Port Welshpool & District Maritime Museum
Preserving and Promoting the Port Welshpool Region
Information
On display is the "Janet Iles" fishing vessel from which the Smith family collected many of the items in the museum during their 80 years of fishing in Bass Strait. She is registered as "Significant Vessel" with the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Arnie Smith, the last surviving son of the family donated the house, its contents, collections and the "Janet Iles" to the Shire of South Gippsland in 1976 to be used as a permanent tourist attraction.
The area includes a Memorial Rose garden to commemorate local World War 1 soldiers. The gardens are ideal for picnics with benches and seats provided.
The landscaped grounds display larger marine and agricultural equipment while the two sheds house historical agricultural tools and fishing equipment.
The museum continues to develop the Smith family collection with the Entry Area and rooms dedicated to displaying Maritime and Pioneer information.
Featured are photographs, marine artifacts, fish and shell collections and even a room maintained as a "Turn of the Century" family room.
Among the fish on display are flying fish, a sawtooth, ribbon fish, striped tuna, porcupine fish, deep water flathead and various species of shark.
The rarest of the fish is an 'Opah' - a Mediterranean visitor caught by Mr Smith Snr in 1913.
Recent history information of the "Seacat" ferry, "Promair" operations, the off shore oil industry and the "Western Spruce" disaster in 1969 is also displayed throughout the museum.
