Day 34 Saturday 22 August 2026

Out and about today in magnificent weather, 21c and blue skies.  

I thought that today I would fit in a visit to the National Anzac Centre and to the Albany whale museum.  Well things didn't quite work out that way.  Firstly I wasted a significant amount of time in the morning trying to insert photos into yesterday's blog which meant I was behind the 8 ball to start with.

After a quick visit to the visitor information centre to collect some local maps I headed to the National Anzac Centre (NAC), little did I know that the NAC is located on an old army base known as the Princess Royal Fortress, probably named after the Princess Royal but I am only guessing.  The fortress and it's garrison was created to man the guns defending Albany from whichever beligerent had its eyes on Australia's riches at the time.

Two 6 inch guns were installed and various updates were made over the years.  The installation become very important in WW2 due to the US navy using Albany as a depot for a significant part of it's submarine fleet.  

A 6 inch coastal defence gun (pretty interesting eh?)

So, as well as the NAC there are a number of exhibitions relating to the fort and also walks that take you to the gun sights and other points of interest.

The NAC was opened in 2014 as part of TGW centenary commemorations.  It is a museum in the modern style and is very interactive and very well done if you like that sort of thing.  The museum overlooks King George Sound which is a large area of sheltered water close to Albany.  King George Sound was chosen to assemble the various Australian and New Zealand troopships and their naval escorts to take the ANZAC troops to Egypt for further training and then to continue to the fighting on the Western Front in Europe. 

I don't mean for this blog to be a history lesson on TGW but as we know the ANZAC troops didn't go onwards to Europe but ended up being allocated as part of the combined British & French force to land on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.  

The first ANZAC fleet was convoyed due to fears of German naval raiders operating in the Indian ocean.  Later troop ships did not need to be convoyed due to the German naval menace being removed.

Consequently the NAC focuses very much on the forming up of the fleet in King George Sound and the subsequent fate of the men aboard the ships.  

Although I am not overly fond of this style of museum I have to admit that some of the old style exhibits were worth the entry fee, including Sandy's hoof.  A large interactive map of the sound is also very well done.

Sandy's Hoof - Sandy was General Bridges horse and was the only Australian horse that went overseas that was returned to Australia.

There are some great views of the sound from various points around the NAC and the fortress.  There are also some displays of military hardware and exhibitions about life in the fort from pre federation to post 2nd WW when the fort was decommissioned.

The photo below provides a good view of the sound and the ships anchored on the sound give a good perspective of the size and nature of the sound and why it provided a great anchorage for a large number of ships. 

King George Sound. The ships you can see anchored in the sound are grain ships waiting for their turn to dock and take on a cargo of grain.

After some lunch and a trip to the Light Horse memorial I discovered that I had left myself short of time to visit the whale museum so that bit of excitement has to wait until tomorrow.