Located in Launceston, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) is the largest regional museum in Australia.

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In the mid-1880s, the Launceston City Council decided to hold an exhibition celebrating Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee. When it asked the state government for funding, the state government was like, “No, we would rather fund a museum.”

The Council could not do anything to celebrate the jubilee without the government’s help, so it chose to build a museum in what is now Royal Park.

On 21 June 1887, the Mayor of Launceston, Robert Carter, arrived at the site to lay the foundation stone. According to the Launceston Examiner, Carter made the following speech with a silver trowel in his hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen and fellow citizens, I am called upon to-day to perform a ceremony which gives me much pleasure, and I am proud of being in the position which entitles me to lay the foundation stone of an Art Gallery and Museum for Launceston, to be called, in memory of our Gracious Queen, ‘the Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.’ I am sure any words of mine would be insufficient to estimate the benefit the artisan and the town generally will derive from the existence of such a building as the one of which I am now laying the foundation stone. Looking at it from an educational point of view it is invaluable; it is a necessity, and the advantages that will be derivable from such an institution by both the young and old members of the community will be inconceivable. I look upon it as being a receptacle for a collection of works of art, of loveliness that will be a lasting memorial to the town. We will always look back with pleasure on the day on which we laid this stone and it is in memory of our Queen that we are laying it. I cannot find words to express my gratitude for being able to pay such a tribute of memory to the Queen. It will be in my memory as long as I live, and I look upon it with such pride that I hope anyone belonging to me will do the same. I will now proceed to lay the foundation stone of the Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.”

(You may have noticed that Carter called QVMAG the ‘Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.’ That was its original name. It was re-named ‘Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’ in 1926 so people would not confuse it with the Victorian State Museums.)

After a four-year construction period, Sir Robert Hamilton, the Governor of Tasmania, officially opened QVMAG on 29 April 1891.

The original building was extended several times to accommodate new artefacts and specimens. Between 1998 and 2001, QVMAG established a second site at the old railway yard at Inveresk, which now displays its natural science and history collections. The building at Royal Park is currently a dedicated art gallery.

Photo Gallery
Tas That Was – The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 2

The opening of Hugh Ramsay and Albrecht Durer art exhibitions at QVMAG in 1966.

Tas That Was – The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 3

The NASA Gemini 10 space capsule on display at QVMAG in 1967.

Bibliography

Tas That Was is a column that includes:

  • anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
  • historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
  • documentaries about locations in Tasmania.

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