Wunderkammer: Melbourne's Own "Wonder Chamber"

We live in rural Victoria. I work in Melbourne, the closest capital, and today I found the next place my boys and I will visit on a trip into the city. It wasn't quite the curiosity shop from The Neverending Story, but it certainly struck a chord with my Lovecraftian obsessions.

Wunderkammer translates as "wonder-chamber" in German. And, this small store on Lonsdale Street took me right back to how I remembered the museums I'd visited before they were housed in modern buildings with lots of space and sterile white. The store is full of what you would imagine an 18th century dilettante would have collected: fossils, mineral samples, barometers, instruments of science and medicine.

All are housed in wood and glass and immaculately presented. This home of antique science and natural history is expensive, so it will be more a visit that a gift buying spree. I look forward to us meandering down the back where the taxodermist's work is best seen in a fully preserved and stuffed salt-water crocodile and large seawater turtle. There is even a beautiful statue of a dragon, that would look fantastic in our garden - except for the price tag.

This how I remember my trips to the museum, full of mounted insects, butterflies and animal skulls. For all you Australian GeekDads, when next in Melbourne visit Wunderkammer at 439 Lonsdale Street. It is small, but will fill a good 45 minutes to an hour with the kids. You will come away wishing there was dust on your fingers and microscope and manuscript to go home to. Oh, and the kids will love it too.