Tour of Boola Bardip – Western Australian Museum

Main Club Sunday, 18th April 2021

On the 18th of April, the Main Club organized a visit to Boola Bardip, the state museum in the Perth Cultural Centre. Ten adults and two children joined our excursion, which started with a guided tour by Mark Harvey, Senior Curator of Arachnology. Mark led us through parts of the Wildlife Gallery, which is all about Western Australia’s unique biodiversity, and allows for adults and younger visitors to explore and learn about the diverse environments found across our state. A highlight was the arachnid exhibit where Mark told us interesting details about his work and the species on display.

In the beautiful heritage listed Hackett Hall, we visited the skeleton of blue whale ‘Otto’, which washed ashore in the 1890s near the mouth of the Vasse river.

Otto was named after the museum taxidermist Otto Lipfert♦

We thanked Mark for his tour and enjoyed another hour in which a volunteer guide showed us around other parts of the museum. There is simply too much to see in just one visit.

If you haven’t visited Boola Bardip yet, make sure you do. Booking a ticket is recommended and can be done via the museum’s website

Heidy Verweij

♦ Apart from his official museum duties Otto gave aid, in his patient conscientious way, to a succession of amateur naturalists and shared freely with them his store of practical knowledge of the bush and its fauna which they could not learn from books alone. He was awarded a life membership of the club in 1939.