Museology and public policy: Rereading the development of the National Museum of Australia's collection

The authors of the 2003 review of the National Museum of Australia's opening exhibitions and programs strongly criticise weaknesses in the National Historical Collection. This paper looks at the development of the social history collections to contextualise this criticism and contribute to the Museum's institutional history. The paper situates the Museum's first 20 years in a dynamic period of museum-making, cultural policy formation and economic reform. The interplay of these elements produced a complex institutional ecology that did much to shape the collection.