Facts and figures

Some answers to frequently asked questions at the Powerhouse Museum.

How many objects are in the Powerhouse Museum collection?
The Museum has a collection of 388,141* objects at 30 June 2007 (based on an estimate of 380,000 at 30 June 1995).

* note that in the past one acquisition number was often allocated to a single large group of individual objects (such as the Doulton Shorter Collection of ceramics or the Box Shoe Collection). The total number of physically separable items is estimated at over a million.

How many objects are on display?
Only about 3% at any one time (10% by volume) is on display in exhibitions.  However two recent initiatives have now granted unprecedented access to the collection by both real and virtual avenues.

With the opening of the Powerhouse Discovery Centre: Collection Stores at Castle Hill, public access is available to around 50,000 objects in storage there, which equates to about 40% of the collection by volume.

Another 60,000 plus objects have been made available online through our Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC 2.0) launched in 2006.  This web initiative provides images and information about objects from the collection.

What is the biggest object in the collection?
Locomotive 3830 is the most massive at 200 tonne. The Catalina Flying Boat has the biggest dimensions.

What is the most valuable object in the collection?
The Boulton and Watt rotative engine is absolutely priceless.

How big is the Powerhouse?
Approx 20,000 square metres of exhibitions which is equivalent to three international competition soccer fields. There are about 11 km of exhibitions.

How many exhibitions are there at the Powerhouse Museum?
22 permanent exhibitions, five spaces for temporary exhibitions.

How many people visit the Museum each year?
In the 2006-07 financial year the Museum attracted 621,666 visitors across its three sites. A further 426,341 visited the Museum's travelling exhibitions and attended our off site programs at venues around Australia.

Virtual access to the Museum through our websites for 2006-07 was over 7.6 million unique users.

What is the record number of visitors on one day?
16,631 on Australia Day 26 January 1994.

How many staff work at the Powerhouse?
Approximately 325 at July 2007.  The Museum also had 247 volunteers in 2006-07.