The Australian National Maritime Museum
When touring around it is rare these days to come across anything that you don’t have to pay through the nose for. However, there is one place we enjoyed in Sydney that is now free and it’s the impressive Australian National Maritime Museum.The museum takes up a sizeable chunk of Darling Harbour and it is easy to spend half a day having a look at its permanent and temporary exhibits.Inside the museum are seven main exhibitions that span Australia’s links to the seas and its crucial part in our history. They include Merana Eora Nora – First People, Navigators – Defining Australia, Passengers – the Long Sea Voyage, Commerce – the Working Sea, Watermarks – Adventure, Sport and Play and Navy – Protecting Australia.
Each of the exhibitions is in a gallery that has been designed to add to the flavour of the subject with the Navigators, for example, having brass trim and a ceiling of stars to suggest exploration, while the Commerce gallery makes the most of old timbers from wharves in its area.
As well as all the regular attractions, visitors on Australia Day can inspect the museum’s former Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire at the discounted price of $2 adult, $1 child/concession, $5 family (2 adults + 4 kids) – usually $20 adult, $10 child/ concession, $40 family. The museum will also show three FREE films relating to its special exhibition About Time (which looks at the concept of time, and surveys how people have measured it in different periods in history and in different cultures).
The Australian National Museum, at Darling Harbour, will be open 9.30 am to 6 pm on Australia Day. It’s a short walk from the city across Pyrmont Bridge, or you can catch a Sydney Ferry to Pyrmont Bay, the monorail to Harbourside or the Light Rail to Pyrmont Bay.
