News and stories

One of the hottest and driest places on Earth, the deserts of Western Australia are home to one of the world's most diverse range of reptile fauna.

The Western Australian Museum has taken out top honours at the 2011 Australian Web Awards.

Many of us are familiar with ‘shooting stars’ streaking across the night sky and then fading into the blackness. These celestial fireworks known as meteors, result from the destruction of tiny fragments of natural space debris hurtling through the upper atmosphere.

In a State flanked by stunning coastline, it is no surprise that Western Australia has a rich maritime history of yachting and sailing.

The Western Australian Museum - Geraldton will be transformed into Bike Central these school holidays with loads of two-wheeled fun for children and their families.

Over its 120 year history the Western Australian Museum has often received donations of collections from members of the public that provide unique insights into the people and places of WA.

Honorary researcher from the Monash University’s Indigenous Centre, Dr Sue Taffe, will speak at the Western Australian Museum – Kalgoorlie-Boulder on the move for equal rights by indigenous Australians in the 1960s and the important role that Kalgoorlie played in this.

Meteorites and related materials have been used for human adornment for millennia. The oldest examples come from the tombs of ancient Egypt, but the practice of making jewellery continues to the present day.

Four hundred years ago a sailing voyage from Europe to Java, via Madagascar, would take almost 12 months, with an enormous toll on the health of all aboard.

For up to 8,000 years the fauna on many of the 170 islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos off Geraldton have evolved in isolation, providing a fascinating laboratory in which to study adaptive patterns in many species.

An independent camera network set up in the Nullarbor desert is making it possible to track and recover observed meteorite falls, as well as identify their origin in the Solar System.

In a WA Museum first, people will be able to follow virtually the action of a real scientific field expedition into the many caves beneath the Nullarbor Plain.