Justice and Police Museum

What a fantastic museum! If you're a fan of dark history, crime, gangsters, and Bushmen, this museum is IDEAL. Great anecdotes about some of Australias dark history, as well as a well documented history of forensic science. Great guided tour, albeit brief.

Free museum with an incredible story about some underground history of Sydney 100+ years ago. Takes about 30-45 mins to explore. Can do this self-paced or there are tours 1130am or 230pm. Only open Sat and Sun. Was still in use until the 70’s with police families living upstairs. Recently watched the SBS doco ‘Death on a Staircase’ which inspired the visit here.

The Justice and Police Museum is centrally located within 5 minutes of circular quay and downtown. The room by room format offers an insight into the history of crime in Sydney and Australia. This museum relies heavily on text to deliver information, however employs a signficant amount of artifacts and photographs to help make following the stories more interesting and tangible. Throughout the museum are a variety of rooms adressing different topics such as famous criminals, object collections, legal proceedings and the role of law enforcement in criminal cases. Additionally, given this buildings historical uses as a court, the exhibits are integrated in the rooms giving a visual aid in imagining what the CJS may have felt like. Something to note; despite offering activites for kids (such as fingerprint registration) some of the photographs may not be appropriate for younger ages (bodies, gore, etc). Free entry as well as free guided tours twice a day which could provide more in depth information about the singificance of the building as well as the history preserved in the exhibits. Overall, defintely worth stopping by for a little hour. ps. the ladies working at the reception this afternoon (15.01.25) were so sweet and gave me plenty of help with my exploration of sydney so shoutout to them!

Fantastic FREE museum that gives insights in to criminals from the previous era as well as some knowledge of how the justice system operates even today with a full scale courtroom diorama reproduction. Lots of information to digest although not a big museum but easily 1-2 hours if you pay attention to all the stories which I did since they were fascinating.

Great place to pop in for an hour or so. Definitely worth catching the tour for a bit of context and understanding of the place. Great for history and true crime lovers.

Some interesting reading and stories of times past. Free entry, steps at entry with accessible entry to the side. There is very little parking close by.

Great Sydney museum, with free admission. Displays feature various aspects of crime and punishment in Sydney, with an emphasis on the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. Some "hands on" exhibits, including the safe cracking simulation. Also features many crime-scene photographs, some of these include images of deceased victims. Nothing overly gory, just something to be aware of.

A free-entry museum showcasing various criminal cases in Australia. It has plenty of interesting exhibits to see, and the staff are very friendly.

While visiting Sydney my friend wanted to come to this museum. Initially we found the hours online to be 7 days a week; however, when we arrived they are only open on weekends (Sat & Sun). It was interesting to see that it was the old jailhouse along with the cells from inmates. It seemed like it was lacking information or just didn't have enough information to satisfy any historian. On the plus side, it was free admission as it appears all Sydney museums are gratis. Employees were very friendly as well.

The museum is on the smaller side, and there isn't a days full of things to see or do, but for the price of admission, what there is there to see, and the location to other things in the area, it's a great place to go for 2-3 hours on a weekend. There are three different tours/activities that are lead by the staff and I would highly recommend taking the time out to do that to really get the full experience. One of them (my favorite) is an overview of facilities/history with a few famous crime stories tossed in. The guide will give you a history lesson of the station and court house and walk you through most of the areas of the museum, such as the cells, court house, and booking area and explain the significants of some of the artifacts that are on display. Another thing they do is put on a reenactment of a court case and use guests to fill the roles needed. As another reviewer pointed out, it probably not the best place for younger children. Some of the photos was really graphic. I was actually surprised at it. You would think they would post a warning before walking into a room with photos on the wall/slideshow playing of murders and dead bodies. If you've been there before, and knew your way around, you could navigate around those if you were with young children, or someone uncomfortable with seeing graphic material. There is a room full of old weapons in glass cases, which was interesting to see. Some of the old stories of how they preserved evidence really puts into perspective how far we have come with science and technology and collecting/preserving evidence. The one real quirky thing about the place is the sideshow that is playing with old photos. Some great historical photos, but several of them they have no idea why the photo was taken, who is in the photo, or even where exactly it was taken. The narrator is literally saying things like " no idea who this is", "photo of a man on a corner seems to be looking down the street", "group standing outside a store; something must have happened here", "no idea why this person was photographed". Just bizarre. It's not like they were amazing photos that needed to be displayed. Just random unknown photos. Overall great time. Worth the price of admission. History buff or just a law enforcement/justice fan you will enjoy your time here.

Was eager to visit here as it only opens wkds. A very well cared for museum and it is housed in part in an old police station. Provides details on Australia's past criminals and what went on in days gone by! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Police practices were streets ahead of their time. Only downside is there seems to be no chronological order to the displays if that was addressed by the curators it would really put it up there with Hyde Park Barracks I feel.

Meh. I love true crime and history and so I was looking forward to this Must say it is a well cared for museum but rather boring. Some weapons on display and only a handful of historically significant artefacts. The rest are placards and videos.

A smaller museum that is well cared for and has a lot of information. It you are interested in historical crime and police than this museum is for you. They have a lot of information on specific criminals, the Sydney police force and court system, as well as weapons. It was interesting to walk through and see the court room, a cell, a booking room, a room full of weapons, a room with tons of crime scene photos, and also countless panels on specific criminals. The staff were friendly and the museum was very well kept.

This museum is super cool if you like to see prison weapons like shanks and homemade pistols! Plus, you get to learn about the creepy crime cases of Australia!