412 Stanley St. South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia
The central attraction at the Queensland Maritime Museum is the Australian River Class Frigate Diamantina. Built in the latter part of WW2, she only saw about a year of service as a Frigate, including shore bombardments in the Bougainville campaign, and she was also the platform for the Surrender ceremonies of Nauru and Ocean Islands - the latter being the last of the Japanese surrender ceremonies at the end of the Pacific War.She then went into reserve until 1959, when she was converted into a survey ship, in which capacity she served until 1980. Being the last of the WW2 frigates in RAN service, she wasn't pilfered for spares, and after being acquired by the Maritime Museum, she was able to steam to Brisbane under her own power, so the machinery is largely complete. She has now been partially reverted to her frigate configuration, and is marketed as the "last survivor of the River Class Frigates" - which is a bit of a stretch, as there are still two of the American Tacoma class preserved in Thailand.She is now permanently displayed in a dry dock - although there have been a couple of interruptions to this - the dock gate failed at one stage, and she was floating for several years while they built a replacement caisson, and more recently she got wet again when the Brisbane River flooded, and the dock was filled with floodwater. The dock itself is an important artefact - one of many similar docks built around the empire in the late 1880s, and used extensively for repairing/refitting US fleet submarines during WW2 when they operated from Queensland.Diamantina is well presented. Most of the below deck compartments (except the boiler room, and some of the deeper machinery spaces) are open to visitors, and a lot of the lower deck compartments are either restored to their original state or include various related exhibitions. You used to be able to go down to the dock bottom which gave a different perspective of the ship - however WHS regulations have now put paid to that. The ship is in pretty reasonable condition - there is evidence of ongoing upper deck maintenance and fresh painting - although the hull exterior could do with a fresh coat.She has awnings rigged over the foc'sle and quarterdeck - which is understandable given the typical Queensland climate - but it does make it harder to get decent photographs from onboard the ship. But although not part of the museum, one of the pedestrian bridges across the Brisbane River crosses above the maritime museum site, which provides an opportunity to get decent photographs of the whole ship from an elevated position.In addition to the Diamantina and the dock, there are various other external exhibits, including the two 8-inch guns from the Queensland flat-iron gunboats Paluma and Gayundah (built 1884), while there is a room in the main museum dedicated to the US 7th Fleet - and in particular the USN submarines that operated from Brisbane during WW2.The museum is within walking distance of the Brisbane CBD, and there is also a train station close by - so very easy to access.Another museum well worth a visit.
Links and References:
Nunan, P, 2017, HMAS Diamantina, Boolarong Press, Salisbury, QLD.