Migration Museum, Migration museum in Adelaide, Australia
The Migration Museum is a cultural institution in Adelaide that presents exhibitions about arrival and settlement. The spaces display personal possessions, photographs, and records that tell the experiences of people who came here.
The site on Kintore Avenue was first occupied by the Kaurna people, then housed the "Native School" for Aboriginal children. From 1850 to 1918 it held the city's former destitute asylum, built of colonial bluestone around a courtyard. The Migration Museum, a state government initiative founded in 1983, opened here on 23 November 1986 as Australia's oldest museum of its kind.
The museum displays how different groups arrived in South Australia and settled, through personal stories and objects from their daily lives. Visitors see how these arrivals shaped the communities and which cultures remain present today.
Visitors should arrive at the front entrance to understand the layout of the exhibitions. Access is level and equipped with elevators, making all floors easy to reach.
The memorial wall acknowledges the various communities who sought refuge in Australia, while Settlement Square portrays the arrival of many families and individual settlers. A Reconciliation Plaque notes that the land was first occupied by the Kaurna people.
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