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# Kylie's Gold Hot Pants Lead a New Exhibition of Australian Stage Treasures
- URL: https://www.blankidentity.com.au/kylies-gold-hot-pants-lead-a-new-exhibition-of-australian-stage-treasures/
- Published: 2026-09-25T05:09:05.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T05:09:05.000Z
- Description: Kylie's gold hot pants, Midnight Oil's drum kit and Nellie Melba's opera cloak headline a new Melbourne exhibition marking 50 years of the Australian Performing Arts Collection.
- Author: Mason
- Tags: Culture, News

Some objects carry a whole era with them. A pair of gold lamé hot pants, bought for 50 pence at a London flea market and borrowed the night before a music video shoot, is one of them. Kylie Minogue's Spinning Around shorts are now the star attraction of a new exhibition in Melbourne celebrating five decades of Australian performance.

## Fifty objects, 170 years

ENCORE! 50 Objects. 50 Years. One Collection. has opened at the Australian Museum of Performing Arts (AMPA) at Arts Centre Melbourne to mark the 50th anniversary of the Australian Performing Arts Collection. It is the country's largest specialist collection of its kind, holding more than 850,000 costumes, instruments, props, set models and photographs across circus, dance, music, opera and theatre. The curators had the unenviable job of choosing just 50 pieces, spread across six themed galleries and 170 years of history.

## The highlights

- **Kylie Minogue's gold hot pants** from the 2000 Spinning Around video
- **Rob Hirst's Ludwig drum kit**, on public display for the first time after Midnight Oil fans crowdfunded its purchase at auction and donated it to the collection
- **Dame Nellie Melba's gold silk cloak**, designed by Parisian couturier Jean-Philippe Worth and worn in St Petersburg in 1891
- **The neon L'Amour sign** Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin created for Opera Australia's La Bohème
- **Hugh Jackman's costume** from The Boy from Oz arena tour
- **Olivia Newton-John's gown**, worn when she performed alongside ABBA
- **Archie Roach's custom performance vest** and **Peter Allen's maracas**

There are lighter moments too, including the Ossie Ostrich puppet from Hey Hey It's Saturday and Nick Cave's notebook from his formative years in 1980s Berlin.

## Why it's worth the trip

ENCORE! is only the second exhibition at AMPA, which opened in December 2025 with the V&A's touring DIVA show. Where that was a global story, this one is resolutely local, and it is a reminder of how much of Australia's cultural memory lives in costumes, instruments and props that most people never get to see up close.

## Details

- **Where:** Australian Museum of Performing Arts, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
- **When:** 16 September 2026 to 9 May 2027
- **Tickets:** via Arts Centre Melbourne

*Sources:* [*Arts Centre Melbourne*](https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/ampa/exhibitions/encore?ref=blankidentity.com.au)*,* [*ABC News*](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-15/kylie-minogue-gold-hotpants-in-50th-anniversary-exhibition/107155076?ref=blankidentity.com.au)*. Image courtesy of Arts Centre Melbourne.*