by
Travel

A Hand on the Ice: South Australian Museum 2026

Level of Challenge
★★★★★

Gentle challenge

A Joke About Bandages

Two nights before we went to the South Australian Museum, the girls made a joke about their mummy being wrapped in bandages. It set off question after question about mummies.

In the Ancient Egypt gallery, they got to see a real one. So did my friend, their dad. It was the first mummy for all of them. I have seen mummies before, so I had the pleasure of watching them meet one.

A green wooden display case with three glass shelves in a gallery with a patterned carpet. On the top shelf lies a long wooden coffin lid painted in cream, deep red and black, covered in bands of hieroglyphs and small painted figures, with a striped headdress at one end. On the middle shelf lies the mummy itself, wrapped in brown linen bands. On the bottom shelf is the painted base of the coffin. A cream label with a blue and red border sits in the lower right corner of the case.
The painted coffin and wrapped mummy of Renpit-Nefert in the Ancient Egypt gallery. The bold red bands and large figures on the lid were easy for me to see through the glass.

The girls were a little creeped out once it sank in that these had been real people. Then fascination took over, and they wanted to know more. My friend was amazed at how old they were. Carbon dating on Renpit-Nefert’s bones, according to the label beside her, suggests she died about 2,400 years ago. The coffins were painted, and the paintings were large and clear enough for me to see without straining.

The gallery has barely changed since it opened in 1939. Renpit-Nefert has been in the museum’s collection for more than a century. Her name means “beautiful year”.

Close Enough to See

Earlier in the trip we had spent a long afternoon at Melbourne Museum, with its room-sized projections and buttons on every wall. The South Australian Museum on North Terrace in Adelaide is smaller and far quieter. There is little technology built into the displays and not much to press.

What it gave me instead was closeness. I have sight loss, and I could get near almost every exhibit, and nearly everything was easy to see. In the natural history galleries the animals are displayed simply, with no fancy lighting competing for attention. I got great photographs there, because nothing stood between me and the animal.

A large glass case filled with mounted African mammals standing on grey gravel against a plain pale wall. In front are a spotted hyaena, a cheetah with black spots and an antelope with long ridged horns. Behind them stand a dark buffalo with heavy curved horns and a tall grey antelope with long backswept horns. A zebra is at the left edge, and lemurs and other small animals are posed on bare branches above. Small white labels with outline maps of Africa sit beside each animal.
African mammals in one of the museum’s mammal displays, among them a buffalo, a cheetah and a spotted hyaena. Even light and a plain background let the shape of each animal stand out.
Close up of a mounted wallaby or kangaroo standing upright on a red-brown rock base inside a glass case. It has pale grey-brown fur, a white chest, large upright ears and dark eyes, with its short front paws held in front of its body. The gallery behind it is dark with small round ceiling lights, and other display cases glow in the background.
A member of the kangaroo family, close enough to the glass that I could see its fur, ears and paws clearly. Displays like this, with nothing competing for attention, were where I got my best photographs.

A carefully curated museum is easier to take in. You are not overwhelmed by seeing too much at once. You see what the curators want you to see, and they have the space to show it well. That is a real help to accessibility.

Fossil skeletons in the Megafauna gallery standing on dark plinths in front of a large painted landscape of red earth, low green scrub and orange cliffs. In the painting, a huge reddish-brown animal like a giant wombat looks out with its mouth open, a smaller one at its side, and a large lizard-like reptile in the distance. Skeletons of extinct animals stand in front, with information panels on the wall above and small dark labels at their feet.
Fossil skeletons in the Megafauna gallery on Level 3, in front of a painted Diprotodon. The museum’s panel describes it as the largest of all Australian megafauna, a gentle giant that browsed on trees and shrubs.

A Wall of Ice

The Australian Polar Collections gallery tells the story of Sir Douglas Mawson and the South Australians who explored Antarctica. Mawson led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 to 1914. The gallery holds the sledges and equipment those expeditions relied on, and they look inadequate for the temperatures they faced.

