Robot rings in Phar Lap trifecta
FollowFor the first time, the body of Australia’s most famous racehorse Phar Lap will be brought together virtually using CSIRO’s Museum Robot at the National Museum of Australia.
For many years Australia’s most famous horse has been in pieces. Phar Lap’s heart — currently preserved in a jar of formaldehyde – is at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra, his hide is in the Melbourne Museum, and his skeleton is at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Today, students from three schools in Willunga, South Australia, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria and Townsville, Queensland will have the chance to see the legendary horse’s heart and hide and skeleton at the same time, while speaking to museum experts about the three exhibits. And they won’t even have to leave the classroom.
The students will be led by an expert guide from the NMA, through CSIRO’s museum robot. Logging in through their classroom smart board or local library computers, students will control their own unique view using the 360 degree panoramic camera on the robot’s head and can click on items in the exhibit to bring up images and more information.
“While the classroom sweep can be a bit of fun on Melbourne Cup day, we are giving students a much richer cultural and educational experience that they’ll hopefully remember for a long time,