The RAN Fleet Air Arm Museum is about ten minutes out of Nowra - and about a 2.5 hr drive south of Sydney. Driving is probably the only practical option to get here - the train doesn't come any closer than Bombaderry - which is a bit too far to uber in from. There is plenty of free parking right outside. Entry is free.It is just outside the security perimeter of HMAS Albatross - the main shore base for the RAN Fleet Air Arm. It used to be the base for the A-4 squadrons (first the RAN ones when they weren't on HMAS Melbourne, and then an RNZAF Squadron which was based there to provide fleet training services), but the base now services mainly helicopters.The museum is in a large purpose-built hangar, and they have a pretty impressive collection of approximately 30 aircraft and helicopters including a Firefly, Sea Venom, Sea Fury, and a Gannet. They also have a collection of drones, including the Australian Kalkara and Jindavik targets. Plus, there is the usual array of photographs, artifacts, models, aircraft engines etc. There are quite a few video screens around the place playing interviews of FAA personnel, and footage of FAA operations. Outside the front door, they have one of the propellors from the carrier HMAS Melbourne (II), along with one of her radar antennas, and (somewhat out of place), a six-inch gun from HMAS Melbourne (I) - the WWI town class cruiser. The gun used to be inside the hangar, but was moved outside to make way for aeroplanes sometime between 2019 and now, and is looking quite weathered.There is an elevated pathway that runs down the centre of the hangar which provides a good vantage point for all of the exhibits, and there is also an outdoor veranda where you can go and watch planes taking off and landing on the runway that runs just past the museum. There used to also be a cafe and a shop here, but they appear to have closed.It’s a good museum, even if it is a bit hard to get to. Nowra isn't the ends of the earth - but it is getting close!
