Surfing classics: Museum’s collection assessed as Australia’s best

A TORQUAY museum has been classified as holding Australia’s best collection of surfing items and one of the best in the world, according to an independent assessment.

The Australian National Surfing Museum’s (ANSM) staff are also imagining the possibilities of their new home inside the Surf Coast Cultural Centre project.

Originally conceived as Surfworld by the Australian Surfriders Association in the mid-1980s and opening in 1993, the museum’s ownership and management was transferred to the Surf Coast Shire in 1994.

It now has a diverse collection of 12,000 items, comprising surfboards and other surfing equipment, artworks, clothing, cultural artefacts and a library of photographs, ephemera, books, magazines, documents and audio-visual materials.

The shire commissioned and funded Circa Museum Services in September 2021 to carry out the Collection Significance Assessment at the ANSM, and the council noted the completion of the assessment – which speaks of the ANSM in glowing terms – at their February 22 meeting.

“The ANSM Collection is the most significant collection assembled about Australian surfing and one of the finest surfing collections in the world,” the assessment by Dr Megan Cardamone stated.

“It is also one of Australia’s best sports collections.

“The collection traces the history of surfing in Australia across more than a century, from its origins as an imported fringe activity, to a vibrant youth movement, and finally to its formalisation and recognition by world sporting bodies.”

ANSM co-ordinator Kim Biggs said the ANSM team already had a strong opinion of the collection’s importance and narratives.

“It’s been through other accreditation programs that have consistently rated it as being fairly high.

“I think where the benefit lies is for those who are not necessarily very directly involved in the museum.

“What it does is it build our credibility in others’ eyes.

“Because they’re on the ground, the team has a really good idea of what else there is out there, and the answer is there’s very little out there that comes from particularly that community perspective.”

The ANSM will be revamped and expanded in the $36.86 million first stage of the Surf Coast Cultural Centre.

“We are delighted to be involved in that process, and certainly very keen to ensure better housing for the collection but also a better experience for visitors, so it’s a really exciting project for us,” Ms Biggs said.

She said the ANSM was presently in a masterplanning process to provide a blueprint for the museum not only in the existing premises but also its future home, and this was expected to be complete by the end of March.

The council has also applied for a state government grant for two bespoke display cases to house three of the ANSM’s most significant objects identified in the Collection Significance Assessment: Simon Anderson’s revolutionary Energy Thruster surfboard, and two antique Hawaiian surfboards.