Kett Optometry Museum entrance featuring a welcome sign and colourful vintage eye baths.
A vintage optometry consulting room with a classic desk, a chair, and other period furnishings and clinical equipment.
A museum display featuring a variety of historical spectacles and optical artefacts with explanatory signage.
The entrance of an imposing building with bold columns and steps leading up to the doors.
A bright stairway inside a building, with carpeted steps and a metal handrail, connecting different levels of the building.

Kett Optometry Museum of the Australian College of Optometry

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Architect/Designer: Reid Partnership Pty Ltd (architecture) 1985, Thylacine Design (museum) 2019

Description

The Kett Optometry Museum is a contemporary, extensive gallery designed by Thylacine. It tells the story of the historical development of optometry from early spectacle-making to the science-based profession of today. It highlights the roles of some of the people involved in the advancement of optometry in Melbourne.

The Australian College of Optometry provides public health optometry services as ACO Eye Health, offers best practice education for optometrists, and undertakes internationally recognised research to improve the understanding of vision science and eye care.

The Carlton home of the Australian College of Optometry was designed by the Reid Partnership in 1985 to bring together a number of disparate buildings by using former laneways between the buildings as the basis for multi-level internal pedestrian spines. The building is named after Barry Cole, who played a very significant role in the history of the ACO.

What's On

Join a guided tour of the gallery of the Kett Optometry Museum and the Australian College of Optometry building. Visitors will be introduced to the stories of individuals who pioneered optometry in Melbourne. They will see a collection of historic spectacles, a recreated 1930s optometrist’s consulting room and many examples of early clinical equipment.

Images: (1) Eye bath welcome wall. (2) 1930s consulting room. (3) Spectacles display. (4) ACO building exterior. (5) ACO building atrium. All photos: Australian College of Optometry.

Important Details

Tour/event summary information

Saturday 25 July + Sunday 26 July
Tours run 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm + 3pm
Running for 60 minutes in groups of 10

Bookings

Bookings required—$7 booking fee applies
First release tickets: 12pm Wednesday 1 July
Second release tickets: 10am Saturday 4 July

Book

Meeting Point

Meet at the corner of Cardigan and Keppel Streets in Carlton.

Accessibility

Lift access to all public levels, Ramp or level (step free) entry, Accessible bathrooms, All-gender bathrooms, Level access tram stop, Quiet or sensory rooms, Assistance animals welcome, All ages

Accessible bathroom available on ground floor only.

Location

374 Cardigan St, Carlton VIC 3053

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country

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