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It is not what you would expect to find in the backstreets of Kew.
Tucked away in a residential street is a family home that for more than a decade has doubled as a private museum.
Corbett and Yueji Lyon and their Lyon Housemuseum.Credit: Benny Capp
The Lyon Housemuseum holds more than 350 works by more than 50 artists, reflecting the collection of Australian contemporary art of architect Corbett Lyon and wife Yueji.
“It was this really interesting idea to have effectively a collection that’s open to the public inside a building that also accommodates a family’s life,” Corbett Lyon said.
The Lyon family have hosted small group tours of their home for years. Tens of thousands of people have visited, including Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan.
A decade later, Lyon erected a second building, the popular Housemuseum Galleries next door, to stage exhibitions.
After raising his daughters in the home, Lyon and Yueji moved out this year. The original house museum is closed for six months, while the couple prepare to demolish a timber wall separating the house and gallery next door, to join the two buildings.
Post-renovation, the museum will belong to the Australian public, along with the valuable art collection valued at $56 million.
The Housemuseum is one of many of the curious and quirky museums in Victoria devoted to subjects such as glass bottles, windmills, pinball machines and human specimens.
The Australian Pinball Museum, Nhill
Tucked away inside a nondescript motel on the Western Highway, halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, you will find the only pinball museum in Australia.
Australian Pinball Museum owner Lyndon Carter with games including Darts and Nip-It.Credit: Justin McManus
The museum is located in the family-run Oasis Motel in the town of Nhill. Inside the motel, it is a sea of colour and bright lights that would rival the Las Vegas strip.
The display, home to about 50 pinball machines, tracks the history of the game from the 1930s through to the modern day.
The Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, Parkville
One of Australia’s largest collections of human tissue, animal anatomy and historical anatomical models, the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology at the University of Melbourne, is home to more than 12,000 specimens and artefacts.
Curator Rohan Long with the death masks (from left) of bushrangers Dan Morgan and Ned Kelly, and killer John Weechurch.Credit: Joe Armao
Among the most well-known is Ned Kelly’s death mask; a cast of his head taken immediately after he was hanged in 1880.
There are also specimens of lungs with tuberculosis, and a brain specimen of a young man from Melbourne, who was believed to have had syphilis and died in the 1920s of mercury poisoning.
Melbourne Tram Museum, Hawthorn
It is only fitting the city synonymous with trams would have a museum dedicated to the rattling rail vehicle.
See how Melbourne used to move at the Tram Museum.Credit: visitvictoria.com
At the Melbourne Tram Museum, you can see a V-class tram with its “toast-rack” interior from 1906 (one of Melbourne’s first electrified trams), and a nostalgic collection of W-Class trams. The museum is open to visitors on select days including weekends.
The Lee Medlyn Home of Bottles, Clunes
There are historic beer, wine, spirit, aerated waters and ginger beer bottles at the Home of Bottles in Clunes, near Ballarat, as well as jars that once held condiments such as jams, Vegemite and medicines.
The Lee Medlyn Home of Bottles in Clunes has a collection of more than 6000 historic bottles.
If looking at a collection of more than 6000 old bottles is not your thing, you can book a ghost tour inside the museum.
Hellenic Museum, Melbourne CBD
From ancient artefacts to Byzantine icons, there are exhibitions spanning 8000 years at the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne.
Some of the replica statues in the Hellenic Museum.Credit: Casey Horsfield
Among the displays are replicas of the ancient statues from different epochs of Ancient Greece, including Aphrodite of Milos and Zeus of Artemision (450 BCE), and Hermes and the Infant Dionysos (late fourth century BCE).
Heritage Windmill Park, Beeac
Windmills have pumped out water for crops and livestock for centuries, and the love for them is in full bloom in the tiny town of Beeac, near Colac.
The wheels keep spinning at Beeac.Credit: intown.com.au
These iron towers dominate the skyline in Beeac, nestled among vast farmland and close to lakes in the area.
The Johnston Collection, East Melbourne
Visitors to The Johnston Collection are picked up from the nearby Pullman Melbourne on the Park hotel and driven by bus to a house in a nearby, undisclosed street.
The Johnston Collection, displayed in a house in East Melbourne.
Hidden inside a townhouse known as Fairhall, the museum is a display of fine, exotic and decorative arts, that were collected by antique dealer William Johnston.
The Grainger Museum, Parkville
From parcels of hair to family portraits and spectacles, the Grainger Museum at The University of Melbourne is a fascinating snapshot of the private and public life of the musical Grainger family.
A collection of percussion mallets, including harmoniums and xylophones.Credit: Grainger Museum
It is the only purpose-built autobiographical museum in Australia. It is home to a diverse and eclectic collection of more than 100,000 items including costumes, musical scores and instruments acquired by concert pianist and composer Percy Grainger.
State Coal Mine Museum, Wonthaggi
Fancy a trip back to the 1900s? The State Coal Mine Museum in Gippsland is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
See how miners worked at the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi.
There are underground tunnels you can walk through, tracing the footsteps of miners who drilled and chipped for coal in the 1900s.
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