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Touring the museum on mobile

HMB Endeavour. Source: ANMM.

Michelle Mortimer, Touring the museum on mobile – the new ANMM app, Australian National Maritime Museum, 1 July 2015

anmm-appAre you planning a visit to the Australian National Maritime Museum? You can now take a self-guided tour with our newly-released mobile app, built on the Google Cultural Institute platform. Users can swipe, scan and scroll their way through collection highlights as they wander in and around the museum, or use it to virtually explore our exhibitions from anywhere in the world.

The wharf side tour offers information about the history, significance and construction of the small and large vessels on display right outside the museum on Darling Harbour. Some of our most popular vessels, including submarine HMAS Onslow, destroyer HMAS Vampire and the replica of Captain Cook’s famous HMB Endeavour, are open daily for visitors to board and examine up close. In the coming months, we’ll be working with Google’s Street View team to capture 360-degree views inside these larger vessels, so visitors can virtually ‘climb aboard’ and explore below deck, all within the mobile app.

Inside the museum, you can use the app to explore key objects on display in two of our permanent galleries. Navigators tells the story of Australia’s early encounters with European trade and exploration and showcases many of our oldest and rarest objects. You’ll see the 1788 Charlotte Medal, artefacts from the wreck of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia, and early charts and maps by Matthew Flinders and Louis de Freycinet.

Watermarks, our largest gallery, examines Australia’s connection with the water – as swimmers, surfers, rowers, sailors and voyagers. The app surfaces a selection of visitor favourites, like the striking Beer Can Boat, Kay Cottee’s legendary globe-circling yacht Blackmores First Lady and items used on Oskar Speck’s incredible 50,000-kilometre kayak journey from Germany to the Torres Strait.

The ANMM app is free and available to download on your Android device, with an iOS version to be released by Google soon. Download it from the Google Play Store.

If you don’t have an Android device, you can still explore collection highlights and web-based exhibitions through the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Google Cultural Institute page.