Titanic. The Human Story

Overview

More than 110 years have passed since the RMS Titanic's ill-fated voyage, but the ship's tragic sinking hasn't ever become a mere historical footnote. James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Celine Dion all helped. In Australia recently, a Melbourne exhibition about the ocean liner has also assisted — as has musical Titanique in Sydney.

In Brisbane July, Titanic. The Human Story is another event that's stepping through the tale of the vessel that set out from Southhampton in April 1912, then struck an iceberg en route to New York. The exhibition has popped up in both the UK and the US, but is enjoying its maiden Down Under visit in the Queensland capital.

Although everything Titanic-related since 1997 has meant thinking about Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water), DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon), Winslet (The Regime) and Dion, Titanic. The Human Story wants you to cast the movie from your mind as it focuses on the ship's passengers and crew. The exhibition features around 200 personal artefacts from them, including never-before-seen pieces that span handwritten letters, belongings, keepsakes and photographs.

As attendees step through their experiences, an audio guide also relays the tales of those onboard the liner during its one and only journey — and some of the boat's interiors will feature via life-sized recreations as well.

Titanic. The Human Story is displaying at Uptown, the shopping complex in the Queen Street Mall that was previously the Myer Centre, until January 2025. The precinct first got into the exhibition game with the completely different Dopamine Land, which was filled with Instagram-friendly experiences designed to make visitors feel happy (ball pits are one of them) and also made its Aussie premiere in Brisbane.

Behind both is entertainment discovery platform Fever. Also behind Titanic. The Human Story specifically is Spanish company Musealia. Bringing historical exhibitions to audiences is its remit, including about the Berlin Wall and Auschwitz, and it has enlisted Titanic expert Claes-Göran Wetterholm to assist with its research on this exhibition.

Updated Friday, December 13, 2024.