When was the maritime museum built

Large tracts of land, particularly on the western side of the waterway where the museum now stands were given over to railway lines and sidings, storage sheds and workshops. And then came a period of extraordinary change. With the introduction of new cargo handling technologies, particularly containerisation, Darling Harbour's port activities started to move away from the city centre to Botany Bay and other places.

By the s Darling Harbour was almost redundant as an industrial centre and transport interchange. It became a year project that took the ship to Sydney in and finally to its recommissioning in There were technical challenges to be overcome in reviving extinct trades such as hot-riveting, but the biggest challenge was undoubtedly resources.

However, the vessel also won the support of the Albert family, who provided the funding needed for the project to go ahead. It was a year project but, once the funding was assured, 80 per cent of the work was completed in two years. Two years later it acquired its first vessel, purchasing the steam tug Forceful for one dollar from the Queensland Tug Company. Radio promotions attracted 50 members and the museum continued to grow from the dreams of enthusiasts.

For Melbourne Maritime Museum the founding inspiration was the Polly Woodside , a three-masted barque built in Belfast in It had rounded Cape Horn 16 times and by was the last square-rigged ocean-going ship in Australasia. It restored it from to , planning to keep the vessel afloat in a dry dock and open it to visitors. The Victorian government provided the use of a historic dock.

In the project was awarded the World Ship Trust Medal for supreme achievement in conservation. Both the Queensland Maritime Museum and the Melbourne Maritime Museum have exploited opportunities presented by the redevelopment of disused waterfronts. In Melbourne Maritime Museum began a redevelopment program to broaden its collections and focus on the Port of Melbourne.

A new exhibition building was provided as part of the billion-dollar construction of an exhibition and convention centre and opened in December There are clear parallels between those museums that were inspired by the urgency of preserving historic vessels and the origins of the Western Australian Maritime Museum. At the root of its conception, initiation, development and culmination is a wealth of archaeological material recovered from historical shipwrecks.

The process began in when two extraordinarily significant shipwrecks were discovered. The wrecks extended the European history of Australia centuries beyond the popular understanding that it began with James Cook charting the east coast in The wrecks also captured the public imagination with tales of sunken bullion and stories of murder and mutiny. The museum opened in and maritime archaeological material formed the basis of the first displays. Myra Stanbury recalled that the development of the new museum:.

The exhibitions also portrayed the role, methods and recovery techniques of the new field of maritime archaeology. The exhibitions were part of a broader museum program. Lobbying from divers persuaded the Western Australian Museum to employ a maritime archaeologist in and the work was supported by the voluntary labour of amateur divers.

Together they raised an enormous amount of significant material, including 27 tonnes of sandstone building blocks, and timber from the stern section of the Batavia. The material was too large to be included in existing museums and demanded an imaginative solution to bring it to life.

In the historic Commissariat Store in Fremantle became available and funding was provided to transform it into a museum. Today, the display of a large section of the Batavia and the stone arch carried by the same ship is one of the richest, most evocative exhibitions in Australia. The maritime archaeology program developed by the museum became known worldwide for its achievements, and the team of archaeologists worked with several countries on underwater sites in the Indian Ocean. While the histories of other maritime museums are accounts of enthusiasts establishing museums as incorporated associations, in the case of maritime archaeology in Western Australia enthusiasts lobbied the Western Australian Museum and the state and Australian governments to take responsibility.

Along with the development of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, laws were passed by the Western Australian government in the Maritime Archaeology Act and the Australian government in the Historic Shipwrecks Act to protect wrecks by preventing divers from retrieving objects from the sites. Professor Frank Broeze was rare among historians in describing himself as a maritime historian.

Most of his contemporaries who wrote about maritime history saw themselves as generalists who simply happened to be working on maritime history at the time. He pointed to examples where maritime affairs were clearly part of the main history. He observed that many maritime historians and archaeologists focused on the technical detail because of their passionate fascination with the vessels and the artefacts, rather than on the people who used them. All three museums were led by urban renewal projects and were intended to help revive disused ports.

The stimulus for those museums came from the aim of building an audience, be they tourists or local communities. It did not come from the collections. Indeed, in the case of the Australian National Maritime Museum, to begin with there was no collection at all. However, in trends that have been seen in ports around the world, technology changed. Accelerating in the decades after the Second World War, shipping was rebuilt and new bulk handling and container terminals were established.

These new facilities were built downstream rather than on existing sites. A maritime museum was seen as part of the answer to revive the community and lead the redevelopment of the port.

It would attract tourists, build on the ambience of the historic port and demonstrate commitment to reinforcing community values. The museum built a collection of vessels that included an coastal trader Nelcebee , a steam tug Yelta and a foot naval launch Archie Badenoch. The new building was custom-designed and was built on land that was once covered in the sheds of boat-builders. The quality and creativity of our learning programme and visitor experience has been recognised in a number of prestigious awards.

Here are just some of them…. Our Learning team put on a brilliant range of brand new live performance, events and activities every school holidays. How was your visit? Let us know on tripadvisor. By browsing this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy and Cookie Policy. The Museum is open and looking forward to seeing you.

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