The idea to build the Tanjung Balau Fishermen Museum was born among KEJORA officials in an effort to increase visitor visits to Tanjung Balau in the 90s. As a result of the collaboration with the Faculty of Design UTM, Skudai, KEJORA has built a museum with the other objective of remembering the services of Malaysian fishermen who are the main contributors to the food industry in Malaysia.

The Tanjung Balau Fishermen Museum is the only museum in Malaysia that displays the civilization of the traditional fishing community in Malaysia. It was opened to the public in July 1992 where it initially had only one main building and housed traditional fishing equipment as well as fishery history information in Malaysia. In 1997, based on the information of visitors who want souvenirs when visiting Tanjung Balau, a Souvenir Shop was built to realize that purpose. In 2005, the museum was upgraded with the addition of 3 new galleries namely Geological Gallery, Desaru Ship Gallery and Marine Safety Gallery as well as the diorama section of the fishing village along with its traditional boats.

Ticket Price:

ADULT: RM 2.00

CHILDREN: RM1.00

Operation hours :

Monday – Thursday

9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Friday

9:00 AM – 12:30 PM

2:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Saturday Sunday

9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

This section tells about the history of Tanjung Balau, the ceremonies and customs of the traditional fishing community, as well as the story of the fishing world. The next room houses Boat Making Equipment, Fishing Equipment and Traditional Fishing Equipment.

In the next room of this main building there is an exhibition corner on the type of fish and other marine life such as shrimp, crabs, and sea snails. There are also various dioramas of traditional fisherman life found in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah as well as Sarawak.

In 2014 – 2015, KEJORA has upgraded the interior decoration space with a total cost of RM 700,000.00 to attract more visitors to the museum. In the diorama corner of the fishing village, there is an exhibition of traditional games of the fishing community such as tops, congkak, batu seremban, and sepak raga. Apart from that there are also fishing clothes and diving clothes. In this room, visitors can also enjoy the atmosphere inside the fisherman’s house because in this part there is a model of a fisherman’s house that contains equipment and decorations in the old fisherman’s house.

There are over 200 types of rocks in this gallery. These stones are obtained from around the Tanjung Balau area and some places in peninsular Malaysia for example such as limestone, crystal stone and so on. In this gallery, visitors can also learn and deepen their knowledge about the geographical form of Tanjung Balau. In 2015, KEJORA upgraded the gallery with the addition of gallery space as well as artifacts such as fossils and minerals.

This gallery houses artifacts such as jars, plates, bowls, pottery spoons from China. It was obtained from the Desaru Shipwreck that sank in the waters of Desaru in the 1840s. This shipwreck is called Desaru in conjunction with the place where this ship sank which is on Desaru Beach. There is also a story in the form of a magazine 3 documentary about the discovery of this shipwreck.

The gallery houses replicas of modern fishing boats and boats as well as Luxury Cruises and communication tools used by modern fishermen. There is also a lighthouse model which is one of the requirements for navigators or helmsmen to sail safely. Apart from that we can learn and add knowledge about the communication and safety tools used by fishermen while at sea.

This gallery exhibits Special Exhibitions at least once or twice (2) times a year. This special exhibition was held to attract more visitors to the Fishermen Museum Complex. Among the exhibitions that have been conducted are the Wau and Kite International Exhibition, Whale Frame and Antique Exhibition, Mystic Nature Exhibition, Mystic Coffin Exhibition, Mask Exhibition and various other Exhibitions. Planning for the next exhibition (after PKPP) is the Seletar Johor Orang Asli Exhibition which is expected to be held in November 2020.

Here you will also be able to see the old traditional boats used by fishermen to go to sea in ancient times before using modern canoes. Examples are Wooden Boats, Fishing Boats and Jalor Boats.

1. Treasure Hunt (Secondary / Primary School Students)
2. Program Night @ Museum
3. Online Competition Program (Quiz, Voice of Heritage, Coloring etc.)
4. Merdeka Competition Program @ 2Moys of Fishermen (Heritage Doodles, Uniforms, Guess Silangkata)
5. Explorace (Teen and Kids Open)
6. Fishermen Museum Quiz in conjunction with the Tanjung Balau Festival
7. Art Carnival
8. Coloring Carnival With Upin And Ipin
9. State & National Level International Museum Day
10. Khat Writing Workshop
11. Traditional Wood Carving Workshop
12. Interpretation of Fishermen Museum Interpretation with Ibrahim Sultan Polytechnic, Johor.
13. Batik Painting Workshop