A37575
23rd Oct 2012, 12:26
Visited the RAAF Museum at Point Cook today. There was a Japanese tour group going through and being escorted by one of the Friends of the Museum old blokes who did a fine job of explaining the exhibits.
I have visited the RAAF Museum on many occasions in the past 20 years as the Point Cook base is surely one of the most beautiful aerodromes in Australia and I have a special affinity with the place since graduating from there in another life. I noticed today the old former living double-storey barracks wooden barracks near the parade ground have recently been jazzed up with new paint whereas in past years they were run-down cracked and peeling paint and home to nests of red back spiders. It must be costing a lot of money to rejuvenate these old quarters and I wonder who is paying for it.
But try and buy a cup of coffee at the RAAF Museum and you'll have no luck and its been like that for 20 years. Although the museum is widely advertised in tourist brochures they forget to say you should bring your own thermos flasks for tea or coffee because the RAAF cannot afford to put in a coin operated coffee machine inside the museum. Yet the owners of the site can afford thousands of dollars to pretty up old wooden buildings that have bare empty rooms. This despite having having world class historical aviation exhibits on display with many thousands of overseas and local visitors each year.
OK - so the museum doesn't attract tourist dollars because its a free museum with free tap water but how come the owners of the place refuse to install a hot drink vending machine or something more sophisticated than tap water for the visitors. I must say the musum staff are quite apologetic for the lack of a hot and cold drink vending machine but as the dispute between the RAAF and the original food contractor has been dragging on for well nigh 20 years, I guess they can only shrug their shoulders and say hard luck.
I have visited the RAAF Museum on many occasions in the past 20 years as the Point Cook base is surely one of the most beautiful aerodromes in Australia and I have a special affinity with the place since graduating from there in another life. I noticed today the old former living double-storey barracks wooden barracks near the parade ground have recently been jazzed up with new paint whereas in past years they were run-down cracked and peeling paint and home to nests of red back spiders. It must be costing a lot of money to rejuvenate these old quarters and I wonder who is paying for it.
But try and buy a cup of coffee at the RAAF Museum and you'll have no luck and its been like that for 20 years. Although the museum is widely advertised in tourist brochures they forget to say you should bring your own thermos flasks for tea or coffee because the RAAF cannot afford to put in a coin operated coffee machine inside the museum. Yet the owners of the site can afford thousands of dollars to pretty up old wooden buildings that have bare empty rooms. This despite having having world class historical aviation exhibits on display with many thousands of overseas and local visitors each year.
OK - so the museum doesn't attract tourist dollars because its a free museum with free tap water but how come the owners of the place refuse to install a hot drink vending machine or something more sophisticated than tap water for the visitors. I must say the musum staff are quite apologetic for the lack of a hot and cold drink vending machine but as the dispute between the RAAF and the original food contractor has been dragging on for well nigh 20 years, I guess they can only shrug their shoulders and say hard luck.