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and win the chance to swim with Whale Sharks at Ningaloo Reef

The Australian Museum and Stockland partner to tour Shark throughout

NSW and Queensland shopping centres

Sydney, 13 February, 2020: There are few creatures that inspire as much fascination – and fear – as sharks. The Australian Museum has partnered with Stockland to bring a unique display of life-sized shark models, real and replica shark jaws and teeth for visitors to explore up close.

Touring to four Stockland retail centres from February to May – Stockland Shellharbour NSW, Stockland Wetherill Park NSW, Stockland Burleigh Heads QLD and Stockland Hervey Bay QLD – visitors will be able to view life-sized models, touch the skin of a Shortfin Mako shark, and take selfies through a set of huge replica megalodon shark jaws.

Visitors will also have an opportunity to enter a competition to win a $10,000 holiday swimming with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia.

Director and CEO, Australian Museum, Kim McKay AO said sharks, and their cousins, have been around for 400 million years and yet we still have much to learn about them.

“To look at a shark is to see a great example of evolutionary success. Whether they are disguising themselves on the reef floor or swimming at 70 km per hour after a school of fish, sharks are perfectly adapted to their environment,” McKay said.

“We are pleased to partner once again with Stockland touring these new displays of replica specimens, providing the opportunity to learn and appreciate the invaluable role that sharks play in our oceans,” McKay added.

Michelle Abbey, GM of Retail, Stockland, said: “We’re thrilled to once again work with the Australian Museum to bring such a fun and educational offering to customers at our centres across New South Wales and Queensland.”

“It’s all part of our commitment to curating exciting, memorable and meaningful experiences for our customers.”

The display features the real jaws of a Shortfin Mako – often referred to as the Great White Shark’s ‘athletic’ cousin, real shark skin, replicas of Greynurse and Bull Sharks, plus life-sized replica jaws and a fossilised tooth from the ancient megalodon shark which grew up to 18 metres in length.

AM’s palaeontologist, Dr. Matt McCurry, said that the megalodon (who lived 10 million years ago) would have dwarfed even the Whale Shark in size.

“The ancient megalodon was the largest shark to have cruised the world’s oceans, and like modern sharks, the megalodon skeleton was made of cartilage, but its fossilised teeth have survived the test of time,” McCurry said.

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