Welcome to a new occasional blog series! Here at No Award we love museums and art galleries. But you know all about museums and art galleries, and we know what you really want to know: what’s in the shop at the other end. Well, wonder no more! Brought to you by Steph and Liz and the No Award Staff Writers, this is an occasional blog series of museum and gallery shops not only in Australia’s capital cities, but Australia’s tiny towns and some cities of the world. 

The Melbourne Museum Shop is located next to the Melbourne Museum exit out onto the forecourt between the Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building. Steph visited just before sunrise this morning, as part of her White Night experience. The staff were fun and chatty and self-deprecating.

The shop has several shelves of locally and museum-published books, a great selection of Indigenous and Indigenous-themed picture books across several Countries (including two different books about The Seven Sisters and one titled ‘Light Skin, Black Soul’), and the usual variety of dinosaur paraphernalia and astronomy things. There’s also a small amount of tram and Melbourne miscellaneous (including the emblematic Skipping Girl Vinegar who seems to be everywhere right now), and a bunch of stuffed toys that don’t appear to be mass produced. There are also rare print replicas for purchase, and a variety of rocks.

Steph restrained herself to just one book, Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia by Peta Stephenson, but was severely tempted by The Place for a Village: how nature has shaped the city of Melbourne. Next time.

Museum: Melbourne Museum

Day and time visited: 06:30, Sunday (end of White Night – shop not usually open at 06:30)

Items purchased: Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia, Peta Stephenson (book)

Location: Nicholson Street, Carlton Gardens

Getting there: 96 tram has a Museum Stop, or walk from Parliament Train Station

Rating: 3 and a half cane toad skin purses out of 5