Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery

Established	2018; 8 years ago (2018)
Location	61 Royal Terrace Dunedin New Zealand
Type	Natural history museum
Collections	Natural history, ethnography, art, paranormal
Nearest parking	On street

The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery is a unique private museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. It showcases a fascinating collection of bones, incredible art made from bones, and interesting items from different cultures. You can also find many other curious objects there. The museum was created by artist and sculptor Bruce Mahalski inside his own home. It first opened its doors to visitors in March 2018.

Discovering the Museum's Story
- Bruce Mahalski's Amazing Collection
What You Can See at the Museum
- Unique and Mysterious Exhibits
Gallery
See also

Discovering the Museum's Story

A model moa skeleton, a giant bird that used to live in New Zealand.

Bruce Mahalski, the museum's founder, worked as an artist for many years. He also taught art in Wellington, New Zealand, from 2004 to 2017. A big part of his art involves making sculptures from animal bones. This shows his lifelong interest in nature and its history.

When he was a teenager, Bruce even worked at the Otago Museum. Opening his own museum was a dream he had for a very long time. He once said it seemed easiest to set up his own museum because he wasn't much of a "team player."

Bruce Mahalski's Amazing Collection

Bruce started collecting shells, bones, crabs, and insects when he was only eight years old. His collection grew to include many natural history items and cultural objects. He even added collections from his parents; his father was a doctor and his mother was a psychologist.

Many items in the museum were found in nature. Others were bought during his travels or from online marketplaces like Trade Me.

In 2017, Bruce moved back to his hometown of Dunedin. He turned four rooms and the hallway of his house at 61 Royal Terrace into museum galleries. He still lives in the rest of the house. The Museum of Natural Mystery welcomed its first visitors on March 23, 2018. At first, it was only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. From the outside, the museum looks like a normal Dunedin villa. However, it is decorated with special symbols from Easter Island called rongorongo script.

What You Can See at the Museum

The museum is described as a mix of "biological curiosities, ethnological art and unusual cultural artefacts." This means you can see strange and wonderful things from nature. You'll also find art and objects from different cultures around the world. Some exhibits are even tributes to people, like Bruce Mahalski's father, Dr. E. R. Nye.

The museum displays bones from many different animals, including humans. There are also about 200 skulls and collections of pinned butterflies. You can see old books, especially medical ones, and other interesting old papers.

Unique and Mysterious Exhibits

Among the many exhibits, you might find:

a skull from a "unicow," which was a cow born with only one horn growing from its forehead.
a plate that belonged to a man who was punished for stealing sheep a long time ago in England.
wood from Borley Rectory, a house in England famous for ghost stories.
a clay sculpture that was supposedly damaged by a poltergeist (a type of ghost) at the Inverlochy Art School in Wellington.
nkisi sculptures, which are special figures from the Congo in Africa.

The museum also has a gallery where Bruce Mahalski shows his bone sculptures. For him, being an artist and a collector go hand-in-hand. Items from his collection often become part of his art. His art is then displayed right next to his collection. He even sees the entire collection as a work of art itself.