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National Communication Museum or NCM is Australia's national museum of communication which showcases technologies of the past and present. It is located in the
File:The front reception area at the National Communication Museum in Hawthorn.jpg, The front reception area at the NCM, 2025
File:The cyber cafe (internet cafe) at the National Communication Museum 03.jpg, The cyber cafe (
National Communication Museum or NCM is Australia's national museum of communication which showcases technologies of the past and present. It is located in the Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
suburb of Hawthorn, adjacent to Swinburne University of Technology
The Swinburne University of Technology (or simply Swinburne) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the Eastern Suburbs Technical College established in 1908, renamed Swinburne ...
, and is housed in a historic 1939 telephone exchange building. It opened in September 2024.
It is located on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.
History
The museum was given seed funding fromTelstra
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...
which enabled them, over a number of years, to acquire collections of communications paraphernalia which are deemed to be of cultural significance to Australian audiences. In presenting this collection the museum aims to explore the relationship between humanity and technology and make audiences think about what its future may be.
The exhibitions on display include a fully interactive cyber cafe, reminding users of the 1990s which can be used to 'surf the web', play retro games and chat on MSN Messenger
MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...
.
It replaced the Victorian Telecommunications Museum.
Gallery
internet cafe
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
) at the NCM, 2025
File:Electromechanical Speaking Clock Mark 2 at the National Communication Museum 01.jpg, Electromechanical Speaking Clock
A speaking clock or talking clock is a live or recorded human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observa ...
Mark 2 at the NCM, 2025
File:The Assman Speaking Clock at the National Communication Museum.jpg, The Assman Speaking Clock
A speaking clock or talking clock is a live or recorded human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observa ...
at the NCM, 2025
File:Assorted photos from the National Communication Museum 01.jpg, Commodore PET 2001 at the NCM, 2025
File:Assorted photos from the National Communication Museum 02.jpg, Garfield phone on display at the NCM, 2025
References
{{coord, 37, 49, 21.21, S, 145, 2, 11.17, E, display=title Museums in Melbourne History of telecommunications in Australia Telephone museums History of science and technology in Australia Buildings and structures in the City of Boroondara Telecommunications museums 2024 establishments in Australia