Australia’s nearly 23,000 miles of coastline link the sea to this island continent’s fascinating history, much of which is chronicled in two maritime mu seums—one in Sydney on the Pacific Ocean, one in Fremantle on the Indian Ocean. These two world-class museums, separated by an entire continent, have very different personalities.
The Australian National Maritime Museum’s setting in the trendy Darling Harbour, an arm of Sydney Harbour, couldn’t be more appropriate. History records that thousands of years ago, the area was occupied by the Eora Aborigines, and is close to the spot where the country’s first European settlers landed in 1788. The Australian National Maritime Museum’s purpose-built structure features soaring arches; the glass siding that reflects the harbor demonstrares Australians’ connection with* the sea.
Six major galleries provide provocative insights into Australia’s oceanic essence. The collections include such diverse items as a video in which Yanuwa people tell their own story of Aboriginal maritime life; an exquisite model of the classic passenger ship Orcades; an abalone divers’ shark-protection cage; a minutely detailed cutaway model of a 19th-century prison hulk that housed prisoners to be “sent out” from the United Kingdom to Australia; the actual, full-rigged Australia II that won the America’s Cup in 1983; a cannon jettisoned from Captain Cook’s Endeavour in 1770; and a 175- year-old figurehead of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson from the ship-of- the-line named for him.
The Australia-USA Gallery was funded by a gift from the United States on Australia’s bicentennial of its European settlement. The items illuminate both countries’ common heritage, shared reliance on the sea, and steadfast naval cooperation—including World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.
The Australian National Maritime Museum’s waterfront fleet features the retired Royal Australian Navy destroyer Vampire. Other features at the piers include Sekar Aman, representative of the traditional Indonesian fishing craft used off Australia’s northern reefs for centuries, and Sydney by Sail, which takes groups for tours of Sydney Harbour.
The Western Australian Maritime Museum is located on Cliff Street in Fremantle, Western Australia’s main port. Fremantle is one of Australia’s most interesting resort areas. In 1983, the city hosted the America’s Cup and was transformed into a relaxed, seaside resort.
The museum’s building is an excellent example of Australian colonial architecture—plain but strong and evocative. Like many of the country’s colonial buildings, it was built by convicts. The simple lines and rugged material reflect its original use as a commissariat.
The museum’s Batavia Gallery is the centerpiece of its marine archeological treasures, and it features Australia’s second-oldest known shipwreck, dating from 1629. The fact that the Batavia was a Dutch East India Company ship emphasizes that it was the Dutch—not the British—who were the first Europeans to see the Australian continent. Among the priceless artifacts raised from the Batavia are coins (one dating from 1542), construction materials, and silverware. One unusual Batavia salvage item is a prefabricated stone portico originally destined for a castle in Jakarta (then Batavia).
A new main building for the Western Australian Maritime Museum is being planned. A special attraction will be an Oberon-class submarine, HMAS Ovens, given to the Museum by the Royal Australian Navy. In addition, Australia II will be returned to its home port of Fremantle when the new museum is completed around the year 2000.
These two museums also tell us much about the global dependence of all people on the world’s oceans. They provide much-needed reinforcement, from a dramatically different geographic perspective, of the dynamic role of the seas in shaping our pasts and our futures.