Queensland Maritime Museum

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Queensland Maritime Museum
Queensland Maritime Museum logo.gif
Queensland Maritime Museum
Established1971
Location Brisbane, Australia
Type Queensland history, Maritime history, Maritime archaeology
Visitors35,000 visitors per annum [1]
CEOEmma Di Muzio
CuratorDon Braben
Website Queensland Maritime Museum

The Queensland Maritime Museum is located on the southern bank of the Brisbane River just south of the South Bank Parklands and Queensland Cultural Centre precinct of Brisbane, and close to the Goodwill Bridge.

Contents

The museum was founded in 1971 and contains a two-level exhibition building presenting historic sailing ship models together with merchant shipping from early cargo ships to modern container ships, tankers and cruise liners. It is housed in the building used for the “Pavilion of Promise” at World Expo 88, and the South Brisbane Dry Dock which was built in the 1870s and was 313 feet (95 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide. In 1887 the dock was extended to 430 feet (131 m) due to the increasing size of vessels. [1]

The museum also includes a library that stocks documents, pictures and other relevant artifacts relating to maritime history. There are several maps that show how early navigators created accurate charts.

Information is also provided about some of the 1,500 plus shipwrecks that have occurred along the Queensland coast including the Great Barrier Reef.

Vessels

The 121 feet (37 m) [2] steam tug Forceful, the only remaining working coal-fired steam tug in Queensland, is berthed at the Museum wharf and there are regular sailings down the Brisbane River. It was built in 1925 by Alex Stephen & Son Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland. In 1941 it was chartered by the government for service in the Middle East, but did not sail because Japan entered World War II. She was then requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy and became known as HMAS Forceful. She was armed with a 20mm Oerlikon Machine Gun and a .303" Vickers machine gun. [3] At present, she is laid up for repairs, estimated to reach around $250,000AUD. [4]

HMAS Diamantina HMAS Diamantina (K-377) berthed under the Goodwill Bridge.jpg
HMAS Diamantina

HMAS Diamantina, a River Class frigate is in the South Brisbane Dry Dock (Graving Dock), and on board, visitors can view the Museum's collection of Australian Naval memorabilia.

Another WW2 vessel located at the Museum is the Torres Strait type of pearling lugger, "Penguin", which was used by the Americans during WW2, along with the dinghy from General Douglas MacArthur's motor Yacht "Shangri-La". [5]

Also visible is the Light Ship Carpentaria.

Lighthouses exhibition

Bulwer Island Light is on display at the Queensland Maritime Museum. Queenslandmaritimemuseum.JPG
Bulwer Island Light is on display at the Queensland Maritime Museum.

Information is also provided about how lighthouse technology developed from the early oil wick burners to the modern equipment used in the present day. The former Bulwer Island Light, which operated at Bulwer Island at the mouth of the Brisbane River from 1912 to 1983, is on display outside the Museum. It is a white, octagonal wooden tower covered with corrugated iron sheets, and the roof of lantern is red. [6]

Also displayed are the original lens of Archer Point Light, the pedestal and gearbox of Bustard Head Light, and the lens and apparatus from Cape Don Light in the Northern Territory. [7]

Related Research Articles

SS <i>Yongala</i> Shipwreck in Queensland, Australia

SS Yongala was a passenger and cargo ship that sank off Cape Bowling Green, Queensland, Australia on 23 March 1911. En route from Melbourne to Cairns she steamed into a cyclone and sank south of Townsville.

HMQS <i>Gayundah</i>

HMQS Gayundah was a flat-iron gunboat operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and later the Royal Australian Navy. She entered service in 1884 and was decommissioned and sold to a civilian company in 1921. She then served as sand and gravel barge in Brisbane until the 1950s, when she was scrapped. In 1958, Gayundah was run aground at Woody Point near Redcliffe, to serve as a breakwater structure.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinkenba, Queensland</span> Suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cockatoo Island Dockyard</span> Australian dockyard

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HMAS <i>Diamantina</i> (K377)

HMAS Diamantina (K377/F377/A266/GOR266), named after the Diamantina River in Queensland, is a River-class frigate that served the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed in the mid-1940s, Diamantina was active from 1945 until 1946, was placed in reserve, then was recommissioned as a survey ship from 1959 until 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moreton Bay Pile Light</span> Former lighthouse in southern Queensland, Australia

Moreton Bay Pile Light was a pile lighthouse positioned at the mouth of Brisbane River, in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, marking the entrance to the port of Brisbane. The light's early history was closely related to the dredging of the Brisbane River. It was established in 1884 as a result of a new channel that was cut, and relocated in 1913 due to another change in the channels. The structure was badly damaged by a barge in 1945 and finally destroyed when hit by a tanker in 1949. An automated light operated on the ruins until 1966–1967 when it was removed.

