The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), in Launceston, is Australia's largest regional museum. QVMAG is Launceston's arts, cultural and creative heartbeat and gateway to local history and character. It enjoys a national profile for its collections of Australian colonial art, decorative arts and design, Tasmanian history and natural science. The QVMAG is located on two sites: the 1870s era railway workshop at Inveresk; and the 1891 Royal Park Art Gallery building on Wellington Street. The Royal Park site is being refurbished and will open late 2011. The Inveresk site is home to the preserved railway workshops and new permanent exhibition Tasmanian Connections which reveals a range of stories as told by the Museum's social history and natural science collections in six striking installations. See dinosaurs, death masks, planes soaring above, and artifacts from Australia's oldest merchant shipwreck. Inveresk also features the Phenomena Factory, a free-entry interactive science centre providing hands-on education for kids of all ages. The Launceston Planetarium is located at Inveresk where you'll see astronomical concepts demonstrated in a way that is both dramatic and scientifically accurate. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is a short drive from Launceston's central business district.
