More than 30 Fred McCulloch paintings will be displayed at the museum for three months, showing three WWI battleships: SS Maheno, HMS Nairana, and the HMAS J-7 submarine.

Called Marking Time: A maritime trilogy, many of the canvases are panels, which when placed together create huge, striking works. The majority are acrylic and gouache, with some rough, mixed-media works that mimic the worn-away hulls using oils, sand, cardboard, and other materials.

The exhibition continues McCulloch's longtime fascination with the importance of objects when they interact with people.

"My initial attraction was visual," he said.

"However, delving into the history of the vessels I came to realise their significance as major symbols of modernity and their role in the early 20th century."

Today, the SS Maheno is a tourist attraction at Fraser Island, where it lies scuttled and rusting in the sand - 75 years after it was a a passenger steamer and then Gallipoli hospital ship. The British WWI submarine HMAS J-7 is a dramatic breakwater at the Sandringham Yacht Club. The HMS Nairana, which spent 27 years as a passenger ferry between Melbourne and Tasmania after its initial purpose as a seaplane carrier, was wrecked at sea.

McCulloch's exhibition, on from July 5 to October 6 at the Maritime Museum, Hobart, tells the visual narrative of these ships.