Wooden Boat Centre

The Wooden Boat Centre is a working boat-building school, museum and visitor attraction on the Huon River at Franklin in Tasmania's Huon Valley, about 45 kilometres south of Hobart. It preserves and teaches traditional wooden boat construction using Huon pine and other timbers. Notable for its active workshops, heritage boat displays, short courses and waterfront location in historic Franklin, it showcases Tasmania's long maritime and boat-building heritage.

Visitors can expect a working waterfront site combining a small museum, active boat-building workshops and classrooms on the banks of the Huon River. You can view heritage wooden boats and tools on display, watch boat builders at work, see boats under construction and restoration, browse interpretive exhibits on Huon pine and local maritime history, and visit the gift shop. The centre offers guided tours and short courses when scheduled, with views over the river and Franklin foreshore.

Franklin on the Huon River has been a centre for wooden boat building since the 19th century, renowned for vessels built from endemic Huon pine. The Wooden Boat Centre was established to preserve and continue these traditional skills, maintaining Tasmania's maritime heritage and the Huon Valley's long association with boat building and forestry.

The centre preserves and transmits traditional Tasmanian wooden boat-building knowledge, craftsmanship and maritime culture through teaching, restoration and display, supporting community heritage and the ongoing use of Huon pine and other timbers in boat construction.