Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, Maritime museum in Queenscliff, Australia.
Queenscliffe Maritime Museum is a regional maritime museum in Queenscliff, Victoria, at the entrance from Bass Strait to Port Phillip. It was established in 1986 in a building erected to preserve and display the town's last lifeboat. Its grounds hold a fishermen's waiting shed with ship paintings by Henry Zanoni, the deck house from the iron sailing ship Shandon, and the buried hull of the torpedo boat HMVS Lonsdale.
The museum was established in 1986 to preserve the last remaining lifeboat that had served the Queenscliff area for 50 years. It grew into a comprehensive archive of the region's maritime past.
The museum houses a fishermen's waiting shed decorated with ship paintings by artist Henry Zanoni, showing vessels that entered Port Phillip Bay between 1895 and 1947. These works offer a glimpse into how maritime life was documented through local art.
The museum sits within walking distance of the Searoad ferry terminal, so it can be reached on foot from the Queenscliff arrival point. Exhibits are inside the building, while the fishermen's waiting shed, the Shandon deck house and the buried HMVS Lonsdale hull are on the grounds; allow time for both.
The grounds contain the buried hull of HMVS Lonsdale, a torpedo boat that is a rare remnant of early Australian naval history. Additionally, a hydrographic model displays the complex shipping channel known as the Rip between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean.
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