Darwin Aviation Museum — Attraction in Winnellie

We paid $24 for two senior ticks, and we had the place virtually to ourselves on a quiet weekday morning, before a tour bus rolled up and disgorged a few more souls.

There is a shop selling books, t-shirts, souvenirs and the like. I noticed some tables and chairs at the back of the shop, which once upon a time may have been for food service from a cafe which doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s handy if you want to bring your own lunch and need a place to sit down.

The museum is quite easy to get to. From the bus stop outside Woolies in Cavenagh St., it took us about 25 mins to get there on bus no. 5. Getting back wasn’t so easy though, requiring us to cross over the busy Stuart Highway, and get the bus on the other side, where they aren’t so frequent. We waited about 35 minutes for bus no 8 to take us back to the city. It’s advisable therefore to plan your visit, if using pub transport, so as not to spend too much time waiting at the bus shelter on the Highway near the Darwin Showgrounds, with very little in the way of shops or cafes in the near vicinity.

But back to the museum! It’s main attraction is the massive B52 bomber, right in the centre of the hangar. You can peek inside the cockpit and go down into the belly of the beast where an improvised little cinema has been set up that shows a movie of the history of the B-52 bomber, it’s association with Aust and how this particular one came to be where it is today.

Just near the entrance is another little theatre which shows two movies: one called the “Battle of Australia”, about the bombing of Darwin and the aftermath, another one which I only saw snippets of, showcasing Darwin’s aviation history.

But the principal focus here is a military one, and most of the exhibits are military aircraft, from WW2 onwards including aforementioned B-52 bomber, the famous Aussie Sabre fighter, the Cobra attack helicopter and various other instruments of war, alongside some exhibits of civil aviation.

There’s plenty to see, and the exhibits are well spaced out in a large and airy hangar, making it a breeze to comfortably move around from one exhibit to the next. The lack of crowds also helped.

I did notice that the exhibits seemed quite old, and probably haven’t been updated for a few decades. One exhibit of civilian aviation had a sign that said “This Display Sponsored by Ansett Australia'', but we all know that Ansett Aust went out of business nearly 20 yrs ago. Time to update, guys.

Toilets are in the far corner just as you enter the exhibition hall. The gents are a tad small with only one cubicle, which isn’t really adequate.

But still, coming here was a worthwhile experience, and it’s an enjoyable way to spend a few hours while in Darwin. I...

Mixed feelings. I think the team has dedication and are doing a great job with the information panels of Australian aviation history and with the B-52. The museum has a little shop too and some cold drinks and seats. That part is very good. But the overall collection is a bit cramped (usual for aviation museums), disjointed sometimes (why the hobby planes next to eat planes?) and not as well documented as the B-52 was. Some impressive engines on display (on this I found they bettered other museums of vehicles), and they have real units that participated in WWII (and show the scars of the battle, when not a wreck that crashed in real life!). I think it has potential, it just needs more visitors to have the fundings to refine it all. Since Darwin does not have a thrilling cultural life anyway I can recommend to spend the time and visit this museum instead of cooking in Darwin's city...

About 10 km from the city centre, this amazing museum is a must see in Darwin. There's a vast array of Aircrafts/Helicopters ranging from light biplane like -- Tigermoth, to famous WW2 Spitfire fighter, Sabre jet, F-111C Jet, to the mighty B52 Bomber. But the B52 Bomber truly appears like a Monolith dwarfing all other planes/everything else, with its huge wingspan, mounted with Eight (8) Huge Pratt & whitney Jet engines! This Enormous Aircraft almost occupies the entire length & width of this beautiful museum hangar so to speak. There's lots of history about WW2. Few short documentary videos of Darwin bombing etc are available to watch. You can easily spend 90 minutes to about 2 hours inside this amazing aviation museum and still not have enough of it. Very good staff at the reception. Highly...