Vietnam Veterans Museum

A walk around the Museum

The first area to visit is the Cafe and Shop area
The Cafe is a nice place to relax.

The wall decorations are quite interesting

Like a copy of this cheque from Toll Racing in 2007

Followed by this one in 2008

This photo seperates the two cheques.

View of the shop area

There is a large assortment of books re the Vietnam war period and a big collection of unit and corps badges

Also a very nice collection of wooden items which are well worth considering

The workmanship is first class and they are not expensive

Very nice helo models --- any kid up to 80 would love them.

A large range of GI caps and shades

I am sure everyone would find something here to purchase

Now to enter the museum itself

The first item to take your attention will be the massive Cobra Gunship

The Jet Motor --- the front Canon --- to the huge amount of armament --- the fire power is massive.

The next big item is the Centurion Main Battle Tank -- with a massive 20 pounder main gun, three machine guns and an infra red spotlight system, that allows night fighting --- At 56 tons it is indeed a huge item.

The Centurion Display book which shows photos and explanations for various Centurion Tank items .
Well worth taking the time to inspect

"Boris" The Crew Commander of the Centurion MBT -- these tanks were used in Vietnam with great success.

The Artillary setup

Inside the Bell helicopter

There are three Land Rovers inside as well

An excellent dispay of the Vietnam tunnels showing how they lived underground with sleeping quarters, instruction rooms and hospitals. The air shafts are blue and connecting tunnels are black. They obtained water from underground streams that flowed beneath them using a pully and bucket setup.

The Spectra holographic production is an evocative and very moving experience, highlighting people, places and actions that contributed to Australia's involvement in our country's longest war.

The little guy in the middle of the picture, behind the Colt 45, moves around and tell's the story with a back ground noise of tanks, gunfire and helicopters.

The background and the sound make this a very real experience.

The tissues are supplied -- you may grin and walk past them on the way in, but believe you me, you will reach for them on the way out!

A display for 1 RAR

This ID plate is off the Museums Centurion, in my search have only seen three of these items -- they were removed by crews for "Safe Keeping". just before being sold by the army. I believe that the Tank hangers at night looked like a mob of firefly's had invaded it, torches everywhere as ID plates were removed

The air force display

The American display

One of the two Armoured Displays

The Armour sections second display areas.

The R.A.E.M.E. / L.A.D print of a Centurion having a transmission changed in the field.

Armour display case showing an exploded tank round from a mine blast, set of C C bino's and case, also infra red sight
The model head has Rusty Dyson's original Beret he wore in Vietnam.

A close up shot of the cabinet the exploded shell was caused by a mine explosion that set fire to the 20 pounder rounds stored under the turret floor.
There is a lot more to go into this display area shortly.

Part of the Armoury is seen on the left, the stairs lead up to the top floor -- there is a disabled persons lift for access to the top section

A view of some of the display area.

Looking across the museum from up stairs,

The Armoury which is still being setup at this point of time.

The top middle display of the M16 was given to me by a serving member of the 1st Armoured Regiment. It had fallen off a mantle piece and broken. Some work with glue and a coat of paint--plus some items I had and a display of rounds from a friend and we had a nice display, complete with spare mags and a bipod. All told there were about six people involved in this one item, that does show how everyone helps in small ways to make a nice display.

A great display of hand guns -- unfortunately taking photos of items behind glass does test me and the only way I can manage any success is from an angle, which will sometimes work depending on where the lights are! So many items are not done full justice with the camera.

A very famous print of the "Battle of Binh Ba", a very big battle that had tanks and infantry working together
The 1st Armoured Regiment won one of its battle honours here.

"The Breakout" another famous Armour print. There is some question of where the painting was to represent, but its believed to be the tanks breaking out of Balmoral after the night battle to clear the enemy from the B52 bomb hole in the open area.
The Battle of Coral / Balmoral was the longest battle that Australians fought in. Long Tan and Binh Ba were well known, but Coral / Balmoral went on for 26 days and not a lot has been reported about it. Armour won battle honors here as well.