Abbey Museum

A priceless collection of antiquities and fine arts from around the world. Tracing the history of humankind for 500,000 years from the first hunter to the Romans, the Middle Ages to the Victorian Era. The Museum also includes collections from the classic and ancient worlds, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Luristan, Cyprus, Islam and Asia.

The Annual Abbey Museum's Medieval Tournament is famous throughout Australia. There is something to enthral everyone - live theatre, games, dancing, arts and crafts and archery, brings to life the Middle Ages in Australia's premier medieval festival. You can join the fun if you wish and come in medieval costume to enter a fashion competition.

Perhaps one of the most important and significant collections of rare stained glass in Australia is to be found at the Abbey Museum, largely housed within the Abbey Church. It includes the largest corpus of European medieval and renaissance stained glass in Australia.

The Abbey Museum conducts a number of research and publication programs on the collections. A list of publications is appended below. Staff at the British Museum, the Museum of London, Oxford University, the Ashmolean Museum, Leeds City Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and many others have assisted the Abbey Museum.

Research assistants are currently working on a rare Qing sword with archaic jade inlays that feature phoenixes and dragons and a number of mythical beasts.