Originally built as the Beechworth Athenaeum in 1857, The Burke Museum was named in honour of Robert O’Hara Burke, the famous explorer and former Beechworth Superintendent of Police, after his death at Coopers Creek in 1861 during the Burke and Wills expedition.

The collection includes Burke’s own bible, inscribed revolver and saddlebags used in the ill-fated expedition. The Museum boasts a fascinating and historically significant collection of more than 30,000 individual items, many dating back more than 150 years. The collection includes a large collection of 19th Century native animal and birdlife taxidermy, significant Gold Rush era artefacts, and the “Street of Shops”, a unique recreation of Gold Era Beechworth.

The exhibition, ‘People of Beechworth’, showcases the resilience and diversity of the Beechworth community. The exhibition explores themes such as food and culture, volunteering, sport, Chinese history and the fight for gender equality in both a historic and modern context, and demonstrates that history is not something confined to the past, instead, it is made every day.