Maritime Museum of Tasmania, Maritime heritage center in Sullivans Cove, Hobart, Australia.
The Maritime Museum of Tasmania sits in a stone building by the water and displays ship models, navigation equipment, historic paintings, and items recovered from sunken vessels. The collection tells the story of seafaring and fishing in this region.
The Shiplovers' Society of Tasmania, founded in 1931, gathered maritime records and models and held a nautical exhibition in 1936. Six of its volunteers opened the museum in St George's Church, Battery Point, in 1973, with an official opening in 1974. It moved to Secheron House in 1983 and to the former Carnegie library in 1999; Queen Elizabeth II opened the renovated building on 28 March 2000.
The exhibits show how the sea shaped Tasmania's identity and how people here have long made their living from water and shipping. You can see how fishing, maritime trade, and connection to the ocean remain woven into local life today.
The museum occupies the Carnegie Building in Sullivans Cove, next to the docks and a short walk from the CBD and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It is volunteer-run, so opening hours can vary; check ahead. The building is one of only four former Carnegie libraries in Australia.
A 1.3-metre sandstone statue from about 1836, believed carved by Daniel Herbert, satirises Governor George Arthur standing with his hand on his penis; it was donated to the museum in 2023. Plumbing fittings suggest it was once part of a fountain.
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