Top Things to Do with 0-5 Year Olds at Melbourne Museum

If you're visiting Melbourne Museum with little ones aged 0 to 5, you're in for a fun-filled day of discovery, play, and wonder. From hands-on exhibits designed just for toddlers to sensory-rich spaces that spark curiosity, the museum offers plenty to keep little minds and bodies engaged. 

Whether they’re digging for fossils, exploring bugs, or walking through a living, breathing rainforest, there’s something magical around every corner for your youngest adventurers. Plus, kids 16 and under get free general admission to Melbourne Museum.

Top Things to Do with 0-5 Year Olds at Melbourne Museum

1. Meet Horridus at Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs

Look, kids, it’s a real dinosaur! Horridus offers a rare encounter with one of Earth’s most awe-inspiring creatures - Horridus is the most complete Triceratops in the world. The Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs exhibition gets you up close and personal to this finely preserved Triceratops. Walk around the skeleton, view it from multiple levels, and dive into the ancient world it inhabited. Unearthed after 67 million years, this exhibit has been dubbed the ‘Mona Lisa of fossils’, so get your camera ready and go!

The exhibition brings prehistoric giants to life for even the tiniest visitors! Wander through the Dinosaur Walk alongside 13 towering skeletons, including the Diprotodon, the largest marsupial ever to live, and the Megalania, Australia’s largest lizard, then head outside to explore the Gandel Gondwana Garden, an outdoor palaeontological gallery that lets little ones step into the land before time.

2. Tiny Tours

Little ones and their grown-ups are invited to dive into a world of curiosity, creativity, and hands-on learning with Melbourne Museum's Tiny Tours. Designed for children ages 3 to 5, these guided adventures include clue hunts, tactile exploration, and storytelling tailored to spark curiosity and encourage discovery.

Explore the incredible world of insects and uncover how these little legends help put food on your plate at the fun-filled Ant to Apple Tiny Tours, or set off on an adventure to uncover how the tiniest details can unlock the biggest stories from the past on the Whale to Tail Tiny Tours. General Museum entry is included in the price of a tour.

3. Forest Gallery

Visit a living rainforest in our very own city! Step through the glass doors into a cool temperate rainforest habitat, complete with tall eucalyptus, ferns, rare native plants, misty air, and the earthy scent of damp forest.

Forest Gallery offers a deeply sensory journey - from sights and sounds to smells and atmosphere, connecting you to Victoria’s diverse natural heritage. And, just like a real forest, the Museum shifts with the seasons: see flowers blossom, fungi fruit, birds nest, and berries ripen.

A tip for keen little bird watchers: try and spot the Satin Bowerbird dancing in his bower decorated with blue objects.

4. Dino Days

If Horridus is a little too 'prehistoric' for your under-5s, try this special dino‑themed adventure for little ones.

Dino Days at Melbourne Museum is a weekly early‑years event designed to spark curiosity, imagination, and dino-themed fun!

Dino Disco (11 am & 1 pm): A playful movement experience. Break open a dinosaur egg, reach for leaves, stomp through the forest, and stretch out your wings like a flying dino!

Sensory Soft Play (10 am - 2 pm): Explore dinosaur-themed landscapes in a safe, tactile soft play zone. Great for imaginative play and sensory exploration.

Dinosaur Tails (10 am - 2 pm): Dress up like a dinosaur by borrowing a tail and roam among the activities.

Triceratops Tales (10 am & 12 pm): Storytime for young audiences featuring the adventures of Horridus and the Hidden Valley.

All activities are included with entry. Every Wednesday, 10 am to 2 pm.

5. Bugs Alive

Whether you’re fascinated or face a fear of bugs, this immersive exhibit offers a fresh perspective on these tiny but mighty creatures. Did you know there are over 150 million insects for every human on Earth? Scratch the surface and see just a fraction of these on display at one of the Museum’s most popular exhibits.

Bugs Alive features vibrant walls of pinned specimens, including beetles, butterflies, and more - alongside naturalistic enclosures housing live insects, spiders, snails, and other invertebrates. Don’t miss the exotic tarantulas and home-grown redback spiders, too. This is one exhibition you will be happy not to take home!

6. Milarri Garden Trail

Step outside and into a serene, Indigenous-designed space offering a rich cultural and natural experience. Nestled within the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, the Milarri Garden Trail is a self-guided pathway that showcases native plants traditionally used for food, medicine, tools, and fibre by the First Nations peoples of southeastern Australia.

On this family trail, you can explore sculpture, a cave with traditional paintings, and live animals. Don’t miss the eel feeding presentations at the Milarri Pond (daily at 1:45 pm - excluding winter).

7. The Pauline Gandel Children's Gallery

The Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery is an absolute wonderland for little ones. Specifically designed for babies to 5-year-olds, the Gallery is a vibrant, interactive space for play and learning.

Mini explorers can dig for dinosaur fossils in the outdoor sandpits, climb through a floor-to-ceiling net playground, or boogie their hearts out at the camouflage disco. Explore the discovery garden, filled with plants and stories to explore, and marvel at specially selected museum objects displayed at child-friendly heights. The gallery’s mix of hands-on activities, open-ended play and immersive environments encourages children to move, think and create.

Where:    Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson St, Carlton
When:     Daily | 9 am -5 pm
Cost:      Adult $15; Seniors $10; Children up to 16 years FREE

Find out more and book your visit to Melbourne Museum.

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