Austbuilt Maritime Museum: Lisa views this collection in the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia

The people of Port Adelaide are proud of their heritage - and rightly so. As one of South Australia's earliest settlements is was the major entry point for immigrants and supplies. We're all familiar with the South Australian Maritime Museum in Lipson Street. Opened in 1986, it's seen more than a million people through its doors.

But there is another museum that celebrates Port Adelaide's rich maritime history. In the back streets is the Austbuilt Maritime Museum - the result of one man's lifelong obsession with all things nautical. It's a strange collection of items squeezed between the quaint cottages of Peterhead. Out the front, the deckhouse of an old tugboat gives a pretty good indication that this is no ordinary museum.

Doug West, Pt Adelaide Historical Soc.: "This is the wheelhouse of the Tancred which was a rescue tug built by women at war in 1942 in Texas. The Harbours' Board purchased it and used it for tying the barges and for dredging and eventually when it was scrapped old Keith bought the wheel house and moved it down here."

'Old Keith' is the late Keith Le Leu - the bloke they called 'the bowerbird of the ocean'. Born in Port Adelaide in 1926, Keith spent his life at sea as a merchant sailor - but he was always drawn back to the Port. He died in 2006 but before his death, he handed the museum over to the Port Adelaide Historical Society - whose volunteers have vowed to keep it going.

Doug West: "He collected everything from anywhere it could be found or seen. Having been a seaman on ships, he traveled all over Australia, around the world and wherever he saw something that was going to be scrapped or thrown out he would organise to get it for the museum."

That includes almost unimaginable items like the original deckhouse of the ketch, the Failie. She had a long and varied career, which included being requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy during World War Two. After that she returned as a trading ketch and had a regular run between here and Kangaroo Island. Sadly, the 89-year-old languishes alongside a Port Adelaide the wharf - pleading for a multi-million dollar refit to make her seaworthy again. Perhaps sensing that mightn't happen, Keith LeLeu bought the deckhouse which his old mates are slowly restoring.

Inside the museum's three buildings are decades of accumulated nautical flotsam Keith gathered from all over the world. The museum is a celebration of South Australia's strong connections with the sea and the shipping industry including a collection of builder's plaques from the Whyalla shipyards. Between 1940 and 1978 they built more than 60 vessels - many still ply the world's oceans.

Back at the Austbuilt Maritime Museum in the port - another box and another story like the Shipping Agents records for the square-riggers that used to come into Port Victoria back in the 1930s. The papers hark back to the days when the jetty at Port Victoria was creaking under the weight of mountains of bagged wheat awaiting the flotilla of massive Windjammers to take it away.

If you love history and love exploring it at your own pace - this is the place for you. The enthusiastic volunteers are only too happy to show you around Keith LeLue's single-handed celebration of his life at sea. You'll find the Austbuilt Maritime Museum at 95 Fletcher Road in Peterhead - you won't miss the wheelhouse at the front gate. It's open Wednesday's from 12 till 4 and Sundays from 2 till 4. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

Austbuilt Maritime Museum
95 Fletcher Rd
Peterhead
Open times: Wed 12am-4pm Sun 2pm-4pm

Published 14th June 2009