WA Museum Collections and Research

21/10/2026

🐾 Amazing discovery for Australia’s bandicoots!

After a decade of research, Kenny from our Terrestrial Zoology team and colleagues identified two previously unrecognised species of brown bandicoot.

One was from South Australia and went extinct around 100 years ago — before anyone realised it was a distinct species!

The research also revealed that our own WA Quenda once lived much further east than previously thought, including parts of South Australia.

It’s a fascinating reminder of how much we’re still learning about Australia’s unique wildlife, and why museum collections are so important in uncovering the stories of species past and present.

🔎 To find out more about the research, visit: https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/about/media/decade-long-research-reveals-two-new-bandicoot-species-and-rewrites-australias

🔬 There’s still so much to discover — and so much worth protecting.

Images: (c) WA Museum
Top: New species Little Brown Bandicoot. Artwork, Nellie Pease
L-R: Quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) | Golden Bandicoot (Isoodon auratus) | Golden Bandicoot (Isoodon auratus).

06/10/2026

Earlier this year, scientists from our Aquatic Zoology team spent 22 days aboard R/V OceanXplorer exploring Roo Rise, a remote underwater seamount near Christmas Island.

You can read all about the expedition here: https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/learn/news-stories/wa-museum-scientists-help-establish-new-scientific-baseline-high-seas

Excitingly, the specimens collected during the expedition have now arrived at the WA Museum, been unpacked and are heading into the lab!

Next steps include identifying and documenting what was collected, accessioning the specimens into the State collection and working with Minderoo OceanOmics to validate those identifications against corresponding genome sequences.

The expedition might be over, but the work of a scientist is never done 🔬

Thanks: OceanX Minderoo Foundation The University of Western Australia The UWA Oceans Institute National University of Singapore Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

26/09/2026

Every year, as the first signs of spring begin to bloom, tiny Bogong moths in eastern Australia spread their wings and prepare for a strenuous 1,000 km journey to the Australian Alps, a place they have never been before.

Using one of the oldest forms of navigation, they gaze upon the stars to light the way to their home for the next few months as they escape the heat of summer.

It is still unclear where Western Australian Bogong moths hunker down for the summer. Do they ride the winds east across the Nullarbor? Or perhaps fly south-west? Or is it somewhere else entirely?

That is why we need your help! We are seeking the community's assistance to track Bogong moth sightings across WA's south coast. If you spot one of these little legends over the coming weeks, please report it at www.bogong.org.

Your observations will contribute to a project that will help guide the conservation of these endangered pollinators!

So strap on your head torch and get moth spotting! 🔦

📸 Paul George.

23/09/2026

🕷️ Congratulations Dr Mark Harvey, who has been inducted into the Western Australian Science Hall of Fame at the 2026 Premier’s Science Awards!

Dr Harvey joined the WA Museum in 1989 and has spent more than three decades helping us better understand Australia’s spiders, pseudoscorpions, scorpions and other invertebrates.

During that time, he served as Curator of Arachnids and Myriapods and later as Head of Terrestrial Zoology. His passion and knowledge even earned him the affectionate nickname "Spider Man" around the Museum.

In 2025, Dr Harvey became one of the few people on the planet to have described more than 1,000 new species, while helping to build one of the largest arachnid collections in the Southern Hemisphere.

His work has helped advance the research used to identify and classify species, playing a vital role in ongoing conservation efforts.

Congratulations Dr Mark Harvey on a thoroughly deserved place in the WA Science Hall of Fame!

07/09/2026

Some of WA’s most remarkable animals are also among those we’re at risk of losing.

The more we know about the species we share our State with, the better chance we have of keeping them here. 💚

14/08/2026

Happy World Lizard Day for all the legends that celebrate it 🦎

This week has been all about lizards for the Terrestrial Vertebrates team while they host visiting researchers from The Australian National University

The team are measuring hundreds of Australian geckos to explore their morphological diversity

12/06/2026

Ever wondered what lies behind the lab doors of the WA Museum?

Particle WA recently spent time with our Senior Preparator Kirsten Tullis and taxidermist Teori Shannon, looking at the careful, creative and occasionally very unusual work that helps bring Museum displays to life.

Take a read behind-the-scenes:

What lies behind the lab doors of the Western Australian Museum?

11/06/2026

When Joanne Huggins wanted to play football in the 1980s, there was no established women’s competition in WA.

So she placed an advertisement in the paper asking if other women were interested in forming one, and received 60 phone calls! Before long, there were enough players to form four teams across Perth.

Objects from those early years, including bumper stickers used to generate support, a State jumper and cap featuring sponsorship from controversial sources, and an off-field shirt highlighting the progression of sponsorship in the mid-2000s are now part of the Museum collection.

Collected through the Women in Sport project – which aims to expand the Museum's collection of sporting stories – they help share the changes, challenges and stories of women building a football culture despite limited resources and recognition.

Today is also International Day of Play, which celebrates the role of play in building confidence and community. For many girls and women, those things were never guaranteed. They had to juggle work and home life, raise funds, pay their own way, challenge opposition and make room for themselves in the games they loved to play.

You can hear these stories in our upcoming talk, Playing with Passion: Breaking barriers in women’s sport on Thursday 25 June, as curators Kylie Elston and Monika Durrer share stories from the trailblazing women who helped create opportunities for the next generation of girls in sport.

Read the full story: https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/learn/news-stories/collecting-rise-womens-sport

29/05/2026

That's a wrap! As the final leg of , the team spent four days sampling at the remote Cocos (Keeling) Islands. They surveyed four shipwrecks 🏴‍☠️, the oldest dating back to the 19th century, and collected a diverse array of marine invertebrates 🦀 🐚 on lagoonal and outer reef dives. Specimens will be winging their way to Perth where the team will identify and sequence the DNA of potential new species and species not known from the waters around the atoll.

This project has been made possible through support by Foundation for the WA Museum and Parks Australia

25/05/2026

The team has completed Phase One of their project, diving the spectacular drop offs 🪸of Christmas Island in search of new species and surveying the Eidsvold wreck. Working alongside colleagues from Australian Marine Parks and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Biosecurity, and ending with a 'tag team' community talk highlighting pests 🦪, pincers 🦀 & pirate ships 🏴‍☠️

The team is now on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands to make more discoveries!

This project has been made possible through support from Foundation for the WA Museum and Parks Australia