The Australian Army Artillery Museum was an artillery museum located in

North Fort North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

, on the northern head of the entrance to

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

, in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was formerly called the "National Artillery Museum", and had a large collection of the heritage and history of the

Royal Australian Artillery The Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery, normally referred to as the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA), is a Regiment of the Australian Army descended from the original colonial artillery units prior to Australia's federation. Australia's f ...

. It was administered by the Army History Unit (AHU) with the assistance of volunteer members of the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company(RAAHC).

Collections

The museum displayed more than 50

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

s and

mortar Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...

s and associated equipment, numerous paintings, displays, memorials, and medals. The Library has over 2,500 photographs, about 4,000 technical and historical books, and unique research material. The collections covered the period from the first European Settlement (1788) to very recent operations.

Facilities

The museum grounds included shaded

picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors (Al fresco dining, ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event su ...

areas with barbequeues, a Harbour Lookout Area (the ''Observation Platform''),

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

fortifications and tunnels (listed in the Australian

Commonwealth National Heritage list The Commonwealth Heritage List is a heritage register established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the Government of Australia, Australian government, on Crown land, land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, Mon ...

), and a Café that had extraordinary views of the entrance to Sydney Harbour and the channels to

Bradleys Head Bradleys Head is a headland protruding from the north shore of Sydney Harbour, within the metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is named after the First Fleet naval officer William Bradley. The original Aboriginal inhabi ...

and the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

Closure

On 19 December 2010 the museum closed and the collection moved into storage at Bandiana pending creation of a new army artillery museum at

Puckapunyal Puckapunyal (more formally the Puckapunyal Military Area, but also known as the Puckapunyal Camp or Puckapunyal Army Base, and colloquially as "Pucka") is an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, Victoria, Seym ...

army base in Victoria, the base the Artillery School had moved to in 1997, leaving the museum behind at North Head. The move resulted from incompatible objectives of the

Sydney Harbour Federation Trust The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust ("Harbour Trust") is an Australian Government agency established in 2001 to preserve and rehabilitate a number of defence and other Commonwealth lands in and around Sydney Harbour. The Trust has been focused o ...

as owner of the site and the Army History Unit who were responsible for the collection. The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust wanted the historic North Fort area to be open to the public seven days a week, in line with their objectives to maximise public access to the former defence lands around Sydney Harbour. They further insisted that if the area was not opened seven days a week then the army would have to pay rent to the trust. The Army refused, claiming that their funding levels only permitted the opening of the museum and North Fort area on weekends. The army also gave as a reason for the move that the purpose of their unit museums was to assist in the training of junior soldiers and that the artillery museum had been unable to serve this purpose at North Head, being nearly 1000 km away from the school at Puckapunyal.Last rounds for artillery museum at North Head
/ref>

References

External links

"Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company"
{{Museums and galleries in Victoria (Australia) Museums in Sydney Military and war museums in Australia Australian Army Artillery museums