Signals 147 by Australian National Maritime Museum

Bearings

From the Director

WELCOME TO THE WINTER EDITION of Signals.

If you are visiting the museum over the next months, you will see a great deal of activity occurring outside. We have commenced one of the largest works projects in recent years with the redevelopment of the boardwalk on the harbourfront of the museum. This is a significant piece of work that is necessary and has been carefully planned to minimise impact on visitors.

It will, once complete later this year, provide a fresh new look to the outside of the museum, with a beautiful new performance area and a more seamless transition between spaces. It will also feature more greening than currently to make it more user friendly all year round.

Inside the museum we see Wildlife Photographer of the Year return for another year following the extraordinary success of Ocean Photographer of the Year. These two photographic offerings are proving very popular with audiences and provide a strong platform for all our programming about environment and nature.

Recently it was announced that the museum will host the 2026 International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM). This will be the first time the congress has met in Australia and it will bring leading practitioners from museums around the world to discuss the latest issues. It will be an extraordinary honour and a wonderful opportunity showcase our work here.

As always, I am always happy to hear from the museum family about what matters to you, so please, if you have any ideas, drop me a line to thedirector@sea.museum I may not be able to respond directly to every person, but please be assured, different voices are both welcome and encouraged.

Daryl Karp AM Director and CEO

Snow Bison (Max Waugh, USA) was highly commended in the Animal Portraits category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. © Max Waugh/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Winter 2024

Acknowledgment of Country

The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the bamal (earth) and badu (waters) on which we work.

We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the land and waters throughout Australia and pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders past and present.

The words bamal and badu are spoken in the Sydney region’s Eora language.

Supplied courtesy of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Cultural warning

People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that Signals may contain names, images, video, voices, objects and works of people who are deceased. Signals may also contain links to sites that may use content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.

The museum advises there may be historical language and images that are considered inappropriate today and confronting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The museum is proud to fly the Australian flag alongside the flags of our Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Australian South Sea Islander communities.

2 The long, strange tale of the Behring

A clipper ship’s career ends in Sydney Harbour

10 The drawings of Ben Lexcen

Boat and ship plans by a master yacht designer

18 Expect the unexpected

An insight into museum programming

22 Following the wind

A journey aboard Endeavour

26 Endeavour heads to Hobart

Plans for the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival

28 Caring for the Dunbar collection

Conserving items from a colonial shipwreck

32 Conserving the past, securing the future

Foundation news

34 Filter feeders for the future

A touring exhibition focuses on native oyster reef restoration

38 AI and museums

What does the future hold?

42 A critical mission

A new vessel to help protect the Great Barrier Reef

46 Ocean Youth Summit

Young Australians gather to learn, connect and be inspired

48 ‘What will you change for the ocean?’

Assessing our visitors’ ocean literacy

52 Cruising Sydney’s naval sites

Three tours with the Naval Historical Society

54 Members news and events

Talks, tours and on-water events for winter

58 Exhibitions

What’s on show this season

62 Education

Duyfken inspires learning materials

66 Collections

Chronicling the 2022 Northern Rivers floods

72 Readings

The Ministry of Time; Seaward: Chasing Master Mariners

76 Currents

Family members visit the record-breaking hydroplane Firefly II

Cover Actor Emilia Higgs – shown aboard the Endeavour replica – puts drama into stories of the museum’s vessels during a Tall Ships Small Ships tour. Image Rhiannon Copley

The long, strange tale of the Behring

An American vessel abandoned in Sydney Harbour

Nestled within a small cove in Sydney’s Middle Harbour lie the remnants of an American vessel constructed during the height of the clipper ship era. Following a lengthy sailing career that took it to far-flung corners of the globe, the intrepid craft ended its days as a powder hulk in the employ of the New South Wales colonial government. Dr James Hunter discusses the history of the barque Behring and forthcoming plans to archaeologically investigate and confirm its identity.

