The J.K. McCarthy Museum is Goroka's main museum, named for the Australian patrol officer who helped establish its early collection. It covers Eastern Highlands culture, colonial contact, archaeology, and the Second World War, with masks, tools, photographs, and wartime material including aircraft remains.
The displays are modest, but the museum is valuable because it puts local names and objects around the highlands story before you go to a village visit or the show. Treat it as orientation rather than as a polished national museum.