Queenscliffe museum stays active during Hub construction

THE Queenscliffe Historical Museum is still in operation despite its new home now being built, offering some services and announcing the impending return of its monthly talks.

The Queenscliffe Hub is not expected to open until early 2022, and the museum has relocated to the old tavern at 18 Hesse Street in the meantime.

The museum’s administration, the usual range of publications and videos and some displays are available for access.

Requests for research are still being processed between 11am and 4pm from Monday to Wednesday, but the insufficient space does not presently allow visitors to do their own research.

Queenscliffe Museum publicity officer Eddie Loughnan said the second edition of Dwellers of Fisherman’s Flat, the first of which sold out in record time, is now available for sale.

He said some exhibits were being hosted virtually, including one with a previously untold story of Queenscliff’s World War II history accessible by the QR code below.

“One exhibit now available to see via QR code is the story of a two-man Japanese spy plane which flew over the Queenscliff Fort on February 26, 1942, and at such a low altitude that one of our soldiers could clearly see the observer was training a machine gun on him.

“While details were censored at the time, museum researchers have recently assembled the details and created a nine-minute video about Fujita, who was the pilot of the small float plane carried on the deck of a submarine and, after surfacing near Cape Otway, was catapulted off the deck.

“It followed the coast to Queenscliff and then north over Point Cook to the outskirts of Melbourne before returning to its submarine to journey onto America to continue its spying activities.”

He said the other exciting news was the resumption of the Queenscliffe’s Historical Museum’s popular monthly talks.

The first of these will be held on May 28 in the Point Lonsdale Community Hall with the topic “From China to the Goldfields to Queensciff”, and will feature author Linda Brumley and researcher Clare Ribaux.

“They will describe how many who did not return to China established market gardens in the Springs or became fishermen who lived on the Flat,” Mr Loughnan said. The talk will begin at 10.30am, with morning tea from 10am. Admission is $5 for museum members and $10 for non-members.

As part of the Queenscliffe Hub’s construction, the concrete floor of the basement – the last remaining trace of the old museum – has been removed.

The area between the post office and the library has since been excavated, and the foundation of the front wall of the new hub has already been poured.