The Bunurong Environment Centre
Welcome to the Bunurong Environment Centre
The Bunurong Environment Centre is an excellent starting point to learn more about environmental issues affecting the Bunurong Coast and South Gippsland generally. You will discover a wonderful range of resources to help you understand critical problems affecting our local environs, free leaflets on local attractions and interests and a great collection of books and gifts for children and adults.
The Centre is home to a world-class Shell Museum and the Discovery Room has dinosaur fossils and hands-on play tables to help explain the era of dinosaurs that once lived in the area. Outside you can measure your wingspan at the famous Albatross Seat.
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Opening Hours
10:00am - 4:00pm Every day
Closed Christmas Day
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Phone: 03 5674 3738
Email: info@sgcs.org.au
Location: Corner of Ramsey Blvd & Esplanade, Inverloch VIC 3996
Shop
Visit our shop for a diverse range of beautiful, educational, and practical homewares, gifts and books.
Explore toys, books, and science kits for children, gardening books for enthusiasts, and sustainable living resources. Enhance your home with homewares, including scents, teas, and candles. Discover Australian art, ceramics, crafts, and unique gifts, along with postcards, notebooks, DVDs, and CDs.
We also offer practical items like trail maps, local information, water bottles, and backpacks. Find something special for yourself or a loved one in our store.
Discovery Room
The Discovery Room is a welcoming space for learning more about the unique plants, animals, ecology, geology and fossils of the Bunurong Coast.
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The Discovery Room presents environmental videos and posters, dinosaur fossils, archeological exhibits and hands-on touch tables. It also provides toys and painting projects, and offers much to enthrall and educate children while parents browse the shop, Shell Museum or other exhibits.
Shell Museum
The Inverloch Shell Museum contains one of the world’s best displays of shells, with over 6,000 specimens on display including many local varieties. Entry is $2 per person (children under 5 are free) and funds are used for the maintenance and improvement of the museum.
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Inverloch Shell Museum History
Jack Lewis began his search for rare and unusual shells in the 1960s and by 1970 had built a collection of such scale and quality that in 1972 he opened his home for the enjoyment of the public. One of the finest shell collections in Australia, and rivalling many in major museums, “Jack’s Shell House” soon became a popular attraction in Inverloch and remained so for nearly 10 years.
After his death, the collection was acquired in 1981 by the “Jack Lewis Shell Collection Trust” on behalf of the Inverloch community so that the collection could be secured and maintained on public display.
In 1989, the Trust purchased the Drysdale Collection, doubling the size of the existing collection and in 1990, Noel and Betty Hope of Preston, collectors for more than 50 years, donated their collection to the Trust.
In 1992, the Trust handed control of the collection to the Shire of Woorayl (now Bass Coast Shire).
The Shell Museum is now considered one of the world's best shell collections, with over 6000 on display. The collection includes specimens from across Australia and is constantly reviewed and updated by local members of the Malacological Society of Australia.
