A must-see tourist destination in an 1835 building! 13 rooms of displays with genuine artifacts from the days of sail and steam, and the pilot service that's operated since 1805. The Low Head Pilot Station Maritime Museum is located in the historic 'Pilots Row', designed by government architect, John Lee Archer and built by convict labour in 1835. The convict workforce had earlier built the first
Low Head Lighthouse, also designed by Lee Archer, in 1833 on the Signal Station on the headland about 1 km north of the Pilot Station.
'Pilots Row' is the oldest existing building on the Low Head Pilot Station. It replaced earlier wooden huts and housed four pilot families in the four conjoined, but separate apartments with the front doors opening out onto Pilots Bay where the boarding boat was then kept near the original jetty. The building was designed to be viewed from the river and we encourage visitors to walk around the building to explore the grounds and discover some almost hidden treasures. Convicts, not only built the accommodation, they worked as pilots and boatmen for the 'Marine Department' from the very earliest times until the convict system ended. The Pilot Station can therefore claim to have been a Convict site for longer than any other place in Tasmania! The Low Head Pilot Station is the oldest group of pilot buildings still in existence in Australia, where the Pilot Service still operates from the same site. Sydney and Hobart used private pilots, but Low Head was 40 miles (65 kms) from Launceston and, until 1816 when convict work gangs moved down to begin building George Town as the Chief Settlement in Northern Van Diemen's Land, Low Head was a small isolated settlement on its own. The Pilot launch 'Paterson' is moored in the marina just below the 1847 Coxswain's Cottage, and can be seen in operation whenever a large ship enters or leaves the Tamar Estuary to/from the Bell Bay or Long Reach deep-water port just south of George Town. The shed which holds the restored engine of the bucket dredge Ponrabbel II that operated up and down the Tamar Estuary for over 50 years, is open on Wednesdays and plans to have a motor attached to work the engine are progressing well! You'll find numerous outdoor exhibits in the yards behind Pilots Row, the largest of them being the historic yacht 'Redpa' at the end of the building. The Boatshed below the Museum houses a collection of boats and boat-building equipment and, like the Ponrabbel Shed, it can be opened on request if there are extra volunteers available to do so. There is an extensive maritime library and collections of records, photos, ephemera, etc stored in archival conditions. Research facilities, including the George Town & District Historical Society's family and local history resources are available on Wednesdays or by appointment. Let us know if you have family who spent time at Low Head and we will very likely be able to find you something of interest. There is a relatively new exhibition featuring some special 'Stories of Pilot Station' in the Sir Raymond Ferrall Exhibition Room and new acquisitions are added from time to time. Admission is just $5 for Adults, $4 concession and $3 for children or $15 for a family, with reduced prices for Group bookings - $3 for Adults; $1 for school groups;
