Crystal World’s founder, Tom Kapitany, has spent his life immersed in the world of Natural History. His passion for collecting began long before he completed his Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, where he studied Botany, Geology and Molecular Biology. After university, Tom co‑founded Collectors Corner at Garden World, a nursery specialising in rare and unusual plants from around the globe.

It was in this nursery that Tom first began offering fossils, minerals and meteorites from his personal collection — a small idea that grew into something much larger. By 1999, that passion evolved into Crystal World, now one of the most diverse geoscience exhibition centres in Australia.

Today, the Crystal World Exhibition Centre spans five acres and houses one of the country’s largest collections of geological and scientific specimens. Visitors can explore thousands of fossils, meteorites, gems, minerals and crystals, many of which have been personally selected and prepared by Tom and his team. The site also features more than 400 tonnes of rough geological material, tens of thousands of display specimens, and an outdoor Dinosaur Garden that brings prehistoric life to the present.

Crystal World continues to grow as both an educational destination and a global supplier, with specimens now found in private collections, shops and museums around the world.