Past exhibitions
DECO
This exhibition presents a range of objects and collections relating to one of the most exciting and tumultuous design periods of the early 20th century. A touring exhibition from AlburyCity featuring Art Deco related photography, radios, textiles, jewellery, ceramics and a 1927 Indian Scout Motorcycle.
This is a touring exhibition from AlburyCity.
The Sauntering Emu and other stories: Life with the Birds of the Riverina
The birds of the Riverina inspire us. They will continue to do so for as long as we share this country together. The words of local poet and writer Dame Mary Gilmore help us to tell this story.
The Wollundry Lagoon
Wagga Wagga
Once nested there the pelican,
And there the swan sailed stately by;
By day the ibis stalked, and night
Was startled by the curlew's cry.
There slashed the whipping plover's wing,
And there the mopoke haunted low,
At dawn the sauntering emu stooped,
And drank unhindered long ago.
[Dame Mary Gilmore, Under the Wilgas, 1932]
Today the Riverina is home to over 300 species of bird, and a human population of around 150,000.
This exhibition looks at our life with the birds of the Riverina. It is a tale of change and challenge, survival and triumph. It will be open to the public from Saturday the 24 September 2011 to 3 March 2012 at the Museum's Botanic Gardens site.
Welcome to your Odditoreum
Discover the weird, wonderful and wacky in this travelling exhibition from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum that features a selection of curiosities.
These objects have been carefully selected for their own peculiarity, creating a display of oddities not normally seen. Children's author and illustrator Shaun Tan, has transformed these objects with intriguing stories, blurring fact and fantasy.
It will be open at the Museum's Botanic Gardens site until from Saturday 29 October to Sunday 26 February 2012.
Shell-shocked: Australia after Armistice
At 5am on 11 November 1918, on a train outside Paris, the armistice to end World War I was signed. It marked the end of a conflict that left 200,000 Australians dead, injured or maimed, and a generation in shell shock. Following the immediate jubilation marking the end of World War I, soldiers came home to a different reality. Shell-shocked: Australia after Armistice explores how the community dealt with the lingering effects of the war over the next 20 years.
Feel the grief and uncertainty of the mother unable to find out the fate of her son for two years. Discover what the future held for the brave nurse wounded on the field as she treated a casualty. Follow the journeys of soldiers as they resettled after the horrors of battle.
A travelling exhibition from the National Archives of Australia, open at the Historic Council Chambers site from 4 November 2011 to 29 January 2012.
Image: NAA - A ward for the totally and permanently incapacitated in an Anzac Hostel, 1919 
Mapping_our_ANZACS_User_Guide.pdf (1.79MB) Shell-Shocked_Education_Kit_-_Part_1.pdf (2MB) Shell-shocked_-_Education_Kit_-_Part_2_-_Using_Mapping_our_ANZACS.pdf (1004KB)
Castro's Claim
An exhibition from the Museum's extensive Tichborne collection, bringing to life the incredible story of Tom Castro, the Wagga butcher who claimed to be the heir to the Tichborne fortune, and put Wagga on the world map.
Yindyamarra Winhanganha - The wisdom of respectfully knowing how to 'live well in a world worth living in'
Yindyamarra Winhanganha is a photographic exhibition of Aboriginal Elders portraits taken by renowned photographer Mervyn Bishop.
Accompanied by oral history recordings this exhibition is co curated by local Wiradjuri Elder Aunty Flo Grant and Charles Sturt University academic, Deb Evans. On exhibition at the Historic Council Chambers site 10 September to 30 October.
Trainspotting: the Powerhouse Museum International Photo Competition 2011
Trainspotting celebrates the railway industry and the Powerhouse Museum's extensive collection of rail and steam trains. The winning images showcase a variety of styles and interests, from documenting locomotives in motion, to works that explore the social experience of train travel. The judges are this year impressed by the photojournalistic approach of entrants.
The Powerhouse Museum hosted the full competition on photo sharing website flickr, you can visit the web version of this touring exhibition on the flickr Powerhouse Museum Photo Competition page.
