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Established | 2005 |
---|---|
Location | Garden Island, Sydney |
Coordinates | 33°51′35″S151°13′45″E / 33.8598014°S 151.2291777°E |
Type | Maritime Museum |
Website | Official Site |
The Royal Australian Navy Heritage Centre was the maritime museum of the Royal Australian Navy. The centre opened on 4 October 2005 and was located within the then Public Access Area on the northern end of the Garden Island naval base in Sydney. In 2021 it was permanently closed due to access issues within the working naval base. [1]
The need for such a facility was first recognised in 1922, by Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell who suggested the building of a museum to permanently display the Australian Navy's already rich and unique heritage. Since then, there have been several attempts to establish an international-standard naval museum.
The origins of the RANHC date from 2001, when the then Chief of the Navy commissioned a Naval Heritage Management Study to examine in detail how the RAN's past might best be used to support the present Navy's goals. One of the most important recommendations was the creation of a facility for the public display of the Naval Heritage Collection (NHC). Once approval for funding was received, a RANHC Project Board was formed and the project began on 24 May 2004. The NHC contained more than 250,000 individual items, and the mission of the RANHC was to display those objects of museum standard to the public, and through these displays capture something of the Australian naval experience.
This was a large thematic display focusing on how the Navy's people have 'done the job' at sea over the years. Branches and categories past and present were used to explain how the naval profession has changed and developed.
This exhibit featured a unique interactive display: a fully operational submarine attack periscope was installed to allow visitors an unusual view of Sydney Harbour.
A specific display illustrating how the Navy has developed and applied technology to the sea-fighting environment. It included precision instruments for navigation and gunnery, in addition to examples of naval ordnance ranging from shells and torpedoes to modern guided missiles.
This centred on the fin and control centre from one of the Japanese midget submarines that attacked Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 May-1 June 1942, and also included the Boom Boat belonging to the Maritime Services Board that first raised the alarm. The display was supported by an interactive audiovisual presentation.
This was a large chronological display of items that tell the stories of famous Australian ships and their battles. Artefacts were included from the colonial era, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War and operations in the Persian Gulf.
The 1913 Boatshed was dedicated as the display gallery for artefacts related to small boats and Australian dockyards, particularly Garden Island.
This main exhibition display used the entire mezzanine level of the workshop building, and provided visitors with an introduction to a sailor's life at sea. The display included a mock-up of a World War II-era mess deck, as well as artefacts highlighting naval traditions and pastimes.
This was a mock-up of a Battle-class destroyer's open bridge, and was one of the major interactive displays in the centre. Using original equipment from 50 years ago, the Bridge was aimed at helping visitors acquire some experience of what takes place on a warship's bridge at sea.
HMAS Onslow is one of six Oberon-class submarines, previously operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The submarine was named after the town of Onslow, Western Australia, and Sir Alexander Onslow, with the boat's motto and badge derived from Onslow's family heritage. Ordered in 1963, Onslow was laid down at the end of 1967 by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland, launched almost a year later, and commissioned into the RAN at the end of 1969.
HMAS Orion was an Oberon-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of six submarines ordered by the RAN during the 1960s, Orion, named after the constellation in a break from ship-naming tradition, was built in Scotland and commissioned in 1977. Orion was one of two Oberon-class submarines designed for intelligence gathering and conducted regular patrols in Soviet, Indian and Chinese waters to gather information regarding enemy capabilities.
HMAS Otama was an Oberon-class submarine, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built in Scotland, the submarine was the last of the class to enter service when commissioned into the RAN in 1978. Otama was a specialist, one of two "Mystery Boats", fitted with additional surveillance and intelligence-gathering equipment. Otama was routinely deployed on classified operations to obtain intelligence on Soviet Pacific Fleet vessels and Chinese Navy vessels, and conducted associated coastal surveillance, throughout Asia.
HMAS Ovens is an Oberon-class submarine, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was one of six Oberons built for the Royal Australian Navy by the Scottish Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, and entered service in 1969. The vessel was named for Irishman and Australian explorer John Ovens (1788–1825) and for whom the Victorian river Ovens was named. During her career, Ovens was the first RAN submarine to deploy with the ANZUK force, and the first RAN submarine to fire an armed Mark 48 torpedo, sinking the target ship Colac. The boat was decommissioned in 1995, and is preserved at the Western Australian Maritime Museum as a museum ship.
The Oberon class was a ship class of 27 British-designed submarines operated by five nations. They were designed as a follow-on from the Porpoise class; physical dimensions were the same but stronger materials were used in hull construction and improved equipment was fitted.
