The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.

Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building,[1] the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, on behalf of Museums Victoria which administers the venue.

The museum won Best Tourist Attraction at the Australian Tourism Awards in 2011.[2]

In addition to its galleries, the museum features spaces such as Curious?, which is a place to meet staff and find answers relating to the collections, research, and behind-the-scenes work of Museums Victoria; as well as a cafe and a gift shop.[citation needed] The back-of-house area houses some of the Victoria’s State Collections, which holds over 17 million items, including objects relating to Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander cultures, geology, historical studies, palaeontology, technology and society, and zoology,[3][4] as well as a library collection that holds 18th and 19th century scientific monographs and serials.[5] The world’s second largest IMAX theatre screen,[6] which is also part of the museum complex, shows movies and documentary films in large-screen 3-D format.