SS <i>John Oxley</i> Pilot boat, built 1927

SS John Oxley is a steamship that previously served as a pilot boat and lighthouse and buoy tender. The ship was built in Scotland in 1927 for the Queensland Government. The vessel was requisitioned by Royal Australian Navy during the World War II. Returned to her duties after the war, John Oxley remained active until 1968, when her deteriorating condition made her unusable. In 1970, the ship was donated by the Queensland Government to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum for preservation, but due to other projects, work was sidelined until 2004. The ship has undergone restoration for the past 20 years at Rozelle Bay on a floating dock. In April 2022, she was towed to dry dock at Garden Island, re-floated successfully and returned to Rozelle Bay for further restoration work afloat.

<i>Lucinda</i> (steam yacht)

The Lucinda was a Queensland Government owned, 301-ton paddle steamer built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1884.

<i>Forceful</i> (tugboat)

Forceful is a sea-going tugboat built for the Queensland Tug Company by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd in Govan, Scotland in 1925. She worked at her homeport of Brisbane, Australia between 1926 and 1970 berthing ships and assisting nearby casualties. During World War II she was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in early 1942 as HMAS Forceful (W126), based at Fremantle and Darwin, until returning to commercial service in October 1943. She is preserved as a museum ship at Brisbane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulwer, Queensland</span> Suburb of City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Bulwer is a coastal town and locality at the north-western end of Moreton Island in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census the locality of Bulwer had a population of 49 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulwer Island</span> Island in Australia

Bulwer Island is a 120 hectares (1.2 km2) reclaimed tidal mangrove island at the mouth of the Brisbane River in the suburb of Pinkenba, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is named for Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the British Colonial Secretary who separated Queensland from New South Wales in 1859 and made Sir George Bowen its first Governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evans Deakin and Company</span> Australian engineering company and shipbuilder

Evans Deakin & Company was an Australian engineering company and shipbuilder. In 2019, the company was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in recognition of its major contributions to the Queensland economy for nearly a century through excellence in heavy engineering, construction and ship building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulwer Island Light</span> Lighthouse

Bulwer Island Light, also known as Bulwer Island Range Rear Light, is an inactive lighthouse that was on Bulwer Island, in the suburb of Pinkenba, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In 1983, it was moved to the Queensland Maritime Museum in South Brisbane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea Hill Light</span> Lighthouse

Sea Hill Lighthouse, also known as Sea Hill Point Light or Little Sea Hill Light, is a lighthouse on the northwest point of Curtis Island, Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. Its purpose was to mark the east side of the entrance to Keppel Bay, on passage to Fitzroy River and Port Alma. The first lighthouse at the locations was constructed in 1873 or 1876, moved in the 1920s, and is now on display at the Gladstone Maritime Museum. A second lighthouse was constructed in 1895 and its state is unclear.

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HMAS Waree (W128) was a tug boat operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II. She operated as a tug boat for the Waratah Tug and Salvage Company before being requisitioned by the RAN in 1942, and operating in northern Australia and Papua. She sank on 17 October 1946 off the New South Wales coast while sailing to Sydney from Thursday Island.

SY Ena Australian steam yacht built in 1900

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cairncross Dockyard</span>

The Cairncross Dockyard was a shipyard beside the Brisbane River at Morningside, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It included one of Australia's largest graving docks with an 8.5 metre deep water access, capable of taking Panamax vessels of up to 85,000 dwt, up to 263 metres long x 33.5 metres wide. It is second in size only to the Royal Australian Navy's Captain Cook Graving Dock in Sydney.

CLS4 Carpentaria

Commonwealth Lightship 4 (CLS4) Carpentaria is a lightship that was in service from 1917 to 1985 with the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service, built at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard and commissioned in 1917. The vessel is named after the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it spent most of its service life together with its sister ship CLS2.

References

  1. 1 2 "Queensland Maritime Museum". Archived from the original on 28 August 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
  2. "Forceful specs". Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2008.
  3. "Tug HMAS Forceful". Peter Dunn's Australia at War. Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
  4. Smith, Phil (3 April 2007). "Forceful tugs at the purse strings". ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  5. "Queensland Maritime Museum". Peter Dunn's Australia at War. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
  6. "Bulwer Island Light". Lighthouse Depot. Archived from the original on 12 August 2004. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
  7. "QMMAWeb". maritimemuseum.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 January 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2010.

Coordinates: 27°28′55″S153°1′34″E / 27.48194°S 153.02611°E / -27.48194; 153.02611