The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum

The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum display armoured vehicles and artillery from the late 1800’s onwards. Open 7 days!
2 Skyrail Drive, Cairns 4878
(911)

The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum opened to the public on Saturday the 6th September 2014. The museum is privately owned and is the largest museum of its kind in the southern hemisphere. We are located next door to Tjapukai and Skyrail in Smithfield, a suburb of Cairns, North Queensland. We are dedicated to the collection, preservation, restoration and display of Armoured Vehicles and Art

illery from the 1800’s to the present day. Our collection includes armoured vehicles and artillery from both world wars with a particular focus on WWII. Currently our collection consists of over 200 armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, many of which will not be found anywhere else in Australia. We are constantly on the lookout for additional pieces of equipment that will make our museum a richer experience for those visiting. INSTAGRAM:
TRIPADVISOR: https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g1152915-d7129046-Reviews-The_Australian_Armour_and_Artillery_Museum-Smithfield_Cairns_Region_Queensland.html

18/07/2026

Some blokes ease into a new project. Ron rips the cupola apart on day one. The final Grant Rustoration is underway and it's classic Ron: unconventional, irreverent, pure hard work on tanks. If you followed his solo Sherman build, you know exactly what you're in for. If you didn't, buckle up.
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IaBom1qYT2k
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

17/07/2026

Nobody knows a Grant tank like Ron. Fresh off his solo Sherman build, he's straight into the final Grant Rustoration, and he opens by taking us inside. Every hatch, every bracket, every uniquely Australian modification made to this tank during its WWII service, explained by a man who's spent a lifetime around these machines. Details you simply won't find documented anywhere else.
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IaBom1qYT2k
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

16/07/2026

There are two types of pain in a workshop. Physical pain, and realising you forgot a packer AFTER fitting the entire shield. Daz experienced the second kind this week. Bolt by bolt, bracket by bracket, everything lining up beautifully on the Wespe. And then... that face. That moment. We've all been there.

🎟️ See the Wespe at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KvdVdl-harY
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

11/07/2026

Years of silence. One chance to wake her. Steve and Dave crank the Chieftain over, watching the gauges and willing the oil pressure to build. The electrical system has been diagnosed, the fuel bled, the oil system bled. There's nothing left to prepare. Britain's Cold War heavyweight either wakes up now, or the boys go back to the drawing board.

And when she's ready, you'll see her in person: the Chieftain will be a BRAND NEW addition to the AusArmourfest lineup! 🎟️ Tickets: https://bit.ly/aaf26

🔧 Did she wake? Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4vV_qm8f2b4
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

10/07/2026

Nobody suffers quite like a man trying to resurrect a Chieftain. Steve's week involved: a tank shuffle, mystery surprises under the decks, some exciting content (18+), a missing exhaust box, and a Leyland L60 engine that has been breaking British spirits since the 1960s. Every moment of chaos brought him one step closer to the big question. Did it start?

Big news: the Chieftain will be a BRAND NEW addition to the AusArmourfest lineup! 🎟️ Tickets: https://bit.ly/aaf26

🔧 Find out if she started in the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4vV_qm8f2b4
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

06/07/2026

Forget everything you know about driving a manual. The Hetzer uses a Praga-Wilson preselector gearbox. You select the next gear in advance with a lever, then stamp a pedal to engage it. No clutch pedal. No grinding gears. The system was so intuitive that barely trained crews could drive it into combat after minimal instruction, which was exactly the point when Germany was running out of experienced tankers in 1944. Steve shows us exactly how it works from inside the tightest fighting compartment we've ever filmed in.

🎟️ See the Hetzer at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/opQgtmqRm6E
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

05/07/2026

🔊 Sound ON. No commentary. No music. Just a 27-litre, 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Meteor derived from the engine that won the Battle of Britain. Our D-Day Cromwell on the track, drone and action cam, pure engine. This is what 600 horsepower of WWII British engineering sounds like at full chat.

🎟️ Hear it in person at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/opQgtmqRm6E
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

04/07/2026

Starting a Hetzer without setting it on fire. Easier said than done. The Praga straight-six under the deck of Germany's most effective late-war tank destroyer needs a careful hand. Over 2,800 of these were built in barely a year on a Czech chassis, no taller than a standing man, armed with a 75mm gun that could knock out almost anything it faced. And apparently they still try to catch fire when you start them.

🎟️ See the Hetzer at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/opQgtmqRm6E
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

03/07/2026

Steve walks us through the start up procedure on our D-Day Cromwell. Under the deck is a 27-litre, 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Meteor, the tank version of the Merlin that powered the Spitfire. When it fires up, Steve's face says everything. "You never get sick of that!" A man who genuinely loves his job.

🎟️ See the Cromwell at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/opQgtmqRm6E
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

01/07/2026

Millions of people have driven a virtual Panzer II. Nobody has seen this. The Wespe's driver compartment is fully exposed, giving you a real-time view of a WWII Panzer II chassis in motion: steering, linkages, transmission, all of it working exactly as it did 80 years ago. This footage doesn't exist anywhere else on the internet.

🎟️ See the Wespe at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S0JNFlh6870 - (Dropping 6pm AEST)
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

Address

2 Skyrail Drive
Cairns, QLD
4878

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+61740381665

Website

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