Get the latest exhibition, events and programming activities at Queensland Museum Kurilpa every month, with our free eNews straight to your inbox!
Collection Loans
We lend material to community, regional, state, national and international institutions and organisations for the purposes of display, interpretation and research. See our FAQs below for details of how to borrow from Queensland Museum’s vast collections.
Update to QM Collections & Research Centre (CRC), Hendra - facility expansion and upgrade
Collection care is an ongoing priority for Queensland Museum, as is ensuring access to the invaluable cultural objects and geological specimens for First Nations, critical scientific study and public display.
From February 2022 until early 2025, there will be temporary access changes to part of the Queensland Museum collection in order to design and construct high-tech clean rooms, and facilitate major infrastructure improvements across our collection storage facilities at Hendra which will impact access to our collections and objects for research and loan purposes.
Loans of objects and specimens for research or exhibitions, from the main collection area at the QM Collections & Research Centre (CRC), Hendra, will be halted during this period and we are unable to host visitors and researchers in the main collection area during this time (i.e. service requests from the community to access collections).
As you may know, our collection items are used by researchers globally to address questions concerning biodiversity, conservation, geosciences, as well societal and cultural change. To maintain and extend this position it is vital to be at the forefront of international standards around how we care for and preserve these items for future generations. As such, we appreciate your understanding and patience during this necessary closure.
Our collections at Queensland Museum South Bank, the Queensland Museum Tropics in Townsville, Queensland Museum Cobb+Co at Toowoomba, and Queensland Museum Rail Workshops at Ipswich will be operating with business as usual throughout this period, and our Education Loans program will continue to operate across the state.
FAQs
Whether you want to borrow collection items for an exhibition or for research purposes follows these steps:
- Contact relevant curator to discuss possible loan material.
- Make a formal loan request to Chief Executive Officer.
- QM Collection staff will send either a Facility Report (international or large national institutions, large city or regional councils) or Venue Report (small regional institutions, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community groups and keeping places) for completion and return.
- The information from your discussions with the relevant curator and your responses to the Facilities or venue reports will be taken into consideration in assessing your loan request.
- If agreement is reached to lend the requested material, QM Collection staff will send an Outward Loan Agreement, which must be signed and returned.
- Objects will be despatched with an Outgoing Receipt which must be signed and returned.
- Exhibition Loans are made for a maximum of 12 months and Research Loans for a maximum of 3 years, however, extensions may be negotiated.
- The museum requires 12 months' notice to process a formal loan request.
- 8 weeks' notice is required for a loan extension request.
Institutions that have not borrowed material from Queensland Museum in the previous 12 months are required to provide a Facilities Report or Venue Report that includes details of:
- environmental conditions
- evidence of insurance
- venue security
- display plan
- staffing.
The Borrower is responsible for all costs associated with the loan, which may include:
- specialised conservation treatments
- packaging materials
- administrative loan fee
- transport costs
- courier costs to and from venue (e.g. flights, accommodation, expenses)
- ‘door to door’ insurance for entire period of loan.
Loans are subject to approval based on curatorial, conservation and collection management advice.
Loan requests may be declined if:
- materials are required elsewhere
- objects are too fragile or valuable
- cultural protocol precludes loan or display
- materials are undergoing long-term conservation
- the request cannot be accommodated in the available timeframe
- the applicant fails (or has previously failed) to meet all conditions and requirements of the loan agreement.
You might be interested
Queensland Museum Collection
Find out about our cultural and natural collections and explore thousands of specimens and artefacts online.
Donate to the collection
Donating objects and specimens to the Queensland Museum collection is one way you can help us to continue telling rich and fascinating stories of Queensland’s cultural and natural heritage.
Collections Online
Over 10,000 items of our cultural collection and over 1 million specimens are now accessible online for free.