Australian Transport Museum
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Concept Design of Museum Building

Armidale Regional Council


 Australian Transport Museum a step closer to reality with Regional Planning Panel DA approval

The Australian Transport Museum Limited is one step closer to realising a long held dream of a museum to showcase the region’s transportation heritage with the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) approving the development in July.

Once funding is secured the museum will be a marquee tenant within the Armidale Airside Business Park adding to the region’s tourism destinations. Armidale Regional Council has been a supporter of the project leasing land at a peppercorn rate in the business park to the Australian Transport Museum Limited on a ten year lease of $365 annually with a further option for an additional ten years.

Mayor Sam Coupland said the museum’s construction price tag of $6.5m was the next challenge for the committee but was confident they would soon get the job done.

“To get to this significant milestone of an approved development application has been a 10 year labour of love for committee members and I congratulate the team on this significant achievement."

For more information and to view a video of the concept design please visit the Australian Transport Museum website

http://www.australiantransportmuseum.com.au/


“creating a world class transport (motoring) museum” including a display area, shop, cafe, function area, office and amenities”
Australian Transport Museum
Also known as "The Armidale Transport Museum"

New England district residents are the caretakers of a wealth of important and broadly representative examples of the historic development of transport in Australia. These items span many forms of private, commercial, agricultural and military transport including examples that are horse drawn and motorised, built to operate in road, rail, air, water and farmland environments. There are approximately 400 examples of road operated motor vehicles alone and these range from examples that are sole survivors in the World, to those that are authentically original examples representing the diversity of products that the automotive industry has produced.

The mission is to establish a leading museum in Armidale to showcase these exhibits.

Now on Show at The Armidale RegionalAirport

  Toyota 700 UP10
This vehicle was one of the earliest Toyotas to be sold in Australia
Specifications
Two Cylinder Air Cooled Engine Capacity 697cc Power 36 b.h.p (27Kw)
Transmission Two Speed Toyoglide Automatic. Rear Wheel Drive
Suspension Independent torsion bar front ---Semi elliptic leaf at rear
Dimensions Overall length 3570mm Wheelbase 2130mm Width 1415mm Weight 580kg
Maximum speed 110 k.p.h.
Owned by The Australian Transport Museum 
The following Article is reprinted with permission from:
Armidale's Australian Transport Museum receives donation of rare Sunbeam cars
TOP GEAR: Lyndon Hardman in the Australian Transport Museum's latest donation, a 1961 Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans. Photo: MATT BEDFORD

The 24 hours of Le Mans is on again this weekend and Armidale has a little-known connection to the world’s oldest sports car race.
A 1961 Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans is one of four rare Sunbeams recently donated to the city’s Australian Transport Museum.
Museum secretary Eric North said the Le Mans was possibly the only one of its kind in the country.
“The Harrington Le Mans was actually run in the Le Mans [race],” he said.
“They’re not the sort of car that’s comparable with the GT40 Ford or with the Ferrari or Audi.
“But they are very good little cars.”

Reprinted with permission  from:
Armidale business park makes room for new transport museum
 BUILDING: Secretary of the Australian Transport Museum Ltd Eric North displayed the plans for the new transport museum.

The paint was not even dry on the $6.5 million funding announcement giving the Armidale Regional Airport Business Park the go ahead, before secretary of the Australian Transport Museum Ltd, Eric North, had whipped out his plans for the museum's new building.
For Eric, to see the place in the park for the museum's construction has been a decade-long project, and it is now well and truly planned out.
We've got access to an enormous number of vehicles in this area.
Eric North
"Council are going to go ahead with the estate and they've allocated us an area of land just on the southern side of what is proposed to be the service centre," he said.
"We're going to build a very nice building there, which we expect will enhance the tourist potential of this city enormously. We expect 10 to 15 thousand extra people could come to town simply just for the museum.
"We're going to have a whole variety of stuff in the museum, from veteran cars going back to the turn of the [last] century, horse drawn vehicles that come from around this area up to modern performance vehicles."
He said exhibits would be rotated and themes could be used for exhibits, such as cars used in movies and television.  

"We've got enough to put on a pre-1930s display or a muscle car display, all these sorts of things that are going to attract people to the area," he said.

"There is also going to be an area where things other than motoring are displayed. So, all in all it's going to be a very exciting proposition." 

Flow-on benefits to Armidale businesses

The flow-on effect to all Armidale businesses will be increased general sales, mainly for motels, caravan sites, petrol outlets, other tourist attractions, food providers and retail. This is a key selling point for local businesses with a focus to have them sponsor the project. What’s in it for them? Increased business by direct referral to their business as sponsors. The ATM will grow our total tourist market for both Armidale and the New England Region.

Australian Transport Museum Experience

Inverell has an existing Car Museum. The objective is that car enthusiasts will have a number of museums to visit in the district. At nearby and picturesque Dorrigo is one of the largest collections of historic rail engines and rolling stock in the Southern hemisphere. We hope to organise events in the future that will give visitors to our region an opportunity to integrate this collection with their “Australian Transport Museum Experience”.

Donations

Donations to the Australian Transport Museum over $2 are Tax Deductible
We are currently accepting suitable cars that are donated or bequeathed to the Museum Trust. 

Fund Raising and Sponsor Opportunities
Project such as ours require capital expenditure to lever upon that wealth of assets available for display. Opportunities exist for private and corporate sponsorship to assist us with getting our facility built and fitted out to a high standard.