Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery Museum
Inveresk RailyardsRoyal Park Launceston's wonderful museum is on two sites. The stylishly renovated industrial warehouses at Inveresk contain natural and social history and technology-focused collections, and host touring exhibitions (entrance fee). Inveresk is also home to Launceston's Planetarium.At time of writing, the museum's 1890s Royal Park building was undergoing a meticulous renovation to reveal its original Victorian architectural glory. It was expected to reopen in late 2011, housing colonial painting and decorative arts collections.
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Design Centre of Tasmania
On the fringes of City Park, the excellent Wood Design Collection showcases local creations in wood, with more sassafras, Huon pine and myrtle than you can shake a stick at. There's also top-notch craftwork for sale – great for classy Tassie gifts.
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City Park
Wonderful, green City Park has enormous oaks and plane trees, an elegant fountain, a conservatory with changing plant displays, a Victorian bandstand and a playground and mini train for kids. A glass-walled enclosure of Japanese macaques, a gift from Japanese sister city Ikeda, will fascinate little ones for hours.
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Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery
The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery has two campuses. The purpose-built 1891 museum at Royal Park is currently closed, as it is undergoing major refurbishment, and will reopen in 2010 as a home for fine arts; the superb remodelled site at the Inveresk Railyards remains open and showcases an outstanding collection of traditional Aboriginal mareener shell necklaces, an impressive display of early colonial paintings, interactive museum spaces with old aeroplanes and railway workshops, and shifting contemporary exhibits. The popular Planetarium will be relocated to Inveresk site from the Royal Park campus. Both sites have cafes and access for wheelchairs.
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Cataract Gorge
A 10-minute walk west of the city is the fabulous Cataract
Gorge. Surrounded by a wildlife reserve, near-vertical basalt cliffs crowd the banks
of the South Esk River as it enters the Tamar. During the day, teens plunge into the
river and rock-climbers defy gravity; at night the floodlit cliffs take on a shifty,
shadow-strewn countenance.
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National Automobile Museum of Tasmania
The oxymoronic National Automobile Museum of Tasmania will
excite rev-heads - one of Australia's best presentations of classic and historic
cars and motorbikes. The '69 Corvette Stingray will burn tyre tracks into your
retinas.
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Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Royal Park
The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Royal Park
This purpose-built 1891 museum is one of two branches, the other being at the
revamped Inveresk Railyards. Both have cafés and access for wheelchairs. The
child-friendly Royal Park branch includes exhibitions on Tasmania's Aboriginal
heritage and fauna, a splendid joss house donated by the descendants of Chinese
settlers, and the Planetarium.
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Tamar Island Wetlands
Ten minutes' drive north of the city are the Tamar Island
Wetlands, you'll find an Interpretation Centre and a 2km wheelchair-accessible
boardwalk through a significant wetlands reserve, teeming with birds, reptiles and
the odd echidna.
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