Scienceworks Winter Holidays: Free Entry, Colour Workshops

Kids 16 and under get in free at Scienceworks these winter school holidays. A new interactive exhibition called ‘Colour: See the World in a New Light’ comes with free holiday-only workshops you won’t find any other time of year. There is a free rainbow scavenger hunt, and the outdoor amphitheatre shows are free too.

The full program runs daily from 10am to 4:30pm, Saturday 27 June to Sunday 12 July, and it lands just as the colour exhibition opens its doors for the first time. Entry prices barely shift the household budget: adults $15, seniors $12, and children 16 and under get in for free. Concession entry is free as well.

Colour is not about painting walls. The exhibition explores how light, vision, and perception create the colours we see, and during the holidays only you can book into free Colour Workshops that let kids play with light, shadows, and optical illusions in a hands-on, sensory space. The exhibition stays at Scienceworks until 26 January 2027, but the workshops are exclusive to this 16-day window.

Outside the exhibition, the rainbow scavenger hunt sends families across the museum grounds looking for clues, and the colour-themed amphitheatre shows run through the day without costing a cent extra. Both are part of the holiday package and need no separate ticket once you are in the gate.

Inside the Planetarium, the new ‘Solar System Adventures: The Planets’ tour runs daily, taking families on a guided flight through the solar system. Returning favourites like Tycho Goes to Mars and Black Holes share the daily roster, and the Lightning Theatre’s Glow Show runs multiple sessions each day. Planetarium seats are limited, so booking ahead for popular times is a smart move.

The colour program sits alongside the museum’s permanent drawcards. Ground Up, Sportsworks, and Think Ahead are open as usual, and Museum of the Moon floats high in its own space. The Spotswood Pumping Station, the historic steam-powered heart of the site, offers guided walks on Thursdays and Saturdays, plus a daily FlushBack iPad activity that uses augmented reality to explore the building’s past.

For families weighing up holiday spending, the numbers are hard to beat. A Museum Member visits free all year round, and even during the school holidays that holds. But membership does not skip the queue: everyone, including members, needs to book tickets online before arriving. The free Colour Workshops work the same way: they are included with exhibition entry, but you must book a spot online in advance. Workshops fill up quickly, and waiting until you walk in the door could mean missing out.

What makes this winter different is the Colour exhibition. Older Scienceworks holiday programs leaned heavily on space and sports machines, but Colour brings a new kind of interactive experience, one that gets kids thinking about how they see the world rather than what they can build or throw. Combined with the Planetarium’s fresh show and the outdoor holiday activities, the whole site feels like a single, well-timed circuit.

Spotswood station on the Werribee and Williamstown lines puts the museum about 15 minutes from the city, then a 10-minute walk to Booker Street. On-site parking is limited during school holidays, so the train is the easier option. If you are making a full day of it, Grazeland Melbourne is a 10-minute walk from the museum with its indoor food market, and Hudson Road has a handful of local cafes for coffee and a quick bite.

The Colour exhibition remains until late January 2027, so if you cannot make it these holidays, you have six months to see it. But the free workshops, the scavenger hunt, and the holiday-only buzz will not wait.