East Point Military museum

Infobox Museum
name= East Point Military Museum


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established= 1965
location= East Point, Northern Territory
type= Military, War
Manager=Fay Karamanakis
curator=Chris Benton
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website= The East Point Military Museum was originally set up as an artillery museum by the Royal Australian Artillery Association (RAAA) to exhibit photographs and artefacts from Darwin's war time history. It is a little known fact that Darwin was bombed by the Japanese during World War II. The 64 raids conducted on Darwin lasted for almost 2 years and killed 250 people. It is a privately run museum and until recently had never received any funding from the Government.

History

While under the control of the RAAA, the museum was not promoted as a corporate entity and thus sported a range of ill-fitting and badly promoted names such as 'the Artillery Museum' and 'East Point Museum', none of which gave the museum any real definition. In 1990 the newly appointed management decided to encapsulate location and purpose in its name by calling it the East Point Military Museum (see 1990-1996 history)

The East Point Military Museum was established in 1965 by the Royal Australian Artillery Association and was officially opened on 16th August 1969. Located in an old bunker that served as a command post for artillery fire control, it was Darwin's and the Northern Territory's first museum. Through the late 60's and 70's local and interstate collectors donated equipment and items of interest for the museum to display. While primitive in exhibition techniques, the museum did attract a fair amount of interest due to its collection of war paraphernalia. One of the projects undertaken was earth removal around the No.2, 9.2 inch gun emplacement. Entrance to the museum at that time was the donation of a silver coin.

1980-89

Throughout the 80's, the museum's collection grew as Darwin's dark history became more evident to the public. An automated slide show was added in the early 80's and was replaced in 1987 by a continuously running 15 minute video showing dramatic footage of the Japanese bombing Darwin. Display techniques continued to improve along with visitations from the public.

1990-96

In 1991 the committee of the Royal Australian Artillery Association appointed a full time manager to handle the operations of the museum. The lease of the museum was given to the rights of Chris and Felicity Benton, who soon after built near the museum to fit their management of the museum. This was coupled with plans to substantially upgrade the museum's presentation and facilities to meet the demands of local and international visitors. Late in 1995, the museum was refitted with new exhibits on loan from the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. The artefacts on loan comprised mainly of weapons from what is now known as the Bell collection. Apart from the new exhibition, long overdue air-conditioning was installed to the command post building to maintain precise atmospheric control over the weapons collection.

1997

In November the museum established a display of banned "D" class weapons. Some of these are being donated to the museum by the owners as a result of the national buy-back scheme. This action has pleased many ex-owners who see the opportunity to display and preserve some of these historically precious artefacts. Amongst these preservations is a small collection of OWEN submachine guns. Of all the Owens produced during WW2 it is believed less than 20 still exist

Work commenced in early 1997 on the condensing of the display area. This involved the removal of many non-indigenous trees and the planting of almost 100 various types of flora to act as natural screenings. The various artillery and vehicle artefacts were placed close to the main exhibit area to enable visitors to see the entire collection in a much smaller and readily accessible area.

2005

The lessees of the museum appointed Mrs Fay Karamanakis as full time manager of the museum and its assets.cite web | last = James | first = Melinda | title = Darwin Bombing Anniversary | work = Australian Broadcasting Corporation | publisher = Stateline Northern Territory | date = 2006-02-17 | url = http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2006/s1572882.htm | accessdate = 2008-09-07]

2008

Prior to the 2008 state elections, The NT government announced that it had allocated over AUD$10m in funds to be spent on various projects for the museum.

References