For 160 years, Queensland Museum researchers and curators have preserved and shared the stories of Queensland across earth and sea. Your philanthropic support enables us to do so much, from uncovering ancient ecosystems, to researching climate change and celebrating Queensland’s natural and cultural heritage. Thank you for being part of everything we do.
Giving
We are a museum of natural history, scientific research, cultural heritage and human endeavour, that tells the ever-changing stories of Queensland. With your philanthropic support, Queensland Museum Network can continue to share knowledge through world-class exhibitions, in-depth educational experiences, innovative public programs and valuable scientific research.
You can help us bring Queensland's stories to life by making a donation, providing a cultural gift or including a gift in your will (bequest).
With your support, we can:
- assist reconciliation through repatriation
- care for collections and conserve important objects and specimens
- drive evidence-based scientific research that contributes to real-world outcomes
- create inspiring and insightful learning and engagement experiences to share knowledge with people of all ages and backgrounds
- deliver high quality museum services and programs to communities across Queensland.
Established in 2002, Queensland Museum Foundation is a registered charity, endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR). All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Every gift is critical to our work. Thank you for helping us share knowledge with all Queenslanders.
If you are interested in learning more about supporting our work, please contact the Foundation.
Queensland Museum Network is the custodian of the State Collection: a magnificent assemblage of millions of significant cultural objects, natural history specimens and geological treasures, many of which have been generously donated by individual collectors and enthusiasts.
To make a cultural gift to Queensland Museum Network is to make a gift that will be seen and studied by future generations, deepening our knowledge and appreciation of the world around us.
The State Collection holds a diverse range of objects which contribute to our technological, mechanical, scientific and social history collections — items such as toys, clothing, household items, ceramics, manuscripts, cars, furniture, fossils and specimens. What connects these objects is the role they play in telling the stories of Queensland’s cultural and natural history.
How to make a cultural gift
If you are interested in making a cultural gift, we invite you to contact the Queensland Museum Foundation to discuss your intentions in the first instance.
Cultural gifts to Queensland Museum are accepted in accordance with our Cultural Gift Guidelines.
Queensland Museum is a participating institution in the Federal Government's Cultural Gifts Program which provides tax incentives to encourage Australians to donate culturally significant items from private collections to public art galleries, museums, libraries and archives.
Please be aware that the museum cannot accept every item for donation. If we are unable to accept your gift, it may be of interest to specialist museums or collectors.
Supporting Queensland Museum Network
Queensland Museum Repatriation Fund
Queensland Museum Network conducts a proactive and culturally appropriate repatriation program. We invite all Queenslanders to participate in the journey towards Reconciliation.
Collecting practices in museums around the world have evolved over time, reflecting changing community attitudes. Between the 1870s and 1970s, Queensland Museum Network acquired a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ancestral Remains, Burial Goods and Secret and/or Sacred Objects without consent or due regard to traditional lore and custom.
For Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders, the return of Ancestral Remains is a vital step in fulfilling cultural and spiritual obligations to care for and to bury their dead. The Australian and Queensland Governments recognise and value the importance of repatriation and are committed to ensuring that repatriation is supported at a State and Federal level.
Today, Queensland Museum Network strives to play a key role in fostering respect for and recognition of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in the broader Queensland community. Queensland Museum currently cares for Ancestral Remains, Burial Goods and Secret and/or Sacred Objects on behalf of communities, in a secured facility with restricted access. We actively work with communities throughout the measured and sometimes complex process of repatriation.
The Queensland Museum Repatriation Fund
The Queensland Museum Repatriation Fund provides funding for Queensland Museum Network to partner with communities to repatriate Ancestral Remains, Burial Goods and Secret and/or Sacred Objects to their community of origin. Importantly, it also assists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by providing financial and administrative resources to co-ordinate community gatherings and ceremonial requirements necessary to complete the repatriation process, augmenting existing Australian Government funding.
How you can help
Repatriation is a vehicle for healing and justice. The cultural and spiritual benefits of bringing Ancestors home should not be underestimated. With your support, we can continue to identify and establish provenance of Ancestral Remains, in order to return them to Country, so that in accordance with custom and lore, their spirits may continue their journeys.
Please consider helping us with this important work by making a donation to the Queensland Museum Repatriation Fund - all contributions make a real difference.
Bequests
Including a gift in your will (bequest) to Queensland Museum Network is a transformative way to enrich the lives of future generations through knowledge and understanding.
After making provisions for your family and other beneficiaries, it is a chance to make a lasting gift to ensure that Queensland’s unique stories continue to be discovered, researched, and shared with communities in the future.
