More than 50 groups target Queensland Museum deal

More than 50 organisations and prominent Australians have urged the Queensland Museum to end its sponsorship deal with Shell.

An Open Letter delivered in Brisbane on Wednesday 1 July 2026 says the deal with Shell has been worth more than $10 million since 2015.

The letter says Queensland schoolchildren received Shell-branded climate change materials through the museum.

Signatories include author Tim Winton AO and author and environmentalist Natalie Kyriacou OAM.

Parent, teacher, medical, environmental, youth, Indigenous, religious and bushfire survivor organisations also signed the Open Letter.

Comms Declare names 260 programmes

The action follows an investigation by climate communications charity Comms Declare.

Comms Declare also released a report on 1 July 2026 that identifies more than 260 programmes and sponsorships.

According to Comms Declare, those arrangements let fossil fuel companies market to millions of Australian children through trusted institutions.

Simon English, a founder of the End Fossil Fuel Sponsorships Group, said: “People are stunned that school children have become the innocent victims of the Queensland Museum’s quest for millions of dollars from one of Australia’s largest polluters, Shell.”

The End Fossil Fuel Sponsorships Group organised the Open Letter to the Queensland Museum.

Tim Winton AO said: “Our children deserve clean air, clean soil, and clean water. But they also deserve clean information about the world they live in and the challenges we all face.”

Winton added that educational institutions should not be used to launder the reputations of big polluters.

Natalie Kyriacou OAM said: “There is a reason tobacco companies do not develop curricula on respiratory health for children: it is a conflict of interest.”

Kyriacou added that the same conflict should block fossil fuel companies from developing climate content for children.

Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, said: “We call on Queensland Museum to stop promoting climate-wrecking gas, to drop Shell as a sponsor, and to put in a partnership policy that ensures children receive accurate information, untainted by corporate influence.”

Hayley Troupe of the Queensland Conservation Council said climate change is already putting people and places at risk in Queensland.

Troupe added that the Queensland Museum should end fossil fuel sponsorships and keep educational materials grounded in science.