Expeditions and fieldwork

Discover the global expeditions that have contributed to the vast and unique collections at the Museum.

Updated

04/02/26

For nearly 200 years, Australian Museum expeditions have ventured across continents and oceans, documenting biodiversity and cultures while building our world-class collections. From major research voyages to ongoing fieldwork, discover the expeditions that continue to shape our scientific understanding.

Scientists on Phillip Island - part of the Norfolk Island National Park.

Major expeditions

Discover the expeditions that have contributed to the vast and unique collections at the Museum, and to our understanding of culture and biodiversity.

Norfolk Island expeditions

Explore Norfolk Island, a small island with a big history and unique biodiversity. Learn about the 2022 and 2025 expeditions and the ongoing research being conducted by Australian Museum scientists and their collaborators.

Norfolk Island
Research expeditions

Lord Howe Island expedition

Explore an island that has been frozen in time through the Lord Howe Island expeditions. Find out more about the research Australian Museum scientists are conducting on this mysterious island.

Lord Howe Island
Balls Pyramid
Research expedition

Solomon Islands expedition

Travel deep into the cloud-covered forests to find the elusive monkey-faced bats, giant rats, snails, moths, birds and frogs of the Solomon Islands Archipelago.

Solomon Islands
Research expedition

Research expeditions

Curiosity and adventure have inspired Australian Museum expeditions since 1831, taking researchers from coral reefs to remote islands to document biodiversity, explore cultures, and build the collections you see today.

Dolphin fishes, or Mahi Mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) are major predators of flying fishes

CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator expeditions

Explore what scientists from CSIRO, Museums Victoria Research Institute, Western Australian Museum and the Australian Museum Research Institute discovered aboard the CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator.

RV Investigator
Research expedition

The Kimberley

The north-western Australian Kimberley is one of fifteen Australian biodiversity hotspots. Its coast boasts an archipelago that comprises several hundred large, and thousands of much smaller islands.

Kimberley Island Survey

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Scotia Arc expeditions

Discover how animals move from South America to Antarctica and learn why the Scotia Arc is an important birthplace for the formation of new species.

Scotia Arc expeditions
Research expedition

Learn more

Timor-Leste expedition

Embark on an adventure on land and in the sea of the most comprehensive and combined survey of terrestrial and marine habitats of Timor-Leste. Discover some of the most fascinating and least studied animals in one of the biologically most diverse and complex regions in the world.

Timor-Leste
Research expedition

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South West Pacific expedition

Journey with AMRI scientists on a voyage of discovery to document marine fauna in these isolated southwest Pacific islands. Learn more about the daily lives of scientific researchers on board a research vessel.

South West Pacific
Research expedition

Southern French Polynesia expedition

Immerse yourself in the heart-thumping adventure of Marotiri Rocks, sharks, and other creatures of the deep. Learn more about how scientists collect and identify creatures in the Southern French Polynesia region.

Southern French Polynesia
Research expedition

Kermadec Island expedition

Dive into some of the few places where the marine environment is largely unaffected by human activity. Learn how Australian Museum marine scientists have teamed up with scientists from New Zealand to manage and conserve the biodiversity of this magnificent region.

Kermadec Island
Research expedition

Japanese Antarctica expedition and the Shirase sword

A Samurai Sword in the Museum's collection symbolises a spirit of scientific co-operation and friendship between nations. Find out how Australia, Japan and Antarctic exploration are linked through the history of this sword.

Shirase sword appraisal video
Historic expedition

Heading south: Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition

In December 1911, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition set sail from Hobart and into the history books.

Geologist Douglas Mawson
Sun compass
Sledgemeter

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Fieldwork news stories

The Kimberley

What lurks at the bottom of the ocean, beyond the reach of any diver, in places no human has ever explored?

23 December 2025

The Australian fossil site that will change the world

Hidden beneath farmland in the central tablelands of New South Wales lies one of Australia’s most remarkable fossil sites, McGraths Flat, which dates back 11–16 million years into the time of the Miocene.

13 October 2025

Collecting Australia’s smallest snails: a punctid dot-to-dot across southern Australia

How do you look for one of Australia’s underdog species? Dr Isabel Hyman from the Australian Museum tells us about this search, which has spanned 40 days and 13,500 km of driving all around Australia.

20 August 2025

Advena campbellii, until recently feared to be extinct.

Homecoming! A journey from stress to success for Norfolk Island snails

It’s been five years since Norfolk Island local, Mark Scott, showed Malacologists from the Australian Museum a small living population of a snail species previously feared to be extinct. After a successful ex situ captive breeding program, scientists are bringing their descendants back home.

6 June 2025

A tiny cyclophorid snail on a leaf. Cyclophoroidea represent a group of snails that has colonized land independent from the true land snails, the Eupulmonata

Searching for snails across the Pacific, part 2: Tetepare

As part of a broader project to investigate the diversity of land snails across the Pacific Islands, a team of four Australian Museum researchers set foot on Tetepare in the Solomon Islands.

22 July 2025

Fish Fieldwork

Expeditions and fieldwork of the Ichthyology team

The discovery of an exceptional new fossil site offers a glimpse into Australia’s ancient rainforests

New fossil site offers unprecedented insight into Australian landscape, approximately 15 million years ago.

10 January 2022

Image of rainforests in Northeast NSW. Photographer: Chris Reid

The hunt for the not-so-elusive dung beetle

Last month, Dr Chris Reid and Aidan Runagall-McNaull arrived in Northeast NSW to determine the impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires on dung beetle populations. Now nearing the end of their fieldwork, there is some good news to report.

13 April 2021

The Upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) swimming in seagrass in Lake Macquarie, NSW in 2019.

Putting things the right way around: Identification and distribution of upside-down jellyfish

An AMF/AMRI Postgraduate award helped PhD student, Claire Rowe, provide answers on why upside-down jellyfish have recently appeared in Lake Macquarie, NSW. The search for answers led her to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts in Queensland.

8 July 2021

CSIRO research vessel Investigator at Fort Hill Wharf, Darwin, 27 June 2021.

All hands-on deck to discover the secrets of the Indian Ocean Territories

Five personnel from the Australian Museum Research Institute have embarked with a team of research scientists from around Australia on an expedition to explore deep-sea marine life around the Indian Ocean Territories.

1 July 2021

The Beam Trawl emerges from the deep – what will it bring up?

The quest for deep sea critters

Although the recent Indian Ocean Territories expedition has been suspended, we found many fascinating deep sea animals during our 19 days at sea. Dr Ingo Burghardt, AMRI scientist on board the CSIRO research vessel Investigator, shares the latest findings.

28 July 2021