The Brisbane Tramway Museum

Museum in Brisbane, QLD

The Brisbane Tramway Museum is the place to Ride on Brisbane's preserved trams in a bushland setting, and Inspect restored trams and other reminders of Brisbane's tramway era. Books, souvenirs, and cold drinks are available, aside from picnic tables. Admission includes unlimited tram rides on the day.

In June 1968, The Brisbane City Council announced its intention to close down its tramways and change over to an all bus transport system. A public meeting was soon convened with a view to preserving a representative collection of the city's tramcars. Thus the Brisbane Tramway Museum Society was born, a voluntary organisation that today is the custodian of some twenty four tramcars and two trolleybuses.

The Museum opened to the public in June 1980 and since that time has continued to expand and develop. In 2001, the Museum gratefully received a special payment from the Queensland Government to enable major improvements to be made.

These include the construction of a new engineering workshop; the renovation of an existing workshop; the construction of another new building for maintaining and restoring trams and the repositioning of tram tracks. New tram tracks include the laying of a triangular junction both to give access to the tram restoration building and to enable trams to be turned so as to even the wear on their wheels.

The society currently operates six tramcars and has another two under restoration. Planning is under way for the construction of an extension to the tramway that will allow visitors to experience a longer ride on our trams.