Australian Spy Museum
About Us
Origins
In 2011 Mike Pritchard’s work in cyber security showed him that the general public find it harder to understand cyber, espionage and other modern threats because they are intangible.
Mike’s idea was to use historical spy equipment that showed how attackers might have adopted new technology over time – but their underlying objectives and methods remained about the same. Since then Mike has built a world-class historical spycraft collection, with an aim to build a Spy Museum in Sydney. Test runs of Spy Museum presentations at cyber conferences have earned rave reviews.
There are three main drivers:
1) Spy Museums have proven a great success in other large cities like Washington DC and Berlin – yet there is nothing similar anywhere in the southern hemisphere. There is an opportunity to create an incredible new educational resource and landmark sci-tech tourist attraction in Sydney.
2) People working in cyber, intel & security protect all other industries – our entire economy and national interests – yet there is no museum or cultural centre focussed on encouraging young people to join this critical sector.
3) A Spy Museum makes espionage and cyber more understandable to a broader audience – helping to uplift resilience across the community.
Mission & Vision
Our Mission – is to collect, preserve and share artefacts and stories from the intriguing history of espionage.
Our Vision – is to establish an independent public museum – a home to protect these artefacts, display them in context, and deliver our educational programs.
The Australian Spy Museum has well over 1000 artefacts from the Renaissance through to the digital age. It includes cipher machines, spycraft and counter-intelligence equipment, relics from the Berlin Wall, uniforms, awards, rare books, original documents, signed photos, and more.
This collection helps to explain:
– The intriguing history of espionage
– The origins of todays security challenges
– How intelligence protects our way of life
Further – spycraft brings curriculum to life across maths, cyber and engineering, history and foreign relations. Our educational programs grow interest in careers in STEM, cyber, security, foreign relations and government service.
The Australian Spy Museum will be seeking partners and sponsors to help deliver our vision for this incredible educational resource.