The Wooden Boat Centre Tasmania is located at Franklin, 48 kilometres south-west of Hobart on the banks of the Huon River. Hobart is the capital city of Tasmania, the island state of Australia.
The Wooden Boat Centre Tasmania aims to preserve Tasmania’s traditional wooden boatbuilding knowledge and skills, develop them in the context of contemporary opportunities and pass them on to a new generation of students. In doing so, it emphasizes an educational philosophy centred on the theme of ecological sustainability.
The Wooden Boat Centre caters for students who seek both education and training. It combines the practical experience of boatbuilding under expert supervision with opportunities to study the local and global context of the boatbuilder's profession, develop independence, and the thinking, analysing and communication skills required to live in a changing world.
While recognising the advances which have been made in the use of glues, resins and plywood in recent years, and the advantages they can bring to wooden boatbuilding, the emphasis at The Wooden Boat Centre is on the use of natural timber, especially Tasmania’s unique boatbuilding timbers such as Huon, Celery Top, King Billy Pine, Blue Gum and Swamp Gum.
