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The
Lord Howe Island
Historical Society
and Museum

Where natural history, environment and culture intersect…

at the heart of paradise

While Lord Howe Island is arguably the most beautiful island in the Pacific, it is also one of the most pristine natural environments, with a wealth of man-made history stretching back one and a half centuries.

Photo of Ian Hutton

Welcome to our museum!

Founded in 1978, the Lord Howe Island Museum has over 50,000 scientific specimens, books, photographs and cultural objects in its collections.

We are open all year round, 7 days a week, from 9am each day. Be sure to pay us a visit when you come to Lord Howe Island. Entry is free, and the Museum is a popular meeting place for islanders and tourists alike.

Even if you cannot visit, you can browse through these pages and learn about our latest exhibitions, animal and plant factsheets, citizen science, and education programs for all.

Ian Hutton – Curator

Donations, bequests and sponsorships

Our Museum does not charge entry fees, and relies on your generosity in order to stay open. Please consider supporting us.

Support the Lord Howe Island Museum
Lord Howe Island phasmid

The phasmids!

These large stick insects, once common all over the island, were eaten into extinction by introduced rats by 1930. However, in 1964 rock climbers photographed a dead phasmid on Balls Pyramid, 23 km southeast of the island. In 2001 scientists visited Balls Pyramid and collected live phasmids, and Melbourne Zoo have a breeding program raising phasmids for eventual release back on the island.

Come to the Museum and learn about their return from the edge of extinction.

Read the Phasmid‘s Story

LATEST NEWS
09 April 2024
The shipwreck of the SS Ovalau
Recently, the great-grandson of Captain Todd, master of the SS Ovalau shipwrecked in 1903, visited...
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30 March 2024
2024 Sea Slug Census
The seventh annual Sea Slug census was held on Lord Howe Island during February and March.
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15 March 2024
Museum benefits from Baillie Lodges’ generosity
The Lord Howe Island Museum has received sponsorship from the inaugural Baillie Lodges Spirit of Mateshi...
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05 January 2024
Coral spawning on Lord Howe Island
Coral spawning is a regular annual event on the island, but this year the mass spawning has come ear...
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29 November 2023
New orchid discovered on Lord Howe Island
An orchid species previously not reported on Lord Howe Island was discovered recently.
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29 October 2023
The shipwreck of the Ovalau
Shipwrecks around Lord Howe Island have been documented in a new section of our historical gallery, including...
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19 October 2023
Annual General Meeting 2023
At the Annual General Meeting held last night, Robyn Warner stepped down as Museum President, after 20...
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15 October 2023
National Mushroom Day
Mushroom Day 2023 - an appropriate day to announce the Citizen Science project to document Lord Howe...
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08 October 2023
The Historical Gallery - last round of work
During the last week, the final works on the displays in the Historical Gallery were completed.
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04 October 2023
Coral Reef Lectures
The museum has hosted an evening of lectures by Coral Reef scientists from James Cook University.
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24 September 2023
Museum Artefacts on eHive
The KEDJE Foundation has agreed to sponsor the cataloguing of Museum artefacts on eHive.
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16 September 2023
Touring Scottish museums
During our winter I went overseas, to the UK, where I had the opportunity to visit many museums - small...
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25 April 2023
Sixth Sea-slug census a roaring success
The sixth annual sea-slug census was held recently on Lord Howe Island.
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03 April 2023
Birds of Lord Howe Island Art Poster - launched this week
Wildlife artist Fiona Lumsden has launched an outstanding poster depicting the birds of Lord Howe Is...
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24 March 2023
UPDATE - Myrtle Rust outbreak appears to be contained
Good News! The outbreak of Myrtle Rust appears to be contained, and parts of the Permanent Park Preserve...
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17 March 2023
Potentially devastating Myrtle Rust reaches the island - for the 2nd time
Early in February 2023, a case of Myrtle Rust was found on an introduced bottle brush tree in the settlement...
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10 February 2023
Sea Slug Census 2023
The Lord Howe Island Sea Slug Census is on again - for the sixth time - 24th February to 5th March 2...
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01 February 2023
Brett Hilder - author, artist, mariner, pilot…
One of the new exhibits in the renovated historical gallery contains a tribute to Captain Brett Hild...
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28 January 2023
History Gallery renovations - update
In January, designer Michael Bugelli made another visit to progress the renovations to our History Gallery...
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26 December 2022
2022 in review
2022 has been a big year for the Lord Howe Island Museum.
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Our Historical Gallery is getting a makeover

