The 13 best museums and galleries in Canberra

Canberra gets a bad rap compared to other Australian capital cities, so you might be surprised that it’s home to one of the top ten free tourist attractions in the world. At the Australian War Memorial, you can discover the Australian experiences of war and connect with the stories of people and events that shaped our nation. Place a poppy on the Roll of Honour to remember the sacrifice made by our servicemen and women, and stay for the moving Last Post closing ceremony at 4.30pm daily.

A trip to Parliament House is obviously a must while you’re in town, but visitors are often surprised to learn there’s a lot more to do than simply listen in to Question Time. Visitors are welcome to freely explore all public areas and watch our robust government in action from the galleries on sitting days. Join the ‘Best of Parliament House’ tour to see visitor favourites, including the towering flagpole and Great Hall Tapestry, or check out the Lego Parliament House, which took artist Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught 740 hours – or almost 31 days – to build. 

Opened in 1982, Australia’s heritage-listed national gallery is home to the largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection in the entire world. Its collection comprises more than 155,000 Australian, Indigenous and international masterpieces, including Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ and the Ned Kelly series by Sidney Nolan. The NGA’s extensive collective extends outdoors into the manicured Sculpture Garden that sits on the shore of Canberra’s tranquil Lake Burley Griffin. Try to align the conclusion of your visit with dusk, when pioneering light artist James Turrell’s permanent installation, ‘Within without’, really comes alive.

Science brings smiles to everyone’s faces at Questacon – the National Science and Technology Centre. This playground for adults and kids alike is full of weird and wonderful spaces for you to play and discover. Feel the force of an earthquake, watch an explosive science show, make friends with dinosaurs and experience the exhilaration of weightlessness as you slide down the two-storey vertical ‘Free Fall’.

The striking loops of the National Museum of Australia’s exterior have been a feature of the Canberra skyline since the institution opened in 2001. You can delve into the rich and diverse tapestry of Australia’s history while browsing the museum’s permanent collections, which feature Indigenous art, textiles, vintage cars and Phar Lap’s heart (which weighs 6.35kg). You can come back to the NMA time and time again too, with free host talks in the Great Southern Land, First Australians or Landmarks galleries or the Garden of Australian Dreams, on the hour between 10am and 4pm daily.

Every weekend, newbies flock to Kingston Foreshore to take a Make Your Own class, emerging with a paperweight in just 20 minutes, or a glass tumbler in 40. These sampler workshops offer a real taste of the craft, in what many in the art world recognise as Australia’s leading glassworks facility. Whether you want to fuse it, cast it, blow it or try flameworking (melting and shaping glass over a hot torch), there’s a taster course for everyone. You can also take a behind-the-scenes history tour of Hotshop and see the glass-blowing experts in action.

Come face-to-face with our country’s most topical and trending Australian characters at the nation’s leading portrait gallery. From Archie Roach and Adam Goodes to Carla Zampatti and Cate Blanchett, these are the people and artists who have shaped our Australian identity. You can take a squiz at the 500-plus portraits, before popping just across the road to the National Gallery of Australia, Questacon or Old Parliament House. 

You’ll find the Mint – the place where every Australian coin is made (fun fact: it also produces circulating coins for other countries, as well as collector coins, medals and medallions) – in suburban Deakin. Take a walk above the factory floor and learn about the manufacturing process for coins on a free 30-minute guided tour. Or, check out the permanent display of rare and unique coins, including ‘misstrikes’ (imperfect coins), rare pennies and the first coins to land on our shores. You can even strike your very own one-dollar coin in the Gallery Press.

Plug into political history at the MoAD, located inside Old Parliament House – the building that housed Australia’s federal government from 1927 to 1988. By day, you can trace the steps of people who shaped Australian democracy, in the very place it happened, with a museum tour. Then, by night, you can join esteemed mystery investigator Tim the Yowie Man on a torchlight snoop through the secret nooks and crannies of the landmark building. 

Travel back in time 700 million years with Australia’s largest permanent displays of dinosaurs and prehistoric fossils at the National Dinosaur Museum in Gold Creek Village. Over the last 30 years, this interactive museum has built an impressive collection of 23 full dinosaur skeletons, including Stan, Canberra’s larger-than-life T. rex, who is 20 metres long (half the length of the museum!) and towers above the entrance at a lofty six metres tall.

After all, its collection of more than 4 million items includes fabulously memorable pieces, such as the thong dress from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and costumes from Elvis and Moulin Rouge! in the Australians and Hollywood exhibition. But there's so much more to see and hear, from cult cinema classics to new releases and thought-provoking panel conversations. 

Hidden in the leafy suburb of Watson, this less-than-6-square-metre gallery zooms in on emerging and established artists from Canberra and beyond. Walk-ins are welcome from Thursday to Sunday to admire all things fabulous and small, including textiles, ceramics, paintings, jewellery and print media. 

Inside the beautiful building, you can engage with more than 10 million collection items, fascinating exhibitions, three reading rooms and two galleries. Leaf through the pages of the country’s largest reference library on a free tour hosted daily at 11am and uncover the most valued treasures to be found among the whopping 279 kilometres of shelving.