Visiting
General Public Visits
The Museum of Human Disease welcomes members of the public for self-guided exploration of our collection, featuring approximately 1,500 preserved human tissues and organs. These specimens represent a wide range of diseases and medical conditions, providing valuable insights into human health, pathology, and medical history.
Visitors receive a printed guide highlighting key specimens and stories from the collection, offering context on both medical and social aspects of disease. The experience is supported by interpretive displays, educational posters, and knowledgeable staff who are available to answer questions and help deepen your understanding.Things to consider before your visit
We encourage all visitors to approach the Museum with respect and an open mind. The human tissues on display were generously donated for the purpose of education and understanding.
Please be aware of the following:
Some individuals, including children and people from certain cultural or spiritual backgrounds, may find the display of real human tissue challenging. We recommend considering the suitability of the content before visiting.
Photography is not permitted inside the Museum, in respect for the human donations on display.
No food or drinks are allowed inside the Museum.
- A map of the museum can be found here.
School Excursions
The Museum of Human Disease welcomes thousands of high school students each year for engaging, curriculum-aligned excursion programs. Developed by our experience team, our programs support a range of syllabus outcomes and are tailored to suit different year levels.
If you are planning a visit for a year group not currently listed in our program offerings, please contact our team — we’re happy to help find the most suitable option for your students.
Maximum group size: 75 students per session. Larger cohorts can be accommodated across multiple sessions.
Learning Resources
Once your booking is confirmed, we will provide PDF worksheets for students to complete during their visit, along with teacher answer sheets and guidance to support learning outcomes.
Program Format
Each excursion begins with a 25–45 minute interactive presentation delivered by our experienced museum staff. These sessions actively involve students, introduce key concepts in health and disease, and prepare them for their museum investigation.
Following the presentation, students explore the Museum’s unique human tissue collection through structured activities such as quizzes, guided research tasks, or themed activity stations. These experiences are designed to deepen understanding of disease, public health, and the human body, while encouraging respectful engagement with the generous body donations that make this learning possible.
Descriptions of each program and activity can be found below.
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Hereditary and Genetic Change - This 25 minute presentation revises the fundamentals of genetics, including nomenclature, transcription, translation and the nature of inheritance. Inside the Museum, the students will work their way through 8 stations which focus on various topics, including inheritance, mutations, CRISPR and DNA plasmid design.
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Infectious and Non-Infectious Disease - This 45 minute presentation covers three key disease processes, cirrhosis (alcohol and viral hepatitis induced cirrhosis), atherosclerosis (smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise induced) and tuberculosis (bacterial infection). Inside the Museum, students work through 24 multiple choice, short response and extended case-based questions. These questions focus on pathogens, adaptations of pathogens, epidemiology and public health.
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Our Depth Study Primer program is designed to help your students gather information for their Depth Study assessment, and is flexible enough to complement most assessment types.ÌýThis 45-minute presentation covers how disease is defined and how we research it. This includes a discussion on why we often use primary sources when researching disease, as well as the present dilemma with unreliable primary literature due to the rise of predatory journals. We also go through some of the technical terms they will come across when researching disease to make sure students are well equipped to conduct their in-depth research of a particular disease in the Museum.
Inside the Museum students are given the freedom to pick a disease, case or organ to begin learning and researching these as they fill out their worksheet. We provide case histories, macroscopic descriptions and pathology knowledge to ensure students find a topic they are genuinely interested in and have the capacity to do some in-depth research into it at the Museum.
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Our Health & Movement Science program supports Stage 6 outcomes through a 45-minute interactive presentation exploring how landmark research into smoking and lung cancer shaped Australian public health. Students then investigate real case studies in the Museum's preserved human tissue collection, using curriculum-linked worksheets to explore morbidity, mortality, risk factors, and health promotion. This hands-on experience brings syllabus content to life, helping students engage with real data, analyse trends, and make meaningful connections between epidemiology and lived experience.
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This program covers areas within modules 5, 7 and 8 of the Investigating Science Syllabus. In the 30-minute presentation we cover research ethics, including the history, current practices and dilemmas facing research ethics in science, as well as evaluating primary and secondary sources, predatory journals and sample bias and sample size issues in science. Inside the Museum, students work through multiple choice, short response and extended critical thinking questions that are all linked to the syllabus. These questions focus on medical technology, peptic ulcer disease, vaccination, the scientific process, ethics and inflammation.
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Infectious and Non-Infectious Disease and the History of Medicine - This 45-minute presentation focuses on the changes in medicine throughout history. This includes discussions on the use of leeches and trepanning, trends in disease over time and our understanding of how to control disease. Inside the Museum students work through a range of multiple choice and short response questions focusing on the history of disease, our changing understanding of disease and hygiene.
Programs and Events
Please sign up to our Newsletter mailing list below to hear announcements about upcoming events such as Brain Awareness Week and The Day of Immunology.
Visiting
Opening hours
Mon-Fri: 10am - 4pm
Sat-Sun: Closed
Public holidays: Closed
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Prices
Adults - $10
Child - $5
Concession - $5
Include senior card, commonwealth pension cards, student cards.
Teachers & ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç staff and students - Free
Find us here
Ground Floor Samuels Building ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼÇ, Sydney NSW 2052
Contact us
Email:Ìýdiseasemuseum@unsw.edu.au
Phone: 02 9065 0330
Educational visits
Price per student
2-hour session - $13
One program of your choosingÌý
4-hour session - $21
Two programs of your choosing
Teachers & Support staff - Free
Book an excursion
Book a visit to the museum for your class now.