Animals

Child exploring the How to Move a Zoo exhibition.

About How to Move a Zoo

During the summer of 2021–22 this exhibition showed how hundreds of animals journeyed across the city to their new home at Taronga Zoological Park in 1916

Children's nursery

Animals in our Houses

A Parade of Animals in Nurseries, with Michael Lech

Wallpaper, c1888

Dick Whittington and his cat

The tall tale of Dick Whittington and his adventurous cat reminded children that good deeds and generosity will ultimately lead to great fortune

The Regent, New South Wales 1819, R. Browne pinxt, no.27 Philip Street, Sydney / Richard Browne

From the collection: Richard Browne watercolours

A Dublin-born convict artist, Richard Browne spent most of his seven-year sentence at the secondary penal settlement of Newcastle. In 1812–13 he was commissioned to make a series of drawings to illustrate a planned natural history publication

Taronga Zoo

History of Taronga Zoo

Can you imagine Sydney Harbour without Taronga Zoo perched on Bradley’s Head at Mosman? For one hundred years families have been making the trip by ferry, tram and car to see the exotic and native animals at Taronga and get a picturesque view of the harbour

Jessie the elephant

More than any other zoo animal, Jessie the elephant captured the hearts of Sydneysiders, delighting visitors at Moore Park Zoo and then Taronga for more than 50 years

Illustration of man on horse.

Lennie Gwyther

Lennie ‘the Legend’ Gwyther spent his childhood running around the foothills of Leongatha in country Victoria with his four younger siblings and his prize-winning pony, Ginger Mick

Black and white photo of greyhound on leash being held by man, whose coat and trousers are all that is visible.

Runaway Joe – a dog with many aliases 

In the late 1940s, three swindlers targeted country greyhound races with a ‘ring-in’ scam that netted them a fortune and forced officials to reassess how they verified a dog’s identity

The story of how to move a zoo

In the early hours of Sunday, 24 September 1916, an elephant named Jessie walked out through the gates of the Zoological Gardens at Moore Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and began an extraordinary journey through the city