It is built on the ruins of Governor Phillip's 1788 house, exposed by archaeologists in the 1980s. MOS explores this beautiful & bizarre world of Sydney through objects, images & digital media technologies.

LEVEL 1

the Edge of the trees

Sense the layers of materials and memory assembled in the sculptural installation by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley. Listen and engage with the Aboriginal people of Sydney, and the many layers of occupation, memory and place, since first contact.

Entry, the calling to come Pass through the wall; into a glass box, a conversation; a yearning to communicate across time, place and cultures. Read the conversation between Dawes and Patyegarang in the book, The Calling to Come, available in the MOS Shop.

house Look beyond the floor into remains of first government house drains and privies; relics, ruins, rubbish? Confront the re-creation of its humble facade; symbol of colonial power.

reception Ask for information, admission, cloaking.

MOS shop Specialising in Australian history and culture, architecture and special Sydney gifts.

MOS Cafe Replenish.

LEVEL 2

AGL Theatre A place for debate and dialogue. Used for conferences, seminars, lectures and films. Check the daily program on the notice outside the theatre.

sydney people In this film join a group of Sydney Aboriginal people retracing the steps of their ancestors through film and sound, sites, memories, dreamings.

Environment Immerse in astonishing beauty, scale and strangeness of Sydney's unique natural environment - sandstone, eucalypt, harbour - envelopes all. Soundscape available on CD in the MOS Shop.

Gather Open the drawers of the collectors chests. Three chests. Seventy-six drawers. Each drawer tells its own story through objects, words and images.

Colony Contrast European cultural baggage - tools, trade, bric-a-brac - to manufacture a colony. Gossip with the witnesses who debate their place in Sydney.

Resource Centre Home to the large archaeology collection dug and collected from this site. By appointment.

Visitors Centre Explore archives, find information - objects, images, video, audio, text.

LEVEL 3

Bond Store Share the dreams and nightmares of trading tales by characters who haunted the ocean-going town of Sydney. Based on real events, characters and extensive research. Text of all stories and background research available in the MOS Shop.

Trade Exchange goods and produce from around the world, all traded in Sydney shops and streets in the early 1800s and still to be found today - a busy Pacific trading port for 210 years.

Focus Gallery Contemplate changing exhibitions about Sydney.

Sydney Panorama Look at passing images of Sydney 1788-1999. Focus on the development of Sydney - changes to shore and skyline, people and memory. Dig deeper into the drawers below.

Cadigal Place Contemplate, honour, remember the history, culture and survival of the original people of this land, this place. Commemorate the Cadigal people, the clan on whose land the museum now stands.

lookout Look out to Sydney today from above this historic site. Use the steel studs and white granite paving to trace the memory of first Government House 1788-1846.

FIRST GOVERNMENT HOUSE PLACE

What is this place? Site and symbol of 1788: colonisation, invasion, contact; a turning point for this place they called Sydney, a meeting place, not a mausoleum; a conversation accross time and place.

Ghost House Trace the memory of first Government House 1788-1846; from Governor Phillip's 1788 residence and seat of authority marked with steel studs, to the building as it evolved with the additions and demolitions of nine governors, outlined in white granite.

Foundations Stare into the footings of Phillip's 1788 house and wonder at the changing nature of this place.

Edge of the Trees Sense the layers of materials and memory assembled in this sculptural installation by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley. Listen and engage with the Aboriginal people of Sydney, and the many layers of occupation, memory and place, since first contact.

terraces Young Street terraces built 1875, now housing museum administration.