Museum of Fire

Given the Museum of Fire’s almost wilfully oblique name, many will have little idea of what to expect from this niche museum as they’re waved off by smiling front desk staff. Well, be prepared for a full frontal assault of super-eerie life-sized dioramas illustrating the horrors of home fires. They don’t hold back – we’re talking flame-blackened bedrooms, shredded curtains, melted appliances on gloriously ’80s retro fit-outs, and even burnt dolls and teddy bears to really drive fear into the depths of the heart. Each exhibit is peppered with urgent all-caps signs blaring ‘KEEP CURTAINS SECURED AND AWAY FROM COOKING APPLIANCES’ and ‘IT TOOK 12 SECONDS FOR THIS SET OF PYJAMAS TO BURN’. If you can fight through the urge to rush home and check you’ve turned off the stove, the rest of the museum swaps trauma for awe, with an extensive collection of historical fire trucks. There are some seriously regal vehicles here, stretching as far back as horse-drawn fire carts from the 1800s. They’ve also amassed a catalogue of ornate brass helmets and uniforms from Australian firefighting history, plus bushfire tankers used during the war, and (if you’re a real emergency services nerd) you can flick through district station records from the last 100 years.