Seven unusual museums to visit in Sydney

It’s all aboard for a one-way trip to public transport geekery at the Sydney Bus Museum, which has a huge collection of vintage buses kept at the hundred-year-old Leichhardt Tramshed. You’ll be able to poke around everything from the 1924 Ruggles, a cute, boxy little thing for only 22 people, all the way up to those stuffy white-and-blue Mercedes-Benz buses, which have us reminiscing about peeling ourselves off the pleather seats on a sweaty summer afternoon. Unlike other museums, it’s all about interactivity here. You can peer into, climb on and nosy around many of the exhibits to your heart’s content, and the space is manned by enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers, many of whom are bus industry retirees who just couldn’t keep away. What takes a day at the Sydney Bus Museum to greater heights (literally) is that included in the ticket price is unlimited rides to and from the QVB on a vintage double decker bus. Sit upstairs and enjoy the view as you whirr (at a low speed) over the Anzac Bridge, where you’ll get lots of quizzical looks from passing pedestrians.

The museum is open on the first and third Sunday of every month. Pre-book your tickets here.

The Magicians Cabaret Theatre has long been favourite with out-of-towners, known for their flashy dinner shows packed with old world Paris-inspired dance, song and magic. But they also keep a side hustle, operating the mysterious Australian Museum of Magical Arts by day. Those who still dust off their David Copperfield or Penn and Teller DVDs every Christmas will get a kick out of seeing tonnes of magic paraphernalia up close. And yes, you’ll learn the mechanics of a few entry-level tricks (after you sign a ‘magician’s oath’ of secrecy). Razzle dazzle aside, it’s the exhibits detailing the history of the craft – the plans, patents, costumes and literature – that hold much more allure. They too, have a grand reveal: the enormous levels of human inventiveness and imagination that go into creating magic.

Learn more and plan your visit here.

We’ve been growing up on May Gibbs books for over a century now, meaning there’s plenty of happy nostalgia for young and old alike on a visit to the beloved author-illustrator’s home overlooking Neutral Bay. Hark back to when you were a wee gumnut yourself by reliving the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie featured on the watercolours, postcards and prints scattered throughout the mini-museum. What you may not expect is to learn is that Gibbs a phenomenally independent, ahead-of-her-time woman. We learn that being paid an eighth of what her male counterparts were earning when she worked as a newspaper cartoonist made Gibbs a shrewd businesswoman who supplemented her income by selling pictures to print on chocolate boxes, linens and bottles of ‘Snuggleport’. She also refused to cook or sew, often just eating apples and cheese during mealtimes, and that people frequently mistook her husband for her secretary, given she did the driving and he did the typing. The house itself is a carefully maintained example of Spanish mission architecture filled with mid-century furniture and lived-in knick-knacks that make the place transportative. After the tour you’re welcome to stick around and enjoy the gardens, perhaps with a cup of tea and a scone from the Nutcote’s small café. And don’t hesitate to pick up a bookmark on the way out – Gibbs bequeathed the copyright from her characters and stories to disability charities.

Open 11am to 3pm, Wednesday - Sunday. You can learn more and plan your visit over here

Hypochondriacs and WebMD enthusiasts, this one’s for you. For a stunning confrontation with your own mortality, pay a visit to this specialist museum housed within the University of New South Wales. In its possession are 2,000 specimens of human disease, obtained from the organs and tissue of autopsied patients who’ve generously given their bodies to science. You’ll see appetite-busting specimens of everything from tapeworms and typhoid to tuberculosis and teratoma, an alien-like tumour that grows its own hair, skin and teeth. Exhibits are accompanied by a detailed clinical history of the ill-fated donor patient, giving the weird fleshy bits you’re looking at some (sad) humanity. There are sections dedicated to lifestyle diseases that’ll have you signing up for the gym and throwing out your spirit cupboard, plus a trippy Oculus Rift exhibit where you can ‘walk’ through an artery. Sure, the lighting and décor are a little fusty lab-chic, but what’s inside the cabinets is some morbidly fascinating stuff. If you’re the kind of person who can’t watch an episode of Embarrassing Bodies without feeling your dinner shift north then this one’s not for you.

Open Monday - Friday, 10am - 4pm, plan your visit over here.

Given the Museum of Fire’s almost wilfully oblique name, many will have little idea of what to expect from this niche museum as they’re waved off by smiling front desk staff. Well, be prepared for a full frontal assault of super-eerie life-sized dioramas illustrating the horrors of home fires. They don’t hold back – we’re talking flame-blackened bedrooms, shredded curtains, melted appliances on gloriously ’80s retro fit-outs, and even burnt dolls and teddy bears to really drive fear into the depths of the heart. Each exhibit is peppered with urgent all-caps signs blaring ‘KEEP CURTAINS SECURED AND AWAY FROM COOKING APPLIANCES’ and ‘IT TOOK 12 SECONDS FOR THIS SET OF PYJAMAS TO BURN’. If you can fight through the urge to rush home and check you’ve turned off the stove, the rest of the museum swaps trauma for awe, with an extensive collection of historical fire trucks. There are some seriously regal vehicles here, stretching as far back as horse-drawn fire carts from the 1800s. They’ve also amassed a catalogue of ornate brass helmets and uniforms from Australian firefighting history, plus bushfire tankers used during the war, and (if you’re a real emergency services nerd) you can flick through district station records from the last 100 years.

Open daily from 9.30am - 4.30pm. Plan your visit over here

Climbing the mighty arches of the Harbour Bridge is by far the most breathtaking way to experience this architectural icon. There's just one catch: it’s also one of the priciest days out in the city, running up to hundreds of dollars for a ticket. If you want to get up close and personal with this world-famous Sydney landmark without breaking the bank, the Pylon Lookout is a cheap and cheerful alternative, albeit with a little less adrenaline required. Located in the southeast pylon, this multi-level museum and viewing platform lets visitors explore the history of the bridge’s conception and design, by visionary architect JCC Bradfield, as well as chronicling the years of its construction between 1923 and 1932. Today, the Harbour Bridge is still considered one of the true wonders of the industrial age, while also remaining the tallest steel arch bridge ever built. And while you won’t quite reach its 134-metre peak at the Pylon Lookout, the panoramic, open-air viewing platform will get you to a respectable 87 meters above sea level, while offering stunning views of the Sydney Opera House and harbour waters that you’d be hard-pressed to match anywhere else in the city. Some of the exhibits hail from a time when dioramas and curio-cases were the pinnacle of museum technology, but while there is something undeniably retro (OK, we really mean naff) about a few of the displays, the museum is nonetheless chock full of fascinating information, including plenty of factoids you likely never knew about Sydney's treasured 'coathanger'. And at just $24.95 for an adult ticket, the million-dollar views that await you at the top of the lookout's 222 stairs are more than worth the price of entry.