The oldest nautical collection in Australia is housed in a series of historic buildings (circa 1850’s) at the South Australia Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide. Opened in 1986, and built upon the previous collection of the Port Adelaide Institute (1872), the museum highlights the voyages of Mathew Flinders and Nicholas Baudin ( explorers of Australia’s South Coast). Among the museum’s collections are 17 ship figureheads, the oldest being from 1836 (the largest such collection in Australia), Captain Cook’s traveling chest, and objects from the exploration voyages of the Macasson Seafarers ( from southwest Indonesia). Today, the museum is home to more than twenty thousand nautical objects, including several historic vessels; i.e. the steam tug “Yelta” (1949); the navy work boat “Archie Badenach” (1942); the iron trader “Nelcebee” (1883); and the oldest, the timber ketch “Annie Watt” (1870). For lovers of all things nautical, this was an informative and fun place to visit.
...and the 1942 Navy workboat “Archie Badenach.”
Restoration work being done on the 1883 iron trader “”Nelcebee”.