SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION MUSEUM

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (16:22): On Monday, the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide officially welcomed a retired F111, a gift from the South Australian government. It actually arrived on Sunday, and I understand that it may have got a little lost on St Vincent Street—which is sight I would have paid money to see. Yesterday, there was a breakfast for members and volunteers to come and celebrate its arrival and watch the commencement of the bolting of the wings, and so on, back onto the plane, ready for display.

The plane will be huge, literally as well as figuratively, as a drawcard for the Port. I encourage everyone to take its arrival as a reminder and an excuse to get down to the Port and have a look at the brilliant Aviation Museum, and then take in one or more of the other attractions. The Aviation Museum is one of three in a row on Lipson Street, the others being the Maritime Museum, very near my office, and the Railway Museum, right next door to the Aviation Museum. These two work closely together and for special occasions, such as the Port Festival, a train runs back and forth between them to allow visitors to seamlessly enjoy both museums.

The Aviation Museum may be slightly less renowned than the Railway Museum—no doubt not least because there is no Thomas the Tank Engine equivalent to grab young children's imaginations—but it is an outstanding museum experience and building in popularity. The arrival of the F111 will, I am confident, make it one of the great tourism sites in South Australia. The museum has really been running since 1984 and first moved to the Port two years later. Since then, it has been in a couple of locations, moving to Lipson Street in 2006. It is fully accredited by the History Trust and run by volunteers.

What I think I like most about the museum, apart from its outstanding contribution to the attractions of the Port for visitors and locals, is the shed out the back, where the blokes—and I am willing to be corrected if it is not all blokes, but it always has been when I have been there—get their hands dirty cleaning up the planes and keeping the engines working. The knowledge and skills in that shed are so impressive, and I think it is hugely important that we keep those skills alive in our community.

For me, the strength of the museum is that it caters so well for young kids through to serious aviation buffs. If you are interested in aviation history or in particular kinds of planes, or you just want to come and listen to really loud engines being cranked up, you will love the museum—the last experience being offered at regular open cockpit days. When Old Smokey gets going, you need ear plugs (which are supplied) and probably a wipe down afterwards, but it is well worth it for the experience.

For children, the overwhelming attraction of the museum is the number of planes you can climb in, press buttons on and generally lose yourself in imagining that you are really flying. My children love going there, and force me to sit in the back of a little plane while they fly it up-front or sit in one of the passenger planes while they serve invisible meals. I recommend that everyone drop into the museum, open from 10.30 to 4.30 every day, admire the F111, enjoy the rest of the museum and then have a look around the rest of the port.