Discover stories behind the latest exhibitions, fascinating explorations into maritime science and archaeology, and the surprising details of what happens inside (and outside) a modern working museum.
75 years of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
18 Dec 2019
Our latest exhibition, Challenging, thrilling, racing: Sydney to Hobart 75 years, is a dramatic visual essay about the history of this prestigious race.
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Hook line and sinker: A reminder of Old Sydney
25 Oct 2019
A recent gift to the museum is a small masterpiece of Victorian-era manufacturing that evokes a bygone era when Sydney was a vibrant working seaport.
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Midwinter in Antarctica with Roald Amundsen
23 Jun 2017
With midwinter upon us and an ever-so-slight chill in the air, my thoughts go straight to the land of ice, where the darkest day of a four-month twilight darkness means so much – the coming of the sun.
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A Poignant Remnant from the 'Plucky little Ship Aurora'
20 Jun 2017
Today marks 100 years since the famous polar vessel Aurora left Newcastle, Australia with a cargo of coal, never to be seen again.
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Out of Hawaii: Surfing goes global with Australia’s King of the Surf
13 Jun 2017
18-year-old Australian surfer Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly’s victory in Hawaii in 1963 positioned him, in a very real sense, as the human ‘winged keel’ in forging a golden moment in Australia’s sporting folklore.
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Lessons from the Arctic: How Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole
21 Mar 2017
‘Race to the Pole – Captain Scott successful’ claimed The Age’s headline writer on 8 March 1912, the day after Norwegian adventurer Captain Roald Amundsen slipped quietly into Hobart in his polar ship Fram.
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Chinese maritime traditions and Lunar New Year: It’s the Year of the Rooster… so bring on the Dragons!
27 Jan 2017
It’s Lunar New Year and time to present the colour and excitement of ancient Chinese culture from the museum’s collections. Dragons feature heavily. And so does racing.
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Wild Ocean Woman: Kay Cottee’s ‘First Lady’
25 Nov 2016
Imagine being thrown about in your small yacht surfing down a 20-metre wave. You’re in the Southern Indian Ocean, it’s freezing, you’re exhausted and soaked through. You’re days or weeks from land. You have no GPS. You’re alone.
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Harold Cazneaux: Fame and family
12 Sep 2016
If you weave your way through the imagery and beautiful photographs in Through a different lens – Cazneaux by the water, you’ll notice that 1937 was a big year for Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux: the culmination of a forty-year career that corresponded with the dawning of the Australian nation, and an emerging national consciousness.
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