The forty seven winning images are on exhibition at the Museum's Historic Council Chambers site until 18 September 2011. OVERALL 
WINNER
Image: Hermannplatz 4 by Bernadette Murray, Sydney, Australia
Staying warm
Just as the people of Wagga have sought to keep cool during the long hot summers, they have also devised and adopted various methods for staying warm during the colder months. Winters in Wagga are cool to cold with overnight minimums averaging 3°C and daily maximums climbing to only 12°-14°C on average. Frosts and fog is a feature of Wagga in winter, and snow has even been recorded, with the most notable snowfall occurring on 8 August 1899. Staying Warm showcases a selection of objects from the Museum's permanent collection; some successfully brought comfort on the coldest winter's day, others have been discontinued due to either technological advances or changing social mores. This exhibition was on at the Botanic Gardens site until 24 September, 2011.
Image: Foot muff used to keep feet warm whilst travelling outdoors on a sulky or early model vehicle. Circa 1920-30.
Symbols of Australia
Drawn from the collections of the National Museum of Australia, this exhibition explores ten of the symbols Australians have chosen to represent themselves (The Flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, Uluru, Boomerang, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Southern Cross, Holden, Vegemite, Billy). National symbols help define and represent national identity, but as with all symbols their meanings can vary depending on context and point of view. Some national symbols endure, others fade and new symbols develop as attitudes and values change. This exhibition was on display at the Museum's Historic Council Chambers site from May 20 - 7 August, 2011.
AGRITYPE: Metal farm nameplates in south-east Australia
This exhibition of rural heritage explores the history and cultural significance of agricultural typography as a key part of the material fabric of everyday life in the region. Come and explore a diverse range of hand-crafted signage, local farming history and photographic images of this unique slice of Riverina life. This exhibition was on display at the Museum's Historic Council Chambers site from 8 April - 15 May.
Image: Munroe, Olympic Highway NSW, 2010
FULLY SICK!
Anything is collectable! This exhibition showcases a collection that commenced over 20 years ago on a Paraguayan Airlines flight and has grown into a collection of over 200 airline sickness bags from around the world. This private collection provides a quirky and unique view of collecting aeronautical memorabilia and aviation history. Children are encouraged to get creative in our Play, Design and Read activity corner located within the exhibition space. This exhibition was on display at the Museum's Historic Council Chambers site from 8 April - 15 May.
Keeping Cool
This exhibition showcases a selection of objects and images from the museum's permanent collection which will evoke the sultriness of an Australian inland summer.
Women Transported - Life in Australia's Convict Female Factories
Incarcerated in Female Factories, convict women would work in appalling conditions whilst waiting to hear their fate. This travelling exhibition from the Parramatta Heritage Centre unearths this often ignored chapter of Australia's early colonial life, bringing to life heroic tales of feistiness and determination. Personal accounts from these women are revealed and celebrated through films, interactives and some of the earliest colonial artefacts in the country.
Image: Anne Dunne, unknown photographer, digital photographic copy of original c1865 ambryotype photograph, Courtesy of Maureen Upfold, Susan Bulbrook and Helen Soars
Tracking the Dragon - A history of the Chinese in the Riverina
This exhibition explores the history of Chinese migration and settlement in the Riverina. Featuring a range of significant objects and images this exhibition reveals a complex and poignant narrative that examines both the public and private lives of the Chinese Australian migrant experience.
Parasites in Focus
Get up close and personal with the microscopic creepy crawlies that hitch a ride on their unsuspecting victims. It may surprise you how common these freeloaders are in nature and the ways in which they make contact and take advantage of their host. Featuring spectacular photographic prints and interactive exhibits, this exhibition provides a chance for the whole family to take a rare glimpse into the world of these undesirable guests. Now on display until 23 February.
Image: Campanulotes bidentatus, image from "Parasites in Focus", copyright 2007
How safe were the sixites?
This photographic exhibition from the Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, curated by Dr. Nancy Blacklow poses the question: "Standards and codes in the twenty-first century surround our daily life, but how 'safe' was life fifty years ago?"
The issues of workplace safety, road safety, and the safety of children are explored through our present-day reaction to the scenes depicted. A simple example of this reaction is in the image below of a small child left alone in her pram on the edge of the footpath in Baylis Street, along with an unattended ladder and various electrical cords.
