At the heart of Melbourne Museum is the Forest gallery—a piece of Victoria's mountain landscape complete with tall eucalypts, ferns, rare plants and wildlife. Behind the glass doors, you’ll experience the misty air and damp earth of the forest, walk beneath tall trees and hear birdsong you won't hear anywhere else in the city.

Along the way, look for the Forest gallery's animal residents from native fish and spiny crayfish in the creek, to tiny wrens that flit among the bushes. Somewhere up above is a Tawny Frogmouth. And if you're lucky, you'll see the Satin Bowerbird dancing in his bower decorated with blue objects.

Just like a real forest, the Forest gallery changes through the seasons as birds nest, flowers bloom, fungi fruit and berries ripen. A lone chimney rebuilt here after the 2009 Black Saturday fires stands as a symbol of bushfire – a destructive force, but one that is also essential to regenerating the forest.