The newest children’s museum, known as MoPA Northside, is almost the same size as the MoPA’s southside museum in Sandringham (1800m2 vs 2000m2). This makes MoPA Northside one of the biggest children’s museums in the Southern Hemisphere.

It’s colourful, interactive, exciting, educational and fun! MoPA‘s founders, the husband and wife team Tom Mahon and Billie Georgieff, say that it’s about all about play-based learning, creative exploration and making physical play artful. There is something here to capture everyone’s interest.

What to Expect at Museum of Play and Art Thomastown

The MoPA team have taken all that they’ve learnt from the MoPA Geelong and MoPA Sandringham sites to create a world-class experience for families with kids 1-7 years.

This version of MoPA Melbourne children’s museum features some of MoPA’s most popular exhibits (sometimes with a different twist), plus some entirely new experiences.

We’ve highlighted some of our favourites here but there is more to explore that what we’ve covered below!

What’s New at Museum of Play and Art Thomastown

The Art Wall includes fun, moving images as well as classic Old Masters where kids and adults can poke out their heads (check out the moving ship too, it’s mesmerising).

Enter into the crawl space and watch the spots light up under your feet!

The Zoom Room will keep kids occupied for ages, with built-in tracks in the walls as well as new wooden build-your-own tracks for creative play.

Watch the balls fly and zoom around in vacuum tubes, this time set inside individual coloured cubes.

Car-painting is back! This is MoPA favourite.

The giant cityscape, another MoPA favourite, features all new buildings and recognisable landmarks and is the biggest cityscape yet!

It’s four storeys tall and kids can crawl into both spaces and peek out to the adults below.

The blue side of the cityscape is also 100% wheelchair accessible, making it possibly Australia’s largest wheelchair accessible climbing structure.

Fun fact – every window has been handpainted!

The under 2s soft play area is the biggest one at MoPA so far…

…and because everyone likes soft play, there is a new active soft play area for bigger kids (over 2 years) where they can climb, jump and hang inside colourful boxes.

In the active play area there’s also a fun ball drop through the many eyes, down into the mouth!

The colour wheel is a cosy nook this time, with sounds and smells accompanying each of the surrounding installations.

The cinema and story room is a cosy space for some quiet time as well as regular storytelling sessions.

At MoPA Thomastown brand new exhibits include a water play area. Watch the ducks float and control the flow of water with gates.

The music room has recesses with hand drums you can bang to create a sound and light experience.

For the Thomastown museum the MoPA team have developed their custom digital art-making software, such as colouring-in on-screen.

Museum of Play and Art Thomastown Facilities

If you get hungry or thirsty during your visit to MoPA Northside there is an onsite cafe with great visibility of the cityscape in particular. It serves coffee, sandwiches, snacks and caters for different dietary requirements, including halal.

There are disabled toilets, privacy hubs for breastfeeding mums (or just if you need a quiet break) and of course there are spacious toilets and change facilities.

Museum of Play and Art Thomastown Parties

MoPA Northside hosts parties and packages include free play in the museum for two hours, balloons, cupcakes, craft activities and goodie bags.

There are three party rooms and a fourth craft room (a backup party room) available to book, and party rooms are interconnecting to cater for bigger events.

Make sure you book early though, as the the party bookings are bound to be very popular!

Museum of Play and Art Thomastown Review

I guarantee that kids and adults will love MoPA Northside an indoor playground filled with sensory, immersive, and play-based learning experiences for babies, toddlers and right up to primary school-aged kids.

I expect it to be a very popular location so book ahead for your session to avoid disappointment. If you’re planning to visit regularly, I recommend a membership!

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