Southland Museum and Art Gallery facts for kids
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| Established | 1912 |
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| Location | Gala Street, Invercargill, New Zealand |
The Southland Museum and Art Gallery Niho o te Taniwha is a cool place in Invercargill, New Zealand. It's the biggest museum in the Southland area! Here, you could explore amazing art, learn about history, and see natural wonders. The museum is famous for its unique pyramid-shaped building, built in 1990. Sadly, the museum closed in April 2018 because of safety concerns about earthquakes.
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Discover the Museum Building
The museum's main building, finished in 1990, looks like a giant pyramid! It's actually the largest pyramid in the Southern Hemisphere. This huge building covers the older museum from 1942. It has a floor space of 5000 square meters. The pyramid is 45 by 52 meters wide and stands 27 meters tall.
Look Up at the Stars: The Observatory
The museum also had an observatory. This was the only public observatory in all of Southland! Members of the Southland Astronomical Society used to run it. School groups often visited to learn about stars and planets.
Meet the Tuatara: New Zealand's Living Dinosaurs
The museum was home to over 50 live tuatara! These amazing reptiles are like living dinosaurs. The special tuatara house, called a tuatarium, was built in 1974 and made bigger in 1990. It was 200 square meters.
The tuatara ranged from tiny babies to the very famous Henry. Henry joined the museum in 1970. People think he was born around the year 1900! He holds the world record for the tuatara kept longest in a museum. Henry even became a dad for the first time in 2009.
Tuatara Reproduction and Success
The tuatara at the museum regularly laid eggs every two years. From 1989 to 1995, they even produced eggs every single year! A new roof was added that let in special ultraviolet light. This helped all the eggs hatch, and all the baby tuatara survived after the new roof was put in.
Explore the Galleries
The museum had several cool galleries to explore.
Māori Culture Gallery
The Māori Gallery showed what everyday life was like for Māori people long ago in Murihiku (which is Southland). You could see how they made tools like adzes. You also learned about their fishing methods using bone and stone lures. Plus, there were displays of traditional musical instruments.
Natural History Gallery
This gallery displayed rare and endangered animals. You could see birds like the kākāpō and kiwi. There were also old bones of extinct birds, like the giant moa. This gallery also taught visitors about geology and sea life.
Beyond the Roaring 40's Gallery
This gallery focused on the unique and special subantarctic islands. These islands are found south of New Zealand. The museum worked with the Department of Conservation to create this interesting exhibit.
Ancient Forest Reconstruction
Did you know there's a fossil forest at Curio Bay in Southland? It's made of petrified wood, which means wood that has turned into stone over millions of years. In front of the museum, there was a special display that looked like this ancient forest. Visitors could walk among petrified tree stumps and sections that are 130 million years old! There were also two-meter tall bronze tuatara sculptures.
Amazing Art Collection
The art galleries at the museum often showed new and old art. They featured both traveling shows and pieces from the museum's own collection. The art often focused on the local area, including Stewart Island and the Subantarctic Islands.
The museum has a big collection of art, photos, pottery, and crafts. One very special piece is a painting by William Hodges called "A Maori before a waterfall in Dusky Bay" from 1773. Another important item is Te Mauri, a large pounamu (greenstone) boulder. This boulder even traveled to America for the Te Maori Exhibition in 1984!
A Look at the Museum's History
The Southland Museum and Art Gallery, also called Niho o te Taniwha (which means "the tooth of the taniwha"), started small. It began in 1869 with a collection shown by Andrew McKenzie in his "Scotch Pie House and Museum" in Invercargill.
Later, in 1876, the Invercargill Athenaeum bought the collection. By 1912, it moved to the Southland Technical College. The Southland Museum officially opened on September 4, 1912.
The original museum building at the entrance to Queen's Park opened in 1942. It was built as a memorial for New Zealand's 100th birthday. Over the years, the museum grew with many additions. An art gallery opened in 1960. The Southland Astronomical Society Observatory was added in 1972. More parts were built in 1977 and 1984. Then, in 1990, the whole museum was rebuilt.
This big redevelopment in 1990 was a huge change. The old building was enclosed by the 27-meter tall pyramid. New art galleries were added. A special Tuatarium Gallery was built for the tuatara breeding program. There were also new shops and a visitor information center.
Why the Museum Closed
On April 9, 2018, the Invercargill City Council announced that the museum would close. It was because the building had "critical structural weakness" and was not safe in case of an earthquake. It was less than 34% of the earthquake safety standard for new buildings.
Because of the closure, many staff members had to leave. The museum plans to open a new, smaller exhibition space in central Invercargill. They are working with the Invercargill Public Art Gallery to do this. The council has set aside money to keep a temporary facility going. The museum's large collections are being moved to a storage facility. There are plans for a new museum building to open in 2023.
See also
Images for kids
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The Southland Museum and Art Gallery
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The museum's logo