A wooden polar expedition sledge in a low glass case, with long curved runners bound in rope and leather, a wooden box covered in worn canvas tied on top, and a rolled canvas bundle at the back. A spoked metal wheel hangs on the side. In the background, visitors walk past red and white information panels, one listing expedition dates, and a sign reading Icewall glows at the far right.
An early polar expedition sledge in the Australian Polar Collections gallery, with the Icewall sign just visible behind it on the right. Seeing the timber, canvas and rope first made the cold of the ice wall mean far more.

There is a mock-up of the wooden shelter they lived in, and you can walk right through it. Then there is the ice wall. That is all it is: a wall of smooth, real ice, and you are invited to put your hand on it.

On its own it would be a novelty. After the sledge and the cabin, it meant far more. For a moment I could feel the cold they lived with, using kit that looked nowhere near enough.

Tactile displays do not need to be clever to be effective and memorable. This one is a sheet of frozen water, and it did more for me than any screen.

Labels and Voices

Like most museums, the written labels here are of little use to me. I read them through my phone camera, so I pick the few I really want and skip the rest.

It was good to be visiting with people again. My friend and the girls read labels aloud as we went, and whenever they found one that interested them, they read the whole thing while I listened.

The Six-Year-Old’s Verdict

The six-year-old told us she enjoyed this museum even more than Melbourne Museum. I think the size had a lot to do with it. It was easier for her to take in.

The South Australian Museum is great and varied, and I would recommend it to anyone. Entry is free, the tram stops right outside, and getting there was very easy. For anyone looking for free things to do in Adelaide with children, or an accessible museum that suits visitors with sight loss, there is no reason not to go.

How I Prepared: Practical Tips

  1. General entry is free. The museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm, closed only on Christmas Day and Good Friday.
  2. The Art Gallery tram stop is right outside on North Terrace, inside Adelaide’s free city tram zone. Adelaide Railway Station is about a ten minute walk.
  3. It is usually quietest after 3pm. School groups tend to arrive between 10am and 11am on weekdays.
  4. The ice wall in the Australian Polar Collections gallery and the Ancient Egypt gallery are both on Level 3.
  5. If labels are hard for you, go with someone happy to read aloud. Otherwise, your phone’s camera zoom will do the job.
  6. The Pacific Cultures Gallery closed on 3 August 2026 for a conservation programme and may stay closed for several years.
  7. The Museum Café is open from 10am to 4pm.

Accessibility Checklist

  • The main North Terrace entrance has automatic doors, with ramp and stair access to the front lawns. Two lifts reach every floor.
  • Wheelchairs and walkers can be borrowed at the front desk with photo ID, on a first come, first served basis.
  • The Ancient Egypt gallery has a spoken audio description, reached by a QR code to the left of the gallery entrance or on the museum’s website.
  • The museum’s free digital companion at samuseum.pladia.io works on your own phone.
  • The ticketed Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition runs until 14 February 2027 ($16 adults, children 12 and under free). Ten images have tactile relief panels with braille labels, and all 100 have audio descriptions through the museum’s digital platform. Large print guides are available inside.
  • Companion Card holders get free entry to ticketed events and exhibitions.
  • Accessible toilets are on the ground floor, through the World Mammals Gallery. Seating is available throughout the museum.
  • Accredited assistance dogs are welcome, and sensory backpacks with noise cancelling headphones can be borrowed at the front desk.
  • South Australian Museum official access and inclusion information

Final Reflection

The South Australian Museum does not try to dazzle. It puts real things in plain cases, lets you stand close, and trusts them to hold your attention. A painted coffin, a sledge, a wall of ice under your hand. For someone with sight loss, that restraint is what makes a museum readable.

Reader Challenge and Invitation

Pick the smaller museum for once. Find the one thing you are allowed to touch, and stay with it longer than feels necessary.

All accessibility details in this article were verified against the organiser’s published information at the time of writing. This reflection is based on my personal experience on the day. Individual experiences may vary, and none of the points raised are intended as a judgement of the event itself, but as an honest account of how I navigated it with my own access needs.

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