Museums in Sydney

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia's foremost cultural institutions, founded in 1871 and set within a neoclassical building overlooking Sydney Harbour. Its 2022 Sydney Modern expansion by SANAA doubled exhibition space with a striking series of pavilions cascading toward the harbour.

Founded in 1827, the Australian Museum is the nation's oldest natural history museum. Its collections span 21.9 million specimens, from megafauna fossils to the world's most comprehensive collection of Australian insects.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia commands one of Sydney's most enviable locations — directly overlooking Circular Quay and the Opera House. The free admission galleries span Australian and international contemporary art, from Aboriginal paintings to video installations.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia occupies a striking Art Deco building on Circular Quay's western shore. Since 1991 it has presented cutting-edge Australian and international contemporary art, with a rooftop sculpture terrace offering harbour views.

The Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences) is Sydney's temple of science, design, technology and creativity. Highlights include a working Boulton & Watt steam engine, interactive engineering exhibits and an extraordinary collection of Australian design and fashion.

The Australian National Maritime Museum on Darling Harbour houses historic vessels — including a 1950s submarine, a destroyer and a replica of Cook's Endeavour — alongside galleries exploring Aboriginal seafaring, immigration history and naval heritage. The submarine tour is a highlight — visitors descend through hatches into the claustrophobic interior of HMAS Onslow..

The Australian National Maritime Museum on Darling Harbour tells Australia's relationship with the sea — from Indigenous bark canoes to the submarine HMAS Onslow. Its harbourside wharf berths historic vessels you can board.

The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney holds Australia's largest collection of antiquities, with over 30,000 objects from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Cyprus, and the Near East. Entry is free and the museum offers an intimate, uncrowded experience.

Located in a former Maccabean Hall in Darlinghurst, the Sydney Jewish Museum documents the Holocaust and Jewish life in Australia through survivor testimonies, artefacts, and immersive installations across three floors.