Learn more

SNIPPETS from the CURATOR‘S DESK
02 May 2024
Sponsorship enables LED lights to be installed
Twent-five years after the building was constructed, new LED lights have been installed in all the museum rooms and exhibition areas.
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23 December 2023
Cookie-cutter Shark
An unusual exhibit in the Environmental Gallery which gets a lot of questions is a tall glass jar containing a Cookie-cutter Shark.
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08 October 2023
Convict connections
Author Graham Lines has told the story of convict James Borritt, who passed through Lord Howe Island in March 1842.
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05 October 2023
Community Open Day 2023
Museum staff and volunteers helped usher in the 2023-24 tourist season at the annual Community Open Day.
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24 September 2023
Volunteers help remove weeds from the Museum grounds
In May, the Friends of Lord Howe Island helped remove weeds from the Museum grounds, and assisted with several related community projects.
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16 September 2023
Items donated in the last few months
A number of books and photo albums were donated during the winter months
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23 April 2023
Fungus experts visit the island
A group of fungus experts visited Lord Howe Island in March, as part of an on-going research project.
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01 February 2023
Coral bleaching - Beauty and the Bleach
Dr Rosie Steinberg studied the recovery of soft corals in the Lord Howe Island lagoon, after a coral bleaching event in 2019.
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28 January 2023
Harry Buxton's photo album
The museum has acquired a 1935 photo album, containing photos by Harry Buxton from Inverell.
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03 January 2023
Clockmaker Martin Foster
Clockmaker Martin Foster is a regular visitor and supporter of the Museum.
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04 December 2022
Surfing photos wanted
Surfing has been a popular sport on the island for many years. We want your photos, so we can record the history of surfing on Lord Howe Island.
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07 October 2022
Museum Starlink internet system
With a combination of Starlink and NBN connections, the Lord Howe Island Museum now has the fastest public internet on the island.
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25 January 2022
Original 1795 lithograph
Ursula Potter, a friend of the Furber family (who are well known on the island) has donated an original 1795 lithograph depicting Admiral Howe, after whom our island is named.
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22 September 2021
Museum Collection Assessment
In 2020 the museum was successful in obtaining a grant from State Library to have a museum specialist visit and carry out a Collection Significance Report on what the museum holds as...
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26 July 2021
Mystery item found at Middle Beach
Jeremy and Jan Colman visited Lord Howe Island for a week back in June of this year, and were walking on Middle Beach one afternoon and found the front cover of an antique gold fob...
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25 June 2021
Collection Significance Assessment
In June, Melanie Piddocke from Queensland Museum visited the island to undertake a Collection Significance Assessment of the collections held at the Lord Howe Island Museum. Melanie...
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04 June 2021
Access to the local newspaper
With the help of our President Robyn Warner’s son-in-law Peter van Dijk, the museum now has a very accessible digital archive of all issues of the island newspaper, Signal. These are...
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04 May 2021
Artwork installed
In May we hung an artwork piece in our Environmental Gallery. It was donated by Hobart-based Detached Organisation. Artist Lucienne Rickard was commissioned to visit the island during...
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Subscribe to the Museum newsletter

The Museum Newsletter is published approximately once per month and contains news and information about activities and events at the Museum, as well as links to recent articles and blogs.

Read the latest newsletter:
October 2023

Lord Howe Island Museum
Lagoon Road
Lord Howe Island NSW 2898
Australia

Phone: +61 2 6563 2111

Discovering more since 1834
This website was funded by a grant from the NSW Stronger Country Community Fund in 2020, and has been maintained and updated through the generosity of various sponsors.

You can help by sponsoring its upkeep, or donating to other Museum fund-raisers. Find out how.

DONATE TODAY!