Griffiths Sea Shell Museum

Opened in 1962, Griffiths Sea Shell Museum in Gippsland, Victoria features over 90,000 seashells, making it one of the largest private nautical collections in Australia.

A colorful assortment of cockles, conchs, sea anemones, and abalones are just a fraction of the many thousands of strange and beautiful shells that fill the wall-to-wall display cases. Also in the collection are specimen jars containing curious creatures dredged from the deep, such as angler fish, goblin sharks, a two-headed baby snapper shark, and a rare frilled shark caught off the coast of Gippsland in 2015.

Although a popular tourist destination, the Griffiths Sea Shell Museum has also served as a research facility for the Malacological Society of Australasia, a society dedicated to the study of mollusks. The museum is also closely affiliated with shell clubs across the country.

The museum contains a large gift shop where guests can choose from hundreds of sea shell kitsch souvenirs, such as puka shell mariachi bands and clamshell cats, all of which are hand-made on-site.