Australian Armour & Artillery Museum

The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum in Cairns showcases over 240 armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, including rare World War II tanks, making it the largest collection of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

Planning your visit

The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum in Cairns holds over 240 armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, the largest such collection in the Southern Hemisphere, and its significance rests on rarity rather than quantity. It includes German heavy armour of the kind that survives in only a handful of examples worldwide, alongside Allied, Soviet and postwar vehicles, much of it restored to running condition in the museum's own workshops.

For enthusiasts this is a destination in its own right — the sort of collection normally requiring a trip to Bovington or Kubinka, sitting incongruously in tropical north Queensland. The vehicles are displayed indoors in climate-controlled halls, which matters both for preservation and for visitor comfort.

Restoration work is part of the offering, with the workshop visible and vehicles periodically demonstrated in motion.

Cairns is otherwise a reef and rainforest destination, which makes this an unexpected wet-day alternative for visitors whose diving plans have been rained off.

Bookable options include entry with transfers from Cairns, and combined formats pairing the museum with the Kuranda Skyrail cableway and scenic railway through the rainforest. Current availability is listed below.