HMS Trump was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow, and launched on 25 March 1944. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy (RN) to bear the name Trump. She spent the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron based in Australia. She was kept in service following the war and was refitted for greater underwater performance, and was the final RN submarine to be posted in Australia, departing in January 1969. She was sold off and broken up for scrap in August 1971.
HMAS Parramatta, named after the Parramatta River, was a River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Ordered in 1909 for the Commonwealth Naval Forces, Parramatta was the first ship launched for the RAN. Temporarily commissioned into the Royal Navy for the delivery voyage to Australia, the destroyer came under Australian naval control in 1910, and was recommissioned into the RAN on 1 March 1911, shortly before the latter's formal creation.
Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, Australia, and the location of a major Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to the north of the suburb of Potts Point. Used for government and naval purposes since the earliest days of the colony of Sydney, it was originally a completely-detached island but was joined to the Potts Point shoreline by major land reclamation work during World War II.
HMAS Vampire was the third of three Australian-built Daring-class destroyers serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of the first all-welded ships built in Australia, she was constructed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard between 1952 and 1959, and was commissioned into the RAN a day after completion.
The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a national maritime museum would be constructed at Darling Harbour, tied into the New South Wales state government's redevelopment of the area for the Australian bicentenary in 1988. The museum building was designed by Philip Cox, and although an opening date of 1988 was initially set, construction delays, cost overruns, and disagreements between the state and federal governments over funding responsibility pushed the opening to 1991.
HMAS Kuttabul, formerly SS Kuttabul, was a Royal Australian Navy depot ship, converted from a Sydney Ferries Limited ferry.
HMAS Yarra, named for the Yarra River, was a River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Ordered in 1909 for the Commonwealth Naval Forces, Yarra was temporarily commissioned into the Royal Navy on completion in 1910 and handed over to Australian control on arrival in Australia.
HMAS Kuttabul is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base located in Potts Point in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Kuttabul provides administrative, training, logistics and accommodation support to naval personnel assigned to the various facilities that form Fleet Base East, the main operational navy base on the east coast of Australia. A part of Fleet Base East itself, Kuttabul occupies several buildings in the Sydney suburb of Potts Point and in the immediately adjacent Garden Island dockyard. It also supports navy personnel posted to other locations throughout the greater Sydney region.
Fleet Base East is a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) major fleet base that comprises several naval establishments and facilities clustered around Sydney Harbour, centred on HMAS Kuttabul. Fleet Base East extends beyond the borders of Kuttabul and includes the commercially-operated dockyard at Garden Island, and adjacent wharf facilities at nearby Woolloomooloo, east of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. Fleet Base East is one of two major facilities of the RAN, the other facility being Fleet Base West. The fleet operates in the Pacific Ocean.
The Garden Island Naval Chapel is a heritage-listed non-denominational Christian chapel located in the heritage-listed Garden Island Naval Precinct that comprises a naval base and dockyard in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Garden Island in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia.
HMAS Otway was an Oberon-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of the first four Oberon-class boats ordered for the RAN, Otway was built in Scotland during the mid-1960s, and commissioned into naval service in 1968. The submarine was decommissioned in 1994. The submarine's upper casing, fin, and stern are preserved at Holbrook, New South Wales.
HMAS Oxley was an Oberon-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is an area of HM Naval Base Portsmouth which is open to the public; it contains several historic buildings and ships. It is managed by the National Museum of the Royal Navy as an umbrella organization representing five charities: the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, the Mary Rose Trust, the Warrior Preservation Trust Ltd and the HMS Victory Preservation Company. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Ltd was created to promote and manage the tourism element of the Royal Navy Dockyard, with the relevant trusts maintaining and interpreting their attractions. It also promotes other nearby navy-related tourist attractions.
M24 Japanese Midget Submarine wreck site is a heritage-listed former midget submarine and now archaeological site located in unincorporated waters off Sydney's Northern Beaches in New South Wales, Australia. The Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarine was designed by the Imperial Japanese Navy and built from 1941 to 1942 by Kure Naval Yard or Ourazaki Naval Yard. The site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 7 December 2007.
The 4th Submarine Squadron was a unit of the Royal Navy operating conventional submarines. It was established at HMAS Penguin, Sydney, Australia, in 1949 partly to provide anti-submarine warfare training to Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal New Zealand Navy personnel. The Royal Navy transitioned to nuclear-powered submarines from 1960 and notified the Australians that the 4th Submarine Squadron would be disbanded. The RAN decided to procure its own submarines to replace the squadron in the training role and purchased four Oberon-class vessels in 1963. To prepare the RAN to maintain these vessels the Royal Navy agreed to refit five T-class submarines, including at least three from the 4th Submarine Squadron, at Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney. The 1st Australian Submarine Squadron was operational by 1969, upon which the Royal Navy disbanded the 4th Submarine Squadron.