Australian Armour and Artilary museum

[planecrazy]

Up in far North Queensland for a family holiday, around 15klms north of Cairns the Australian
Armour and Artiliary museum, the collection is huge, around 160 individual items, approximately
60% of the collections powered machines are operational with plans to get as many as possible
running, a few of the tanks have modern engines.

Please excuse me if I get some of this wrong, happy for those with more knowledge to jump in
and comment/correct me if I get things skew-if!

An early model Panther A which is in running order using the period correct Maybach engine.






The collection has a number of Panzer IVs.




The dreaded “88” used in the anti aircraft as well an anti tank role.


3.7cm and quad 2cm anti aircraft guns.






More soon........

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, some interesting and valuable tanks there!

[planecrazy]

The size of the collection and the space it is housed in is impossible to describe.

There is quite a collection of battle damaged items, a blown up Tiger turret lid.


Panther front plate to the right and side panel from a Jagpanther to the rear.






The rear on one of the Panzer IV turrets showing small round impacts, also of
Note she has been repainted but they have left the German cross.


Captured Czech tank used by the Germans at the start of the war.


Nebelwerfer rocket launcher.


Zundapp motorcycle with sidecar.

[11SQNLDR]

This is awesome

I'm holidaying in Cairns next month and will certainly be checking this out... until now I had no idea it existed!!

[Mustang51]

I also had no idea this existed. What a fantastic and very expensive collection....... I'm heading up that way later this year so shall be visiting....have a "thing" for German AFVs....thanks planecrazy for posting

[ErrolC]

Looks great. Has some of their stuff been shown on "The Chieftain" YouTube channel?

[Dave Homewood]

I am glad I am not the only one who'd never heard of this museum and collection.

Is it a private collection all owned by one person?

[planecrazy]

It is a private collection no outside funding, seeing as the museum was only
opened in 2014 they have amassed a sizable and very deverse collection.

I know what you mean Pete the allied tanks just don’t have that wow factor.
It is perhaps for this reason they are occasionally rated higher than what they
actually achieved. The Tiger I for example, only around 1,347 were produced
most of which either broke down, ran out of fuel or were destroyed by their
own crews, very few were actually lost to enemy action.

Allied machines.








The Americans sure had some strange ideas for their early tanks, the main
gun in the Lee and Grant tanks mounted in the hull, in most situations the
whole tank would have to be manouvered to bring this gun to target.














Like most things Russian this SU100 has a real purposeful look to her.


And what about this beast!




Ex New Zealand Army machine.




Now folks I have merely scratched the surface here, didn’t get many snaps of all
the artillery peices, each machine has an information sign with details on where
they served and their performance. I would allow a few hours if not most of a day
if you really want to check the place out! A notable point as you can see there are
some machines of which there are not just one of type, it really is a vast collection.

She’s a bit hard to view, in their workshop they are building a Tiger one from
recovered wreck pieces and new built parts, the intention is she will be a runner
with a modern more serviceable engine.

For those planning a visit they have a history guy every Saturday and try and run
at least one machine. Every two years they have Ausarmourfest so this runs this
year 27-28-29/8/21.

Website
www.ausarmour.com

[Dave Homewood]

What a great collection.

For me, the Panzers are like looking at Fw190's or Bf109's, fascinating machines but they represent pure evil. They are truly the baddies. I much prefer the Shermans and Stuarts and the likes.

[30sqnatc]

The Kiwi M41 was purchased as wreck with turret and hull separated. It was commercially restored in Avalon Victoria. Now looks as new

[planecrazy]

Jun 18, 2021 20:44:55 GMT 12 30sqnatc said:

The Kiwi M41 was purchased as wreck with turret and hull separated. It was commercially restored in Avalon Victoria. Now looks as new

Nice that they have her displaying her origins.