[3] The museum profiles 50,000 years of Indigenous heritage, settlement since 1788 and key events including Federation and the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

It holds the world's largest collection of Aboriginal bark paintings and stone tools, the heart of champion racehorse Phar Lap and the Holden prototype No.

[5] The National Museum of Australia Press publishes a wide range of books, catalogues and journals.

[6] The museum's innovative use of new technologies has been central to its growing international reputation in outreach programming, particularly with regional communities.

The peninsula on Lake Burley Griffin was previously the home of the Royal Canberra Hospital, which was demolished in tragic circumstances on 13 July 1997.

Known as the "Uluru Axis" because it aligns with the central Australian natural landmark, the ribbon symbolically integrates the site with the Canberra city plan by Walter Burley Griffin and the spiritual heart of indigenous Australia.

The entirely non-symmetrical complex is designed to not look like a museum, with startling colours and angles, unusual spaces and unpredictable projections and textures.

[15] Art critic Christopher Allen described it as "undoubtedly the ugliest example of official architecture in Australia... a painful example of inept, clumsy and gratuitous form justified by kitsch symbolism".

[16] A severe thunderstorm hit Canberra on the afternoon of 29 December 2006 and caused roof damage to the administration section of the museum.

[28] It is involved in projects to return the remains of indigenous Australians, held in the collections of museums across the world, to their communities of origin.

[30] The exhibition included a huge painting called Yarrkalpa — Hunting Ground, which symbolically depicts the area around Parnngurr in Western Australia, showing the seasons, cultural burning practices and Indigenous management of the land and natural resources.

[needs update][31] Other past exhibitions include:[32] In the annual Australian Tourism Awards, the National Museum was named Australia's Major Tourist Attraction in both 2005 and 2006.

[39] The museum was named winner of the Canberra and Capital Region's Tourism Award for Major Tourist Attraction five years running from 2003 to 2007.