The Loose Association of Wargamers

A friend of mine is visiting and has asked about small museums in the areas, not just military ones, although his biggest interest is in naval stuff.

Any tips?

How mobile is your friend? Is he staying in the big cities, driving between them, dependent upon public transport? A lot of the museums are regional, rather than in the cities. Most towns have a history museum or collection of some sort, as do some of the RSL's.

In Sydney there's the Australian Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour, although it isn't exactly small. https://www.sea.museum/
This is a (partial) list of NSW Museums. https://mhnsw.au/

Canberra of course has the Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/ sometimes the reserve collection is also open.

As an example of a regional museum, there's the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Nowra, around 2 1/2 hours South of Sydney & around the same distance from Canberra. https://www.navy.gov.au/heritage/museum ... arm-museum

No doubt the 3Ds (Doug, Donald and Dal) will chip in with recommendations too.

G'day, Fredd. ET has nailed the best ones. Here's a few more:

Officer Cadet Museum Duntroon- he'd best email them on duntroon.museum@defence.gov.au to see if they'll let him in, and when.

Army Museum Victoria Barracks Sydney- aam.nsw@defence.gov.au and he'll need photo ID to get in.

Army Museum of Military Engineering at Holsworthy. He will definitely need to email ahead as it's a very restricted entry area and they will turn him away at the barracks gate. aamme.mailbox@defence.gov.au Unfortunately 3RAR is no longer in Holsworthy- they had a very good unit museum, as did 8/12 Medium Regiment.

If he's willing to drive up to Singleton then the Infantry museum is excellent. aaim.aahu@defence.gov.au and www.infantrymuseum.com.au

Lastly, some of the RSL (equivalent to the British Legion) have small museums attached. If he asks the national HQ in Canberra they may be able to point him at some.

In a non-military/naval area there's the national dinosaur museum at Gold Creek, where he can see ET, Doug and Donald on display. It also has a nice walk-through aviary and cafes. Most of the larger towns have a community museum as well, but they can be anything from a couple of photos to the reasonable one in Batemans Bay. If he's a gamer the Batemans Bay club is on every second Wednesday night. The next meeting is 14 June, 1800 hours at the Custom Hire building (behind the Betta Electrical and gym building) on Cranbrook St.