Australian Wooden Boat Festival

02/06/2026

Showcase Your Boat Ashore or Model Boats at AWBF 2027 - EOIS Now Open!

It’s here! Expressions of interest to display your Boat Ashore or Model Boats at the 2027 Australian Wooden Boat Festival are now open!

After opening Boats Afloat EOIs last month, it’s now time to register for Boats Ashore and Model Boats.

Displaying your wooden boat at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest celebration of maritime culture is something special. Across four vibrant days, you’ll be part of a living showcase of seafaring tradition, sharing your craft with the public and connecting with fellow boating enthusiasts.

Vessels of every size, shape and rig are welcome to apply.

https://australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/display-your-boat/

Photo credit: Alex Nicholson and Ben Cunningham.

24/05/2026

Have you registered your expression of interest yet for your Boat Afloat at AWBF 2027? We are getting excited! Are you?
✨⛵Tag your crew in the comments! ⛵✨

Photo credits: Alex Nickelson and Ben Cunningham

17/05/2026

Marine Vallee - If they could speak... Objects from the Museum of Tahiti embodying voyages and cross-cultural exchanges in Polynesia.
✨AWBF Symposium 2025✨

Dr Marine Vallée is Assistant Curator at the Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau.

Trained in heritage and contemporary Pacific arts (École du Louvre, University of Auckland), her research interests include history of collecting and curatorial practices, the provenance of objects and their resonance in contemporary visual arts and cultures.

She recently was the lead curator for the exhibition ‘Hōrue: Waves from the past, waves from the present – Hōrue : ’Are nō mua ra, ’Are nō teie nei’, reflecting on the history and contemporary place of surfing in French Polynesia.

Among the oldest objects held at Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles are wooden boards from voyaging canoes that reflect the amazing journeys undertaken across the Pacific Ocean.

Other objects illustrate technical or material integrations resulting from the multiple voyages and exchanges that occurred throughout the region from the ‘contact’ period.

This presentation highlights heritage objects reflecting on navigating endeavours, as well as circumnavigations and whaling voyages across the archipelagos of today’s French Polynesia. These objects bear in their biographies, sometimes even in their materiality, marks of cross-cultural exchanges.

Click on the link to watch the presentation by Marine during the AWBF Symposium 2025.

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15/05/2026

⛵Join the Journey ⛵
Tawe Nunnugah 2027 EOIs Now Open ✨

Every two years, the Living Boat Trust leads a fully catered ten-day small boat expedition through the waterways of southern Tasmania, arriving in Hobart for the opening of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

Known as tawe nunnugah, meaning “travelling by canoe” in the language of the Melukerdee people, the voyage honours a long tradition of moving across these waters, connecting past and present.

First held in 2007, the 2027 expedition marks the 10th Tawe Nunnugah, a milestone for this much-loved journey. Crews can take part in their own boats or aboard the Trust’s fleet, with a four-day return journey to Franklin following the Festival.

The Living Boat Trust is now inviting expressions of interest. There’s a rich archive of past Raids online, including interviews filmed by Matt Conboy, offering a glimpse into the experience for those considering the journey.

Organised entirely by volunteers, the Raids also support the Living Boat Trust’s ongoing work preserving maritime heritage.

More Info and EOI here 👉 https://livingboattrust.org.au/tawe-nunnugah-2027/?mc_cid=3ad8121230&mc_eid=a8cd2679c2

10/05/2026

📚The Book Barge 📚
Do you have any sea-themed books to donate?

We are so pleased to welcome back Community Partner – The Children’s Charity for a second festival, presenting The Book Barge at the Little Sailors Village! A quiet reading space for children and families to pause, escape and enjoy sea-themed stories.

You can help grow The Book Barge library by donating quality, pre-loved sea-themed children’s books during Variety’s Monster May book drive. Drop donations at Shiploads stores statewide, with books collected by Variety volunteers and brought to the festival.

Don’t miss the Variety Monster Book Fair on 4–5 July at Princes Wharf 1, and keep an eye out for The Book Barge at AWBF 2027.

08/05/2026

⛴ TasPorts Community Grants Now Open ⛴
✨Bring your maritime community ideas to life✨

AWBF Principal Partner TasPorts has launched a refreshed Community Grant Program, offering grants of up to $25,000 to support community-led projects across Tasmania.

The updated program focuses on initiatives that celebrate maritime culture, protect coastal environments and strengthen connections within port communities.

