Australian Institute of Anatomy

Australian Capital Territory, Australia

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

The Australian Institute of Anatomy was a natural history museum and medical research institute established in Acton, Canberra, in October 1931, following the relocation of the National Museum of Australian Zoology from Melbourne. Designed in the Art Deco style, the building served dual purposes: preserving records of Australia's native animals and conducting human nutrition research, while also housing material belonging to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. The institute's origins traced to Colin Mackenzie's Australian Institute of Anatomical Research, founded in 1919 to document fauna he believed faced extinction. After the National Museum of Australia inherited the institute's collections in 1980, the National Film and Sound Archive moved into the heritage-listed building in October 1984. The institute was disbanded in December 1985, though the building itself, added to the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004, continued in use.