Last week we spent a couple of days visiting places of interest in Darwin. We visited the Military Museum, and the Museum and Art Gallery.
We walked from the sailing club to the Military Museum on East Point. About 9km round-trip so a good walk. The new "Defence of Darwin Experience" was quite good but we enjoyed the "old fashioned" static exhibits. East Point housed Darwin's big guns during WW2, including 9" and 6" guns. They were obsolete soon after installation (if not before) - the attacks on Darwin all came from the air and the big guns were useless. Nevertheless the guns and their emplacements are very interesting.
The static displays also include lots of smaller weapons - from field guns to anti-aircraft guns to machine guns to rifles to handguns. Also a range of vehicles from trucks to armoured vehicles. The displays in the buildings include the fire control computer and plotting table which controlled the big guns, and all sorts of memorabilia from uniforms to flags to letters to/from soldiers.
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| Belly gun from B17 |
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| AA gun |
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| Field gun |
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| 9" gun in bunker |
We also visited the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery. Sadly photography not permitted there, so no photos. The gallery had lots of interesting Aboriginal art. The museum includes a very good natural history section, a section on cyclone Tracy, and a section on boats. The latter includes a pearl lugger and a range of SE Asian craft.
Both museums are well worth a visit.
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