The Museum is situated within Hobart. This precinct is recognized as one of Australia’s most significant historical military precincts and its appearance today is much as it was when the first buildings were constructed in 1814.
The Museum is located in the Gaol which was built in 1847. This building is little changed from when it was fist built even though over the years it has also been used as a Girls Reformatory, a married quarter, a store and offices.
Volunteers operate the Museum. Displays interpret the colonial period when the British Army occupied the site and the various conflicts Tasmanian service men and women have been involved in from 1899 to the current operational deployments.
On 3rd December 2011 marked the 200th Anniversary of Anglesea Barracks in Hobart. This is the oldest continually used army Barracks in Australia and contains a mix of Colonial Georgian, Regency, Federation and later buildings within a precinct that has been recognised both locally and nationally as of great historical importance to both Tasmanian and Australia.
As part of this event a book, Barrack Hill, A History of Anglesea Barracks 1811–2011 has been produced.
This book published by the Department of Defence not only explores the development of the Barracks buildings through word and images but also reveals many of the previously untold stories of many of the occupiers of the Barracks over the past two hundred years.
The 260 page book is hard covered (with dust jacket) has over 180 images, end notes, several appendixes and is indexed.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to support the work of Legacy and the Australian Army Museum Tasmania.
Copies of the Book can be purchased from the Australian Army Museum Tasmania, Anglesea Barracks Hobart. Cost is $50 plus $12 postage anywhere within Australia.
The Museum has recently loaned some World War 1 artefacts to a new museum being built at Zonnebeke, Belgium. This museum will feature displays from all the commonwealth countries who defended Belgium in the Great War and is located near the Tyne Cot military cemetery. Located on the cemetery is a German blockhouse that was the object of the Tasmanian 40th Battalion attack on 4th October 1917 and during this attack Sergeant Lewis McGee won his Victoria Cross when armed only with a pistol he took on a machine gun crew located in a pill box. His successful action in silencing the machine gun allowed the attack to continue.
The objects loaned included a fold up canvas and wooden campaign chair used by Captain Lyndehurst Giblin 40th Battalion. His name and rank are prominently stencilled on the canvas. Giblin post war was prominent at both the State and Federal level in economics.