Image: Tom Lennon
Exposed! The story of swimwear
Movie sirens, aquatic stars, bathing beauties, athletes, sporting icons, swimmers and designers all played their part in the evolution of the modern swimsuit. Blurring the boundaries between underwear and outerwear, the swimsuit continues to make shock waves. This Australian National Maritime Museum Travelling exhibition highlights the designs and designers, past and present, at the forefront of Australian swimwear fashion.
Image: Peggy Moffitt modelling Rudi Gernreich's topless swimsuit in 1964. Photograph by William Claxton, courtesy of Demont Photo Management (www.demontphoto.com).
Little Shipmates - Seafaring Pets
Cats, dogs, monkeys and birds have been cherished on board ships for as long as people have made sea voyages. Sydney photographer Sam Hood went on board thousands of ships between 1900 and the 1950s. This selection of 14 photographs shows how much pets meant to many seafarers. An Australian National Maritime Museum travelling exhibition.
Image: Seaman with a cat and kitten on board a sailing ship about 1910, nitrate negative. ANMM Collection. Samuel J Hood Studio
Steel Beach - Ship breaking in Bangladesh
An Australian National Maritime Museum travelling exhibition, Steel Beach - Shipbreaking in Bangladesh draws together images by Sydney photographer Andrew Bell to show the tough reality and dangers of the unregulated shipbreaking industry.
Andrew Bell's photographs capture the unwanted oil tankers, passenger liners and fishing boats beached on these mud-flats where thousands of labourers work with blowtorches, hammers and brute strength to dismantle and recycle every inch of the giant steel structures.
Image: Shipbreaking #23 Sunrise on the beach at Sitakunda, copyright www.andrewbell.net.au.
Crafting Designs: New directions for sustainability
Rohan Nicol is a craftsperson and designer who is known nationally for his handmade contemporary jewellery and objects. He lives in Wagga Wagga and teaches at Charles Sturt University, where he completed his PhD in 2010. He believes that designers and makers working in regional areas can make contributions equal to those in metropolitan centres, and aims to demonstrate that broad notions of sustainability can be fostered through local collaborative partnerships. In 2009 Rohan won the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award for his lighting products some of which are featured in this exhibition. 
Built for the Bush
This exhibition explores some of the energy efficient features of Australia's 19th century country homes and the reappearance of many of these traditional practices in contemporary green architecture.
Image: 'Permanent camping', Mudgee, by Casey Brown Architects. Photography by Penny Clay.
In Living Memory
This exhibition features surviving black and white images from the records of the Aborigines Welfare Board, dating from 1919 to 1966. Most of the photographs were taken to document the work of the Board and to promote its policies. In Living Memory also includes contemporary images of Elders, families and communities, taken by Indigenous photographer Mervyn Bishop during the ongoing exhibition consultation process. Image: AWB wedding photograph of Emma Downey & Billy Richardson, with flower girls Lulu & Dorrie Simpson, New Angledool, 1925; Reproduced with permission of Mervyn Bishop, Sydney; Rita Gibbs, Kelso; Iris Scanlan, Cooroy; Marjorie R Little, Sydney.
MAP:me what's your personal map?
We each carry a personal map of places that shape our lives. The exhibition, MAP:me, shares the stories behind this 'personal geography'. This exhibition, in collaboration with Wagga Wagga residents, features a series of Personal Maps: illuminated cane and paper sculptures in human form.
Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) Documentary Award
The seventh Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) Documentary Photography Award is a biennial showcase of contemporary Australian documentary photography. It represents a unique, national initiative in support of documentary photography, providing a rare opportunity to assess the themes, styles and ideas that characterise this fascinating genre.
Freedom From Fear
This photographic exhibition captures the sense of belonging felt by refugees who have made a home in NSW. A home where they are helping to shape new communities and are free from fear of violence and persecution. Curated and sponsored by the NSW DET AMEP Consortia, led by NSW AMES, a partnership of English language providers, and support services which deliver the Adult Migrant English Program across NSW.