Since its beginnings in 1862, Queensland Museum Network has benefited from the generosity and foresight of those who have provided bequests to enable the scientific, cultural, and educational capacity of our Museum Network to expand and deepen.
Gifts of all sizes make a real difference. With your support, we can continue to explore Queensland’s evolving natural, cultural and geological heritage and our place in the world.
For further details, you can download the Bequest Information Pamphlet. If you would like more information about making a bequest, you can get in touch with the Foundation team for a confidential discussion without obligation.
Impact stories
Acquisitions
The Waia family Torres Strait Islander Walter Waia (clan name Sagerau Zia) created SagerauGutatWerr, a traditional dhibal (headdress), for engagement and marriage ceremonies on his native Sabai Island.
The Queensland Museum Foundation funded the purchase of this intricately feathered dhibal for the State Collection. It is the only one in the State Collection used in a traditional ceremony.
Conservation
Paddy Bugden served in the First World War and performed many gallant acts, including rescuing wounded men from No Man's Land. Bugden was killed by shell fire during one of these rescue missions.
The letters he wrote home tell us much about him, his family and his experiences of the war. With funds raised through the Foundation, the Museum was able to conserve his letters, postcards and photographs.
Paddy Bugden's Victoria Cross, as well as stories about his life and bravery are on display in the Anzac Legacy Gallery at Queensland Museum.
Scientific Research
Marine sponges are some of the most vibrantly coloured underwater creatures. There are about 8,500 known species worldwide, and scientists estimate there to be at least that number again awaiting scientific description. Many of these unnamed marine sponges live among the corals and seabed of the Great Barrier Reef.
Lurking within many of these beautiful species are Salinispora – a marine actinobacteria with phenomenal antibiotic and anti-cancer agents. Scientists have successfully isolated a strain of Salinispora that produces anti-cancer compounds significantly less toxic than present cancer treatments.
Funds raised by Queensland Museum Foundation were used to leverage an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant enabling Queensland Museum Network sponge expert Dr John Hooper, and two marine biologists from the University of Queensland to research map the distribution, diversity and genetic structure of Salinisp.
Our supporters
Thank you to our philanthropic supporters whose generosity and commitment make it possible for us to inspire discovery, care for our collections and share Queensland’s remarkable stories.
Founder
Avril Quaill
Peter Raulings
Elinor Scambler
Supporter
Frank Alpert
APS Foundation
Robert Dumke
Valmay Hill
Rachel Leung
Prof Margaret Sheil AO
Dr Jim Thompson PSM
Ashby Utting Foundation
Charles Coxon Circle
Bolton-Cardell family in memory of William Bolton MBE
The late Joe Francese
The late Peter John Fry
The late Vera Thiess
The Harry West Memorial Fund
The late Thora Whitehead
Cultural Gifts Program
Robert Brownhall
Donors
Hamish Andreatta
Candice Badinski
Cheryl Barrett
Tina Bellas
Darren Bennett
Hugh Botting
Lesley Bryant
Michelle Cartlidge
Robert Charteris
Tennille Chase
Joanne Clark
Kerry Cody
Marina Couchman
David Dean
Peter Denham
Criodan Dunford
Michael Dyer
Dorothy Farrell
Daniel Feeney
Patrice Fogarty
Greg Gola
Victoria Green
Bronwyn Harch
Mark Heaney
Tara Horner
Cathy James
Mary Karkkainen
Kerry Law
Mel Lawrence
Sharon Lau
Jiordana Maltby
Paul Marangelli
Lucy Martinez
Jacqueline Mountford
Public Trustee Community Funds
Deborah Marshall
Ruth Manze
Arfa Noor
Graham Palmer
Lynette Parsons
Fergus Pascoe
Carole Pearson
Thomas Perovic
Matthew Power
Alan Rix
Ian Rix
Dr Peter Rothlisberg
Christopher Salter
Samantha Searle
David Smith
Claire Speedie
Donna Tanner
Catherine Taylor
Jegan Thanapalasingam
Cheryl Thomas
Shalon Thompson
Julie Toussaint
Rachelle Uhlmann
V Unwin
Julia Waters
Sue Watson
Eugene White
Victoria Whiting
Birgit Willadsen
Tracey Wright|
Humayun Yousaf
Queensland Museum Network also thanks those who have chosen to support it anonymously.
You might be interested in
Join & Support
Become a member, join our team or support us by donating, providing a cultural gift or bequest, or through a corporate partnership.
Partner with us
Support the work of Queensland Museum Network through the Queensland Museum Foundation Trust.
Contact Foundation
Get in touch with the Queensland Museum Foundation for more information on donating, becoming a partner or making a bequest.