Adam Gilmour

Adam Gilmour has always had a passion for space.

As a child, he loved playing with his toy rockets and robots, and watching the Star Wars movies. His imagination was captured by the achievements of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States, especially the Apollo missions to the moon, and the Skylab mission (the first space station launched by NASA, in 1973). To Adam, it seemed inevitable that by the time he grew up, people would have populated space, and he felt sure he would be up there, too.

Adam’s career took him into the banking industry, where he had a successful career for 20 years, working in Singapore. But the lure of space persisted, especially as the field of space exploration continued to advance, with a focus on experimental rockets for travel to other planets. With those childhood dreams still unfulfilled, Adam decided to take one giant leap into the world of space rockets!

Although not an aerospace engineer by training, Adam began educating himself, reading more than 100 books and 500 papers on all things related to rocket design. In 2015, he launched Gilmour Space Technologies (now Gilmour Space), which quickly became the leading space rocket company in Australia. Surrounding himself with a team of scientists, engineers, astrophysicists and space enthusiasts, Adam is pushing boundaries with his hybrid propulsion technology, and finding innovative solutions for rocket designs and testing, including using 3D-printed materials and fuel! With no rocket-launching facility in Australia, Adam’s team came up with a unique solution: they constructed a mobile rocket launcher on the back of a truck, which can be driven into the remote Queensland bush to conduct rocket trials.

Adam dreams of achieving permanent human settlement across the galaxy, and hopes one day to visit the moon – just a quick seven-day round trip. (Mars might be a little too far to go – it’d take about two years to get there and back.) He also hopes that during his lifetime he’ll see the design of a spaceship capable of travelling to a nearby star.

So what would be Adam’s dream vehicle to travel around space? An intergalactic motorhome! (Pressurised and with a supply of oxygen, obviously, to handle the conditions of space …)

Girl with superimposed illustration of aeroplane and clouds.
Past exhibition

On the move

An interactive transport world created in collaboration with illustrator James Gulliver Hancock

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Mel Flyte

Mel Flyte

Collections Discovery Assistant, Caroline Simpson Library

Growing up in rural NSW, Mel’s childhood was spent undertaking her own archaeological excavations in the creek bed on her family’s property. Old bottles, cow bones, and the occasional piece of rusty farm equipment were all considered exciting discoveries. School holidays were punctuated with long car trips with her mum to see blockbuster exhibitions in Canberra and Sydney, so galleries and museums always felt familiar. Studies in archaeology and art history have inspired a passion for objects and their ability to elicit emotions and tell stories. Mel curated the exhibtion On The Move and relishes the opportunity to get hands-on with the treasures in our collections.

Campaign photos for Cutter and Coota, featuring a performer dressed in a possum skin cloak posing within the grounds of the Hyde Park Barracks.

Cutter and Coota: a children’s play by Bruce Pascoe

Meet author and historian Bruce Pascoe and the main characters from his play Cutter and Coota as they reflect on the play’s themes and the experience of performing at the Hyde Park Barracks

Sydney Opera House Barbie doll

An icon wearing an icon: Sydney Opera House Barbie

Stepping away from her signature pink, Barbie honours the Sydney Opera House with more subtle tones in her gown, that reflect the Opera House and its Harbourside location

Children collecting mail at the letterbox

NSW Correspondence School

These photos show the NSW State Correspondence School, Blackfriars. It began in early 1916 for children living in remote and country areas

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Activities

How to make Christmas ornaments

Get crafty this Christmas with some homemade ornaments for your tree