Maritime Heritage Round Australia

The 2021 Albany Maritime Festival

Tales from a whaling past

Whaling ended in Australia in 1978, but its history lives on at Albany in Western Australia. Elise van Gorp, General Manager of Albany’s Historic Whaling Station, relates highlights of the inaugural 2021 Albany Maritime Festival.

CELEBRATING ALBANY’S UNIQUE SEAFARING HISTORY, the 2021 Albany Maritime Festival was held during the two-week school holiday period, and featured events and programs at locations in and around the city. Albany’s Historic Whaling Station crafted a series of nautical activities, exhibitions and musical performances as part of this inaugural festival. In the first week of the festival, the team from Marine Energy Research Australia was onsite with their ‘Wave Hello to Renewable Energy’ program. As wave power is the new frontier of renewable energy research, visitors were able to learn about the ocean as a renewable energy source and its huge potential to contribute to Australia’s energy mix. Visitors were able to interact with specially designed water tanks to re-create ocean environments, with demonstrations of different wave energy technologies that are being trialled across the world. Visitors could also interact with our new indoor beachcombing display, while exploring the magnificent shell display and uncovering the animals that lived inside the shells, using our newly designed touchscreen display. As visitors explored the Historic Whaling Station during the second week of the festival, they had the opportunity to meet real-life former whalers. These men related their personal stories as they looked back on their time working for the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, a major industry in both Albany’s and Australia’s maritime history. Or, if visitors missed speaking face to face with a whaler, they could watch snippets from a range of interviews taken from the ‘Whaler’s Tales’ oral history project. On the middle weekend of the festivities, the Historic Whaling Station came alive with the sound of pounding feet and roaring voices emanating from under the pygmy blue whale skeleton, with some lively performances from folk and shanty singers, including the Anchormen and Green Herring Oz.

01 Dr Wiebke Ebeling, from the team at Marine Energy Research Australia, shows visitors how a wave tank can be used to simulate real-life energy transfer. 02 The Anchormen perform at Albany’s Historic Whaling Station, below the skeleton of a pygmy blue whale. All images courtesy Albany’s Historic Whaling Station

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01 Cheslyn Stubbs II (left) and his brother Kim Stubbs (right) shared their personal whaling stories at the Albany Maritime Festival. Also pictured is Cheslyn IV, grandson of Cheslyn II. 02 Captain Cheslyn Stubbs stands at the bow of a whaling ship and sends the harpoon after a whale. A similar moment on another hunt led to Captain Stubbs losing his leg. The Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian National Maritime Museum. It provides grants of up to $15,000 in cash or in-kind support to not-for-profit organisations to help display and conserve objects of national and historical maritime significance. For more information, or to apply for a grant or internship, see sea.museum/grants or contact 02 9298 3743.

Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats With over 1,000 rivers and a coast that stretches for more than 36,000 kilometres, it is no surprise that Australia abounds with stories of people who have lived and worked on the water. The travelling exhibition Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats presents some of those tales, exploring the connections between people and their boats. Created by the Australian Maritime Museum Council (AMMC) and funded by the Australian National Maritime Museum, Remarkable was designed to give regional audiences the chance to hear both national and local stories. This travelling exhibition was a great addition to the 2021 Albany Maritime Festival. Albany’s Historic Whaling Station features in the exhibition with its story ‘Sea Legs,’ joining 12 other compelling Australian maritime stories selected from the eastern states.

‘Sea Legs’ is the Historic Whaling Station’s own story of Captain Cheslyn Stubbs and how he lost his leg at sea. A selection of artefacts and an audio-visual presentation also complemented the exhibit and told more of Captain Stubbs’ story. The Stubbs are one of Albany’s most prominent past whaling families, with all three sons also being former whalers. A major highlight for festival goers was the unique opportunity to hear whaling stories first-hand from two of his sons, Cheslyn II and Kim. Audio-visual interviews with Kim and eldest son, Mick, were taken from the oral history project, ‘Whalers’ Tales: Oral histories of Albany’s past whaling community’, which was funded by the 2019/2020 Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS).

See Signals 107 for stories on Albany’s Historic Whaling Station and the end of commercial whaling in Australia. Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.