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
(910)

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

05/09/2026

The show ends. The work doesn't. Days 2 and 3 of AusArmourfest brought their own dramas: a distributor issue on the M8 Greyhound, the Patton starving for fuel, and a mystery puddle somewhere in the lineup that sent the boys on a leak hunt through the fleet. The culprit? The T-72. Of course it was.

Running a fleet of 80 year old vehicles means the to-do list never ends. Good thing that's exactly how we like it.

🎟️ AusArmourfest 2027 tickets are LIVE: https://bit.ly/AusArmourfest2027
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nY0lIsaHBEc
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

04/09/2026

In 2023 we pulled three barn find Grant tanks out of the Victorian bush. Carved up by farmers, stripped by scrappers, left to rot for decades. This week, Ron finished the last of them. Here's the full journey of the final Grant: from seized wreck to hand-made hinges, a jackhammered turret ring, a replaced floor, one very stubborn battery box, and now a completed tank. One bloke. One shed. Three Grants.

The grand finale is live now.

🎟️ AusArmourfest 2027 tickets are LIVE: https://bit.ly/AusArmourfest2027
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/C09wxX932M4
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

03/09/2026

Everyone wants to get close for the Panther inertia start. Nobody stays close for long. The moment everyone hangs around all day for at AusArmourfest: the crowd crams in, the crank winds up, and then one of only two surviving Panther Ausf. A tanks in the world fires up with a bang and a face full of smoke. Watch the crowd jump.

🎟️ AusArmourfest 2027 tickets are LIVE: https://bit.ly/AusArmourfest2027
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nY0lIsaHBEc
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

02/09/2026

The calm before 30+ WWII vehicles fire up. This is how AusArmourfest's WWII Vehicles in Action day begins: the entire fleet assembling, engines warming, crews running final checks, and punters waiting for the first vehicle to roll. What could possibly go wrong? (Plenty. Watch the full video.)

🎟️ AusArmourfest 2027 tickets are LIVE: https://bit.ly/AusArmourfest2027
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nY0lIsaHBEc
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

30/08/2026

A bit of rain? The tanks don't care. 🌧️ Day 3 of AusArmourfest is FAMILY DAY and the vehicles are out on the track RIGHT NOW, running rain, hail or shine.

🚨 TODAY ONLY: Kids under 12 ride FREE with a paying adult. 🚨

Raincoat up, grab the kids, and come get on tanks tearing up the track. Honestly, they look even better in the rain.

📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns
🎟️ Tickets: https://bit.ly/aaf26

29/08/2026

Day 1 of AusArmourfest was an absolute spectacle. Over 30 running WWII vehicles, Sherman, Cromwell, T-34, Panzer IV, Wespe and so much more, all thundering past the crowd. This is what living history looks like.

Day 2 is happening RIGHT NOW. Tickets still available. 🎟️

📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns
🎟️ Tickets: https://bit.ly/aaf26

27/08/2026

A minute of everything the Chieftain threw at us this week. Corroded solenoids. Sludge in every filter. Oil where oil shouldn't be. And one single dead circuit buried somewhere in fifty years of Cold War wiring, quietly stopping the entire gearbox from working.

Nobody said reanimating a British main battle tank would be easy. Did we win? The full episode is up now.

🎟️ AusArmourfest is THIS WEEKEND: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lA03UKZPWKM
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

🚨 TOMORROW. FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST. 🚨⭐ AusArmourfest 2026: WWII Vehicles in Action ⭐The majority of these vehicles are exclu...
27/08/2026

🚨 TOMORROW. FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST. 🚨

⭐ AusArmourfest 2026: WWII Vehicles in Action ⭐

The majority of these vehicles are exclusive to Friday only, they will NOT be on display Saturday or Sunday. Sherman, Cromwell, T-34, Panzer IV, Wespe and over 30 more running WWII vehicles across the day. If you want to see them in action, tomorrow is your only shot. 🔥

Full schedule below 👇

📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns
🎟️ Tickets: https://bit.ly/aaf26

See you there! 🔧

26/08/2026

The mission: get the Chieftain to the other side of the museum in one piece. The risk: 55 tonnes of Cold War Britain, brakes that were never much chop to begin with, and a structural pillar in the way. Steve's plan if it went wrong was to shut everything down, climb out and run away very fast.

He made it. Smoked the clutch a bit on the way, and reckons it's easily the angriest tank he's ever had to drive. Then he opened up the transmission, and that's where the real trouble started.

🎟️ AusArmourfest is THIS WEEKEND: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aKJMTam47ck
📍 Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, Cairns QLD

25/08/2026

Everyone assumes the hard part of restoring a tank is the engine, or the turret, or the gun. For Ron this week it was a battery box. Eight hours. One panel. Everyone else clocked off and went home, and Ron was still there, alone in the shed, beating it into shape. If you've ever lost a whole day to a job that should have taken twenty minutes, this one's for you.

🎟️ See this Grant at AusArmourfest: https://bit.ly/aaf26
🔧 Full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZIaNShJRLgI
📍 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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