The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum Review

Task: Write a review on a recent excursion. Detail the time, date, highlights, disappointments and intriguing facts about your location of choice. Improve the engagement of your review with the reader by adding literary techniques and / or humour. 

Structure: 

Introduction: Date, time, place, who you went with, overall for how long, mention key highlights/ disappointments. Overall level of enjoyment. 

Body paragraph 1: Highlight/ disappointment 1 

Body paragraph 2: Highlight 2/ disappointment 

Body paragraph 3: (If applicable): highlight 3/ disappointment / what could be improved 

Conclusion: Who would you recommend this destination to? 

On the 19th of January and on the 21st of January, at 9:30AM, I visited the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum located a short drive away from Cairns city with my parents. We stayed there for around 2-3 hours on the first visit and 1 hour on the second visit. Some key highlights were the tanks, the artillery pieces and the shooting gallery. Overall, it was a game changing experience and I would love to revisit, check out any new vehicles and the shooting gallery.

The first main highlight was the amount of tanks that were there. These war beauties are kept in pristine condition and they were restored to full glory by the workers at the museum. They have a wide variety of vehicles coming in from countries all around the world and from different time periods. For example, they have tanks from WW2 Russia all the way up to French Cold War tanks. This museum has the largest tank/artillery collection in the whole of Australia!

The artillery howitzers and cannon were maintained in amazing condition. These artillery pieces can even date back to the inter-war period or even World War 1. Along with the cannons, they have an extensive display of ammunition in different shells, bullets and mortars. The variety of shell types are incredible, featuring HE (high explosive), APDS (armour piercing discarding sabot), smoke shells, practise/training rounds and so much more! It’s almost impossible to see these tank shells close up unless you are actually in a tank crew!

The shooting gallery, situated on an underground floor, will blow you away. This underground room has a gallery filled with WW2 guns and firearms. Within this room is a smaller room. This contains a little shooting alley, equipped with ammunition and a few rifles like the Mosin Nagant and the Taipan X. The shooting gallery is well managed by the staff as they guide you on how to fire a real rifle. (I fired a Czechaslovakian 22 calibre rifle, the Taipan X pump action rifle and the Soviet Mosin Nagant).

All round, this museum is a MUST visit, especially if you are a big tank/army enthusiast! The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum provides an immersive and informative experience to all tank fans.