Museum of Old and New Art (Australia) – Location, Geography, Facts

Museum of Old and New Art is a private museum in Australia that presents a mixed collection of antiquities and contemporary works.

Museum of Old and New Art, Australia.

Country: Australia
Coordinates: 42.8128° S, 147.2610° E

Museum of Old and New Art overview

Museum of Old and New Art is a private museum in Australia that presents a mixed collection of antiquities and contemporary works. It is located on the Moorilla estate on the River Derwent near Hobart in Tasmania, establishing a specific institutional footprint within a winery landscape. The museum derives from the private collection of founder David Walsh and operates as a purpose-built, privately funded cultural institution with a subterranean gallery complex.

Museum of Old and New Art coordinates

Museum of Old and New Art is commonly mapped at approximately 42.8128° S, 147.2610° E, or -42.8128, 147.2610 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 42.8128° S, 147.2610° E

Decimal: -42.8128, 147.2610

Where Museum of Old and New Art is located

It sits on the western shore of the River Derwent, north of Hobart’s central business district within the Moorilla property. The site occupies a river-facing hill above a vineyard and winery complex, with galleries arranged into the slope that meets the estuary. The local administrative context places the campus inside greater Hobart municipal boundaries in Tasmania, making the estate a distinct cultural precinct within the city’s northern suburbs.

Why Museum of Old and New Art is important

The museum matters for combining ancient artifacts with contemporary and conceptual art within a single collecting logic assembled by one collector. Its curatorial practice deliberately juxtaposes objects from disparate periods, producing dialogues not typical of public institutional displays. The institution is also known for an interpretive system that presents artwork context through personal electronic commentary, and for a collection-development model driven by private acquisition rather than public acquisition mandates.

History of Museum of Old and New Art

The Museum of Old and New Art developed from the accumulation of a private collection assembled at Moorilla, converted into a dedicated museum campus on the estate. Founding activity centered on relocating and enlarging the collection into a purpose-built complex carved into the river-facing hillside. The project reframed an existing winery landscape into an art campus and sparked national discussion about private museums, curatorial independence, and the role of non-state funding in Australia’s cultural infrastructure.

Natural features of Museum of Old and New Art

The complex is principally subterranean, organized as interlinked galleries cut into sandstone and reinforced concrete, producing a low-profile appearance from the hillside. Interior volumes vary from intimate rooms for smaller works to expansive vaults for large installations, and exposed stone surfaces remain a prominent architectural motif. The design emphasizes raw materials and engineered cuttings in the bedrock, creating a distinctive interface between constructed spaces and the river-facing natural escarpment.

Environment, protection, and monitoring of Museum of Old and New Art

Governance relies on private institutional structures established by the founding collection, with operational oversight focused on collection care, conservation, and campus maintenance. The estate setting places the museum within the River Derwent estuarine environment and a managed vineyard landscape, requiring coordination between cultural stewardship and land management practices. Professional conservation and collection management systems underpin long-term preservation of artworks and built fabric within the museum’s purpose-built subterranean conditions.

Museum of Old and New Art facts

The museum originated from the private collection assembled by Australian collector David Walsh on the Moorilla estate. The campus occupies a river-facing hillside above the River Derwent in the northern Hobart suburbs. The collection deliberately places antiquities and contemporary artworks in adjacent galleries to provoke curatorial comparison. Galleries are largely cut into sandstone and concrete, producing a subterranean architecture that remains visible as exposed stone internally. The institution operates as a privately funded museum established on a working winery property.

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