Bill Kerr: The Boy from Wagga Wagga
This exhibition celebrating the extraordinary radio, stage & screen career of Bill Kerr: The Boy from Wagga Wagga. This exhibition features never-before-seen film and theatre photography, original posters and memorabilia that are of great local and national significance, and is a partnership between the Museum of the Riverina and Dr Neill Overton from Charles Sturt University's School of Humanities & Social Sciences in Wagga Wagga.
Echoes of the Past, Voices of the Future: German Settlement in The Riverina
In the mid-1860s many hardworking German farmers left South Australia to select cheap farming land in NSW in the fertile southern Riverina. Archaeologist and exhibition curator Associate Professor Dirk Spennemann has captured this link to the region's past in his photographic exhibition 'Echoes of the Past, Voices of the Future'. Also on display will be a selection of objects and stories from the Museum's permanent collection relating to German migration history in Wagga Wagga and the surrounding district.
There's a War On! World War II at home
With the outbreak of WWII communities across NSW felt its impact. For some, supporting the war effort led to adventure, love, lasting friendships and new experiences. For others, wartime meant loss and hardship, or led them straight to a POW/internment camp because of their 'alien' heritage. A Museum & Galleries NSW Touring exhibition, There's a War On!World War II at home showcases the varied experiences of the men, women and children who fought the war on the home front.
Augusta's Story
The Riverina Community College and the Museum of the Riverina supports newly arrived members of our migrant communities to make locally made arts, crafts and sewn garments.
WRAP
Students from local primary schools were invited by Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC) to participate in this years' event and create works of art from a selection of clean waste.
DesignTECH
Calling all budding designers come be inspired by exemplary works from the 2008 HSC Design and Technology course. 
Texstyle
An exhibition of outstanding HSC major Textile and Design projects. Come and admire the style and finesse of these stunning works.
Max Dupain: On Assignment
Max Dupain is widely considered to be one of Australia's greatest photographers. He was known for his progressive style and innovation in black & white photography. His iconic beach photographs, cityscapes and landscapes evoke a strong sense of time and place. A touring exhibition from the National Archives of Australia featuring many Max Dupain photographs that have never been seen before. What people may not know about Max Dupain is that throughout his career he ran a commercial photography business, specialising in commissions for the Australian Government and large corporations. His photographs were frequently used to promote Australian immigration, trade and investment. It is these eye-catching and enticing images that are featured in this exhibition, showcasing the diversity and longevity of Dupain's commercial career. 
Monks+Hardy: We Built This City
Who designed and built Wagga Wagga? This exhibition reveals the collaboration between prominent Riverina architect William John Monks and a dynasty of local builders, the Hardy family. Spanning 80 years, from 1861 to 1939, this collaboration created some of Wagga Wagga's most significant civic, commercial and private buildings. This Museum of the Riverina exhibition has been developed in partnership with the National Trust of Australia (NSW), Riverina Regional Committee.
Memento Mori
Remember that you are mortal (memento mori), traces the evolution of the gothic subculture back to its roots in Victorian period writing, dress and funerary practice. This exhibition draws connections from music culture, from futurism onwards, and explores the relevance of gothic subculture in regional Australia. Image: Chris Orchard
Box World
BoxWorld features over 900 individual buildings representing most things you would find expect to find in a typical Australian city. The tallest skyscraper is over 5 metres high, and there is a football stadium, a soccer ground, swimming pool, shops and factories. Its creator, Warren Thomas, is an environmentalist and model maker from Tasmania, who believes in the value of the three R's: Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Warren has used cardboard, polystyrene, cans, bottles, milk cartons, straws, ice cream sticks and more to create this model city.
Thirteen: Faces of Edel Quin
A contemporary photographic exhibition of thirteen men, all residents at the Edel Quinn Homeless Men's Shelter in Wagga Wagga. These portraits capture their faces and stories, all at a point of transition. This exhibition also examines the social and cultural dynamics of a sometimes invisible group of people who live in our community. Image: Kate Lewis
Winning Sky Photos: The David Malin Awards
View the best entries of this Australian astrophotography competition, capturing the spectacular beauty of the night sky. Part of the 2009 National Trust Heritage Festival, celebrating the International Year of Astronomy.
