Top 3 Must-See Museums in Sydney (With Tips)

🎨 Art Gallery of NSW: Amazing! It has two buildings—the old and new wings. The new wing features floor-to-ceiling glass windows, perfect for photos! It houses works by Picasso, Monet, and cool installations 🖼️, like American artist Kathleen Ryan’s "rotten lemon" and "stocking columns" (my nickname for them). The old wing displays traditional European art and a special exhibition by Belgian surrealist master 🎩 René Magritte. 🇦🇺 Australian Museum: Highly recommended! Covers Australia’s natural history, marine culture, and Indigenous Aboriginal heritage. It also truthfully recounts how the British Empire tricked Pacific Islanders into slavery. 🏚️ Hyde Park Barracks Museum: As we know, Sydney was originally a penal colony for British convicts! This museum vividly recreates the living conditions and daily life of those prisoners, showcasing their first "temporary home" in Australia—built entirely by the convicts themselves. 🎫 Admission: Free!! 🍵 History Chat: After visiting Sydney’s top three museums—alongside those in Singapore and Jakarta—I’ve gained a more concrete understanding of European colonialism. Truly, the world 🌍 is one giant history of European colonization. Even place names reveal this: Australia was first named "New Holland" by the Dutch 🇳🇱. The British named their first landing site "New South Wales," now Sydney’s state. Tasmania 🏝️ is named after a Dutch explorer. Across the Pacific, New York was originally "New Amsterdam." Northern Australia borders New Guinea, which was split between the Dutch and British—leading to today’s Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 and Indonesia 🇮🇩. Thus, Australia also carries Javanese cultural influences… The 19th-century conflicts between Europeans and Indigenous peoples over land and forced labor are more objectively acknowledged here. Descendants of European convicts, enslaved Pacific Islanders, and Aboriginal Australians now coexist on this vast land, creating Sydney’s uniquely harmonious multicultural vibe. PS: Museum of Sydney—A tiny historic site where the first British government building stood. It focuses on early British-Aboriginal interactions and land deals. Worth a quick look if passing by, but not a must-see! #Sydney #SydneyLife #SydneyTravel #StudyAbroadInSydney