By late March the exhibition gallery will be divided into two separate display spaces, allowing the museum to realise our long-term plan to provide an exciting line-up of local and touring exhibitions.

This will provide central west locals, visitors and school students with opportunities to learn about the history of the region, as well as access to major exhibitions from city-based institutions.

As a result, the museum gallery will temporarily close its doors between Monday March 1 and Friday March 27. This temporary shutdown will allow staff to pack away the existing exhibition, install the dividing wall system, and set up two new exhibitions, opening on Saturday March 28, just in time for F.O.O.D. Week.

The first of these exhibitions, Capturing Nature: Early photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893, is a touring exhibition created by the Australian Museum.

Capturing Nature explores photographs of the Museum's natural history specimens captured by early Australian scientists just 20 years after the invention of photography.

Images to be featured have been reproduced from original glass plate negatives, and show the vast collection of weird and wonderful animals from across the world held by the Australian Museum.

The other half of the reconfigured museum space will become a permanent gallery, which will host an exhibition exploring our district's history for locals and visitors alike.

With an emphasis on re-examining our well-known histories and uncovering new tales, the exhibition, Inherit: old and new histories, will open at the end of May.

Visitors have until Sunday March 1 to take one last look at the popular current exhibition Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties, a travelling exhibition from Sydney Living Museums, before the Museum reopens with a free public launch from 5pm on Friday March 27.

Old Dubbo Gaol and Dubbo Regional Museum Bus Tour. Sunday, March 1, 9am.