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Monash exhibition attracts thousands of Taiwanese visitors

25 July 2007

Science Centre Director Professor Pat Vickers-Rich is pictured (centre-right) with exhibition manager Dr Corrie Williams (right) at the opening of the Wildlife of Gondwana Exhibition in Taichung, Taiwan, along with technician Wayne Chatwin (far left) and NMNS Director, Dr Lau.

The Wildlife of Gondwana exhibition officially opened at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taichung, Taiwan on the 11th of July.

Several thousand visitors passed through the exhibition on the first day.

The exhibition was shipped from the Monash Science Centre's exhibition space to Taichung earlier this year, where it was painstakingly reassembled by Dr Corrie Williams, Wayne Chatwin and Prof. Patricia Vickers-Rich, with the assistance of local staff in Taiwan.

The exhibition covers a number of topics including climate change, environmental change, development of the very weird Australian fauna and flora including mammal-like reptiles and dinosaurs.  Of particular interest are the nearly 600 million year old ancient multicelled organisms that lived long before reptiles, well known from the Flinders Ranges of South Australia -- called the Ediacarans.

The Monash Science Centre Director, Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich noted that a broad spectrum of research by scientists at Monash is highlighted in this exhibition, and the exhibition appeals to all generations and levels of understanding, from scientists through to schoolchildren, including those who are prospective students to one of our many campuses, the nearest being Malaysia.

"The National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taichung is expecting more than a million visitors to this exhibition. Later in the year it will return to Australia for a regional tour and it is a wonderful way to promote us and our valuable research and resources," Professor Vickers-Rich noted. At the end of the exhibition our CD about Monash as a research powerhouse and educational destination attracted considerable interest on opening day.

The exhibition has been supported in its construction by a Federal Visions grant and will open at the Monash Science Centre in January 2008. After that it will travel for at least the next 3 years around Australia and internationally. It is a cooperative project between the School of Geosciences and the Monash Science Centre.