This is a great opportunity for organisations, groups and creatives working in and around our maritime spaces to bring ideas to life.

A recent example is the Lady Nelson Tall Ship, which delivered a series of youth voyages on the River Derwent, giving local secondary students the chance to learn how to sail a historic vessel. The initiative is helping young people experience Tasmania’s maritime heritage firsthand while opening pathways to future maritime careers.

Applications are open until 31 May. Find out more via the TasPorts website 👉 https://tasports.com.au/grant-program?mc_cid=3ad8121230&mc_eid=a8cd2679c2

Watch this video of what the TasPorts community grant achieved on board Lady Nelson 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_nQtsTn64I

The TasPorts Community Grant Program is our way of investing in the people and places that keep Tasmania strong. Each year, we provide funding to support community groups, organisations and events that make a real difference in the regions we serve.

03/05/2026

Little Sailors Inspired by Big Boats
✨The Little Sailors Village Returns✨

AWBF is excited to announce that The Little Sailors Village will return in 2027, presented for a third festival by Program Partner The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel. A hands-on space for children and families on Parliament Lawns, it is designed to spark curiosity, a love of making, and of course, boats!

Returning from 6–8 February 2027, The Old Woolstore Little Sailors Village is free to attend and designed for children from toddlers to tweens. Children can build their own Huon pine boat models with Woodcraft Guild Tasmania, design and race solar-powered boats, or take part in the My First Boat program alongside a parent or guardian — early steps into the world of boatbuilding.

With school holidays on, we took a group of young would-be sailors into a working boat shed in the Huon Valley, a glimpse of where those first steps can lead. There, beneath the 40-foot pilot cutter Tarkine, currently being built from scratch by Iefke van Gogh and Matt Morris of A boat by the river , the pathway from small builds to full-scale boats came to life. With the boat now in its final stages, Tarkine will be exhibited ashore for the first time at the 2027 festival.

From big boats to small builds, the popular Japanese Kumundar Gujo Sailing Ship and Jungle Gym Workshops will return and expand in 2027, offering a deeper hands-on making experience. The Mariner’s Makerspace and The Book Barge will also return, alongside pirate dress-ups and other hands-on activities for children and families, with even more to be announced when the full program is released in November 2026.

For some, The Little Sailors Village might spark a lifelong connection to boats. For others, it’s about confidence, creativity and fun. Either way, it’s where it starts!

We couldn’t bring The Little Sailors Village to life without the ongoing support of The Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, and we’re grateful to have them on board once again for 2027.

01/05/2026

Showcase Your Boat at AWBF 2027 ✨⛵
EOIS Now Open!

It’s here! Expressions of interest to display your boat at the 2027 Australian Wooden Boat Festival are now open!

We’ve had a steady stream of calls and emails asking when they’d open, so we’re pleased to share that the time has come.

Displaying your wooden boat at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest celebration of maritime culture is something special. Across four vibrant days, you’ll be part of a living showcase of seafaring tradition, sharing your craft with the public and connecting with fellow boating enthusiasts.

Vessels of every size, shape and rig are welcome to apply.

Registrations close 11.59pm, Monday 31 August 2026.

Apply here: https://australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/display-your-boat/

22/04/2026

Valérie Vattier - Is there any news of Lapérouse? - AWBF Symposium 2025

The tragic history of one of the greatest maritime expeditions of the 18th century
AWBF Symposium 2025

Valérie Vattier, originally from Normandy in France, arrived in New Caledonia in 1996. After holding several positions in the cultural sector, she took charge of the Maritime Museum of New Caledonia in 2002.

Passionate about maritime history, scuba diving and adventure, she participated in 2003 and 2005 in the expeditions carried out in Vanikoro (Solomon Islands) on the wrecks of the Lapérouse expedition, then in 2008 collaborated on the major exhibition on Lapérouse at the National Maritime Museum in Paris.

Valérie has designed and produced more than twenty temporary exhibitions and numerous events on themes linked to the maritime history of New Caledonia.

During the 2025 AWBF Symposium Valérie speaks to the audience about the Lapérouse expedition, the history, her experience and the exhibitions that followed.

Click on the image to watch her presentation during the AWBF Symposium 2025.

The tragic history of one of the greatest maritime expeditions of the 18th century.Valérie Vattier, originally from Normandy in France, arrived in New Caledo...