A visit to Melbourne Museum.

September 2012, Melbourne, Victoria. 

For a reason unknown to either of us, it's taken us over two and a half years to visit Melbourne Museum.  We could put up a weak case of being too busy, or living too far from the city, or having far better things to do in our lives, but we'd be flat out lying on each and every point. 

Our only defense could be that the museum's marketing department isn't particularly good. As we arrived on its doorstep to meet our friends Glenn and Jess, it dawned on me that I must have walked right by it at least half a dozen times before without the slightest acknowledgement of its presence. In hindsight, that was at least six times too many, and it won't be happening again any time soon.

Everything is right about this Museum. Everything from its fabulous location on the edge of Carlton Gardens to its sweeping post-modernist glass and steel structure, right through to its living rain forest gallery at the heart of grand atrium: it simply oozes class and sophistication. And the temporary show The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia was no exception. Proof that when Melbourne puts its mind to it, nobody does it better.