On 19 March 2013 the Members of the Museum of Chinese Australian History voted at a Special General Meeting for the Museum to work towards moving from being an Incorporated Association to being a Company Limited by Guarantee. This was principally due to the Museum endeavouring to build a national focus and wishing to work under a legal structure that supports activities across Australia. The Museum will remain a community-based organisation. The Chinese Museum is a not for profit with charity and DGR status.
Located in the heart of Melbourne’s Chinatown, the Chinese Museum’s five floors showcase the heritage and culture of Australia’s Chinese community. Our purpose is to operate a museum, to promote and preserve Chinese Culture and history; especially of Australian-Chinese history in Australia.
The Museum has three permanent exhibitions:
The Museum of Chinese Australian History was established in 1985 as a community-run, not-for-profit national institution to document, preserve, collect and research the history and culture of Chinese Australians and their descendants.
The Museum is housed in a late nineteenth century five-level warehouse. The warehouse was built in 1890 by the Cohen Bros who were furniture manufacturers and they used this building as a factory to make furniture and also a storeroom.
After the Cohen Bros moved out, it was purchased by Her Majesty’s theatre and was used for the storage of sets and costumes. During the hey-day of musical extravaganzas, it was also used as change rooms for the large choruses that were a part of these shows.
The building was acquired by the Victorian government from Her Majesty’s in 1985 and is rented by the Museum for a nominal fee. When it opened its doors to the public in November 1985 it had no foundation collection and only three levels of the building had been renovated – basement, ground and first floors. The second floor was renovated in 1987 and the third floor along with the rest of the building in 1995. In 2010 renovations were made to the ground and first floors.
