Museum sights in Northern Territory
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Aviation Museum
Darwin’s aviation museum, about 10km from the centre, is one for military aircraft nuts. The centrepiece is a mammoth B52 bomber, one of only a few of its kind displayed outside the USA, which has somehow been squeezed inside. It dwarfs the other aircraft, which include a Japanese Zero fighter shot down in 1942 and the remains of an RAAF Mirage jet that crashed in a nearby swamp. Free guided tours commence at 10am and 2pm.
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Museum of Central Australia
The natural history collection at this compact museum recalls the days of megafauna − when hippo-sized wombats and 3m-tall flightless birds roamed the land. Among the geological displays are meteorite fragments and fossils. There's a free audio tour, narrated by a palaeontologist, which helps bring the exhibition to life.
There's also a display on the work of Professor TGH Strehlow, a linguist and anthropologist born at the Hermannsburg Mission among the Arrernte people. During his lifetime he gathered one of the world's most documented collections of Australian Aboriginal artefacts, songs, genealogies, film and sound recordings. It's upstairs in the Strehlow Research…
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School of the Air
Started in 1951, this was the first school of its type in Australia, broadcasting lessons to children over an area of 1.3 million sq km. While transmissions were originally all done over high-frequency radio, satellite broadband internet and web-cams now mean students can study in a virtual classroom. The guided tour of the centre includes a video. During school term you can view a live broadcast from 8.30am to 2.30pm Monday to Friday. The school is about 3km north of the town centre.
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National Road Transport Hall of Fame
If you fancy big trucks, the National Road Transport Hall of Fame has a fabulous collection, including the chassis of the first Kenworth to come off the production line in 1971, and a few ancient road trains. There are over 100 restored trucks and vintage cars, including many of the outback’s pioneering vehicles. Admission is valid for two days so take your time.
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Royal Flying Doctor Service Base
This is the home of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, whose dedicated health workers provide 24-hour emergency retrievals across an area of around 1.25 million sq km. Entry to the visitor centre is by a half-hour tour that includes a video presentation, and a look at the operational control room as well as some ancient medical gear and a flight simulator. The adjoining cafe serves excellent homemade pies.
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Mbantua Gallery
This privately owned gallery, which extends through to Todd Mall, includes a cafe and extensive exhibits of works from the renowned Utopia region, as well as watercolour landscapes from the Namatjira school. The upstairs Educational & Permanent Collection (adult/child $4.60/3.30) is a superb cultural exhibition space with panels explaining Aboriginal mythology and customs.
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Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
This superb museum and gallery boasts beautifully presented galleries of Top End–centric exhibits. The Aboriginal art collection is a highlight, with carvings from the Tiwi Islands, bark paintings from Arnhem Land and dot paintings from the desert.
An entire room is devoted to Cyclone Tracy, in a display that graphically illustrates life before and after the disaster. You can stand in a darkened room and listen to the whirring sound of Tracy at full throttle − a sound you won't forget in a hurry. The cavernous Maritime Gallery houses an assortment of weird and wonderful craft from the nearby islands and Indonesia, as well as a pearling lugger and a Vietnamese refugee…
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Aviation Museum
The Aviation Museum is in the Connellan Hangar, Alice's original aerodrome. There are exhibits on pioneer aviation in the Territory and, of course, the famous Royal Flying Doctor Service (the old plane out the front belonged to John Flynn, founder of the service).
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Australian Pearling Exhibition
Next door to the Indo-Pacific Marine Exhibition at the Waterfront Precinct, the Australian Pearling Exhibition has excellent self-guided displays and informative videos on the harvesting, farming and culture of pearl oysters in the Top End. You can also experience life underwater inside a simulated diving helmet.
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Railway Museum
It's been a lot of years since the engine displayed at the Railway Museum ran out of steam. Housed in the original station building (1926), historical displays also reveal the function of the humble railway throughout WWII.
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East Point Military Museum
On the East point’s northern side is a series of WWII gun emplacements and the small East Point Military Museum. Video footage of Darwin Harbour being bombed is a sobering reminder of Australia’s only wartime attack.
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Never Never Museum
Back in town, the Never Never Museum has displays on the northern railway, WWII and local history. Access via the Rural Transaction Centre next door.
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Katherine Museum
The museum is in the old airport terminal, about 3km from town on the road to the gorge. The original Gypsy Moth biplane flown by Dr Clyde Fenton, the first Flying Doctor, is housed here, along with plenty of interesting old rusty trucks. There's a good selection of historical photos, including a display on the 1998 flood.
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Central Australia Aviation Museum
Housed in the Connellan Hangar, Alice's original aerodrome, there are displays on pioneer aviation in the Territory including Royal Flying Doctor (RFDS) planes.
Easily the most interesting exhibit is the wreck of the Kookaburra, a tiny plane which crashed in the Tanami Desert in 1929 while searching for Charles Kingsford Smith and his co-pilot Charles Ulm, who had gone down in their plane, the Southern Cross. The Kookaburra pilots, Keith Anderson and Bob Hitchcock, perished in the desert, while Kingsford Smith and Ulm were rescued.
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Australian Aviation Heritage Centre
Darwin's aviation museum, about 10km from the centre, is one for military aircraft nuts. The centrepiece is a mammoth B52 bomber, one of only two of its kind displayed outside the USA, which has somehow been squeezed inside. It dwarfs the other aircraft, which include a Japanese Zero fighter shot down in 1942 and the remains of an RAAF Mirage jet that crashed in a nearby swamp. Free guided tours commence at 10am and 2pm.
Buses 5 and 8 run along the Stuart Hwy, and it's on the route of the Tour Tub.
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Alice Springs Transport Heritage Centre
At the MacDonnell siding, about 10km south of Alice and 1km west of the Stuart Hwy, are a couple of museums dedicated to big trucks and old trains. If you want to visit both the museums, consider the half-day tour,which includes entry, a guide and lunch.
The Old Ghan Rail Museum has a collection of restored Ghan locos (originally called the Afghan Express after the cameleers who forged the route). There's also the Old Ghan Tea Rooms and an ad-hoc collection of railway memorabilia in the lovely Stuart railway station.
For a truckin' good time, head to the National Road Transport Hall of Fame which has a fabulous collection of big rigs, including a few ancient road trains.…
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Old Lutheran Mission
Shaded by tall river gums and date palms, the whitewashed walls of the old Mission contrast with the colourful countryside, captured by the settlement's most famous inhabitants, the Namatjira family. This fascinating monument to the Territory's early Lutheran missionaries includes a school building, a church and various houses. One building is now a gallery with examples of Namatjira's work.
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Battery Hill Mining Centre
Gold-bearing ore was originally crushed and treated at what's now Battery Hill Mining Centre. Tours of the gold battery go underground at regular intervals and take about an hour. You can also pay a little extra to try your hand panning for gold.
For geology buffs there's the Minerals Museum, and for the histroy buffs there's the Social History Museum, tracing local life up to the '60s.
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Arltunga
Situated at the eastern end of the MacDonnell Ranges is the old gold-mining ghost town of Arltunga. Its history, from the discovery of alluvial (surface) gold in 1887 until mining activity petered out in 1912, is fascinating. Old buildings, a couple of cemeteries and the many deserted mine sites in this parched landscape give visitors an idea of what life was like for miners here.
There are walking tracks (the Government Works area has the best collection of remnant drystone buildings) and old mines to explore (now hosting bat colonies), so bring a torch. The unstaffed visitor information centre has many displays and old photographs of the gold-extracting process, plus a…
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