The Koorie Heritage Trust is an Aboriginal owned and managed arts and culture not-for-profit incorporated association. Our location in the Yarra Building at Federation Square brings Koorie peoples, communities and culture from the literal and figurative fringes of Melbourne to a place at the centre of a contemporary and urban CBD.
Our aim is to promote and support the diversity of South East Australian Aboriginal peoples and celebrate our strong and continuing contemporary culture grounded in a 60,000 year old history. We do this by offering an authentic and immersive urban Aboriginal arts and cultural experience to our visitors in a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment.
Permanent Collection
The donation in the early 1980s of a grinding stone prompted the idea of creating a Keeping Place to preserve, protect and promote the Koorie cultural heritage of Victoria. In 1986 the Museum of Victoria provided the Trust with office and exhibition space and, in 1988, launched an exhibition on Koorie art and material culture. This exhibition was the impetus for purchasing a range of contemporary artworks and craft items.
At the heart of the Trust is our collection of artefacts, pictures (paintings and works on paper), photographs, documentary material, and oral history recordings. Our collection is unique because we focus solely on collecting the Koorie Aboriginal culture of south-eastern Australia.
getting to the gallery
Train
The closest Metro train station is Flinders Street Station.
Tram
If catching a tram, get off at any tram stops adjacent to Flinders Street Station.
By Car
There are numerous car parks in the vicinity including the Federation Square carpark.
accessibility
We are located over two levels. Our ground floor level, which contains our gift shop and exhibition gallery, is wheelchair accessible directly from Federation Square. To access our top floor space, which contains visible storage of our collection as well as public meeting rooms and a kitchenette, there are stairs, escalators and a lift. Please see our front of house staff if you need to use the lift. Disabled toilets are located on our top floor. There are ground floor toilets that are shared with other building tenants.
cafe & gallery shop
Cafe
A range of cafes and restaurants are available close to the Koorie Heritage Trust in Federation and around the Melbourne CBD.
Gallery Shop
shop KOORIE
At shop KOORIE, we are Koorie, Unique, and Community. All our stock are designed and/or crafted in South East Australia by our Koorie artists and craftspeople as well as our broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who call the South East of Australia home. Buying from us, you are purchasing an authentic and unique product. Our shop is also an integrated part of our educational experience. It is another opportunity for visitors to learn of the uniqueness of South East Australian Aboriginal peoples, cultures and communities. Our product range reflects Koorie peoples and communities as diverse, contemporary and strong moving forward into the 21st century with confidence and ambition but at the same time grounded in a 60,000 year old history.
