Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Parramatta

2024

Koiki Mabo sitting within bamboo and sand backgorund.

Program

I put the stars on the ground

Name: I put the stars on the ground
Start: 2024-05-12T02:00:00.000Z
Location: Sydney Observatory

Visit

Every Thu—Sun

Free

Sydney Observatory

I Put The Stars On The Ground highlights First Nations custodianship to Sky Country and illustrates the site’s evolution into a public educational space and museum.

The exhibition honours the rich knowledge of First Nations Astronomy, navigation and seasonal patterns shared for millennia through art, songs, stories and ceremonies. It features a selection of works and star maps by Gail Mabo, ceramic pieces illustrating Waŋupini (cloud) stories by Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra and Songlines of Our Universe, an original soundscape by William Barton and Veronique Serret.

The newly restored Residential Wing at Sydney Observatory also houses Powerhouse Collection objects and curated images depicting domestic life and scientific work on Observatory Hill across 100 years, from 1870–1907 when NSW Government Astronomer Henry Chamberlain Russell and his family lived at Observatory Hill, to 1941–1974, when Sydney Observatory Director Harley Wood and his family resided at the Observatory.

Group of people sit outside in a courtyard bottling wine.

Family standing outside the observatory.

Woman sitting on a bench outside of an old building.

Black and white photograph of the machinery entering the observatory with a crane

Black and white photograph of flagstaff perched on a hill, with a building behind

Stories

Celestial Emu

Film

Custodianship of Sky Country and Sydney Observatory

Living records of First Nations sky knowledge

Stories