Play station

Not so long ago I took my nephew, of almost four years old, to the Southern Hemisphere's largest artillery and tank museum called The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum. There's hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery on display, a shooting range and they also have an outdoor track where the tanks are sometimes driven. It's a very cool, privately owned, collection and my nephew and myself could hardly wait to get inside!

He was pretty funny once we got in, running from here to there, calling over to me to look at this and that; he simply didn't know where to go next and whilst I tried to systematically work my way through I had to abandon the strategy in favour of his more excitable and freestyle method.

When he finally calmed down I began to spend some time really studying the exhibits and explaining them to him a little - he listened patiently to how tracks work and tanks steer, how a turret traverses, armour deals with incoming fire and so on. He was an awesome listener too, picked up on the concepts and asked intelligent questions...But then he saw the play station.

This huge play table of some four metres square was literally covered in toys, all of a military nature. There were tanks, artillery, bomber and fighter jets, little army men, boats and various terrain features, bunkers, buildings and the like. It was cool because the kids could crawl underneath and get into the middle, as you see in the image above, and be completely surrounded by the play table.

I played with him which reminded me of my own youth playing with similar toys; I didn't have so many, but had done the same thing as my nephew was doing around forty five years ago. It was a nice time playing with him and watching his imagination creating the very same scenarios I'd done myself all those yeaers ago.

After he was done at the play table we went back to the tanks, although we had to go back to the play table a time or two as well.

We spent over three hours in the museum and, whilst I'd thought my nephew would last the distance and I'd have my visit cut short through his lack of interest, it didn't happen. He stayed engaged as we wandered around and was happy to chat away about the tanks and artillery, their applications and various other aspects. It was a really great morning.

On the way out we walked through the store which was full of military toys, books, games, models and clothing and, because I can't say no to him, I ended up buying his an army tank...he calls them gun cars. He loved it and I got a big hug. A win-win situation.

I'll do a proper post about the museum in the near future and may feature some of the tanks and artillery pieces displayed there, provide some history and information. I've been to The Tank Museum in Bovington, UK and it's an awesome place to visit, but my visit to this one in Cairns Australia was equally as good, I guess probably because I shared it with my nephew. If you get a chance to go to either, it's well worth the effort.