The National Communication Museum

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HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS TALK: NEW MELBOURNE MUSEUM HELPS CHILDREN UNLOCK
THE MYSTERY OF COMMUNICATION  

Ever dreamt of talking to the animals like Dr Doolittle? Children will be able to unlock the mysteries of how people,
plants and animals communicate at Melbourne’s newest museum.

The National Communication Museum (NCM) in Hawthorn opened in September and is a hands-on, fun learning
experience for children of all ages. It has a Kids Hub, extensive schools and education programs for primary and secondary students, and school holiday programs. NCM is Melbourne’s first major museum to open in almost 25 years. NCM spans two levels of dynamic and changing gallery spaces, with artefacts and gadgets, a working historical
telephone exchange, immersive rooms, interactive experiences and temporary exhibitions.

The museum brings to life the nostalgia of communication in Australia and showcases cutting-edge
technologies that will connect us in the future – with something for visitors of all ages.

Among the key exhibits are:

• Speaking Clock, a mainstay of worldwide telecommunications offerings until it ended in 2019, restored
and featuring the familiar voice of Gordon Gow, along with a mysterious humanoid robot visitor named
Diamandini, who listens to the voice of Gordon Gow and develops her sonic systems (Diamindini will
be at NCM until the end of October).

• Cyber Café, stepping back to the mid-1990s and the beginning of the Information Age.

• Lone Phone, an interactive sonic adventure inspired by the iconic imagery of glowing phone booths at
night in regional Australia.

• Research Labs, connecting visitors with the past, present and future of local research and innovation –
including some ideas that worked and some that didn’t.

• Premiere installations from internationally renowned artists Jarra Karalinar Steel, Rel Pham and Louis-Philippe Demers.

The museum’s Remix Zone is aimed at teens and tweens, with two large authentic switchboards reimagined by
Mosster Studio as interactive instruments where visitors can build their own unique, telephony-inspired
soundscape.

The museum is also a trip down memory lane for older visitors, those who remember retro tech like MSN
messenger, rotary phones, the talking clock, the iconic burger phone, and the first Internet cafes.

Two major temporary exhibitions are also on display at NCM.

An invisibility coat, robotic birds, a WW2 enigma machine, police-made malware, 4.7 million LinkedIn passwords
and a yellow umbrella are among the Instruments of Surveillance exhibition.

The Artificial Sky exhibition explores the human-made constellations orbiting our planet and revolutionising
communication and connectivity on Earth and beyond. Artificial Sky has been developed in partnership with
Swinburne University of Technology and Space Machines Company, which is showcasing its prototype Optimus
Satellite.

The museum is housed in a 1930s telephone exchange building on Burwood Rd in Hawthorn, in front of a working
exchange building that is still used today.

Entry prices Child $12/Adult $32/Concession $26

Get 15% off the above by using code BEANSTALK