talks about the work of amateur scientists, including astronomer WJ Macdonnell, in the New South Wales coastal town of Port Macquarie, as part of her research for the Creating a Country gallery.

The National Museum’s rare 1883 Grubb refractor telescope, used in early Australian astronomical observing programs and returned to working condition, is discussed by curator Kirsten Wehner, astronomer Vince Ford and astronomical engineer Hermann Wehner.

The development of the Australian pastoral industry at Bowen Downs in central Queensland, one of four places to be featured in the ‘Never enough grass’ module of the National Museum’s Creating a Country gallery, is outlined by curator George Main.

Curator Kirsten Wehner outlines the themes of the new National Museum of Australia permanent gallery, Creating a Country. It will look broadly at the history of Australia since European colonisation of the continent in the late eighteenth century.