Australia & NZ (Land) -- Oct & Nov 2013

This is the first of several photos taken inside the Australia Museum in Sydney. This is a reconstruction of a diprotodon, sometimes called the giant wombat. They are now extinct but were still around when the first prehistoric settlements were made in Australia. Humans and this guy (and other large animals that are now extinct) probably coexisted for several thousand years there. Hard to see how big this is from this photo, but it's as large as a typical polar bear (but perhaps not as large as the largest polar bears)

The museum mostly covers natural history. The collection did not seem to me to be as extensive as the name and the size of the buillding would suggest. However, Sydney is not the capital of the country (it IS the capital of the state of New South Wales). I suspect the REAL national museums are located there. (IMG_4444.SX40.JPG)