Powder hulks in the employ of the New South Wales colonial government moored in Middle Harbour, c 1900. Behring is located in the photograph’s centre foreground. Image State Library of NSW

As flames gradually consumed the hull, fasteners and fittings fell into the water for later collection

ON SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 1925, the hulk of a wooden sailing vessel was towed into Sailors Bay, a small cove in Sydney’s Middle Harbour that at the time served as a shipbreaking and disposal area for watercraft that had outlived their usefulness. Under the watchful eye of shipbreaker James Williams, a team of men grounded the hulk on the silty bottom in the cove’s shallows and made it fast to the shoreline. They then methodically set it on fire, creating a smoky smoulder that slowly burned away the timber without destroying the target of their operation: the many thousands of copper and iron fasteners and fittings that had been used in its construction, repair and refitting during a career that spanned three-quarters of a century. As flames gradually consumed the hull, and fasteners and fittings fell into the water for later collection, the shipbreaking crew may have wondered at its past exploits. Williams made sure to preserve some memory of the vessel in the form of its eagle figurehead – a motif symbolic of its American origins. However, he and his crew probably also puzzled over the vessel’s name, one more suggestive of links to Russia: Behring

An article that appeared in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph the following day noted Behring ’s ‘first commission was as a Hudson Bay whaler’ and that it had been built ‘some 90 years’ before.1 Neither statement was true. Launched in 1850, the 376-ton clipper barque Behring (spelt Bhering in some historical sources) appears to have originally been intended for the China tea trade. It was built in Medford, Massachusetts, by Joshua T Foster, a noted American shipwright who specialised in ‘medium clippers’, a type of clipper ship designed for both carrying capacity and speed. Behring predated by one year the launch of Antelope of Boston – also Medford-built and largely recognised as the first ‘official’ medium clipper – and some scholars suggest it may have been a prototype of the design, which was immensely popular among American shipbuilders during the 1850s.

Behring measured 120 feet (36.6 metres) in length, and had a beam of 25 feet 3 inches (7.7 metres) and draft of 13 feet 6 inches (4.2 metres). Built of American oak and assembled with copper and iron fasteners, it had a single deck and a square stern and billethead. It was also fitted with a deck cabin (or deckhouse) – a square or oblong cabin erected on the deck, normally just abaft the foremast, to house the galley and provide quarters for the crew on watch. In Behring ’s case, the deck cabin was positioned just forward of the break in the quarterdeck. The barque’s hull beneath the waterline was sheathed in Muntz metal, a brass alloy patented in 1832 that was composed of approximately 60 per cent copper, 40 per cent zinc and trace amounts of iron.

Behring was one of the first American vessels to transport Chinese tea to British ports

Interior of Behring ’s magazine.

Image NSW State Archives Collection NRS-4481-3[7/15883]-M2422

Little is currently known of Behring ’s complete sailing career, but it was one of the first American vessels to transport Chinese tea to British ports, arriving in London from Whampoa (modern-day Pazhou Island in Guangzhou, China) in early 1852. From the year of its launch until 1873, it was owned by William H Boardman and homeported in Boston. The barque’s first reported voyage to Russia occurred in 1855, when it entered the port of Petropavlovsk (on the Kamchatka Peninsula) carrying American goods. Its arrival coincided with a British naval blockade of Russian ports during the Crimean War, and the commanders of three Royal Navy vessels elicited intelligence on Russian positions and movements from Behring ’s master.

In a three-year period between 1865 and 1868, Behring covered 114,441 miles (184,175 kilometres) under the command of G Oscar Lane and made several transits across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1865, the barque departed Boston for the Amur River in Siberia, then sailed to Petropavlovsk before travelling to San Francisco. It then made three round-trip voyages between San Francisco and Honolulu, before sailing from Hawaii to New York. From New York, it returned to Siberia, then Honolulu. Behring departed Honolulu for Hamburg, Germany, before again returning to Siberia and Honolulu, concluding its final voyage under Lane’s command by sailing to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1868.

Vernon H Brown & Co assumed ownership of Behring in 1874 and it continued to operate from Boston until 1878, when it was homeported in San Francisco. It made at least three voyages to Australia during this time, in 1875, 1877 and 1878. During the same period, the vessel also transported passengers and goods between Sydney and the islands of Fiji and Samoa. In late June 1875, Behring delivered passengers to Sydney who had been rescued from the Australasian Steam Navigation Company vessel Rangatira, which wrecked off the coast of New Caledonia on 31 May 1875.

Between 1865 and 1868, Behring covered 114,441 miles (184,175 kilometres) and made several transits across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

Behring was moored at Sydney’s Market Wharf on the afternoon of 7 February 1878 when it was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm and severely damaged. The main royal and topgallant masts were ‘split to pieces’, and the bolt passed down the length of the mainmast before exiting one of the side ports to strike the barque Nautilus, which was moored on the other side of the wharf. 2

An unidentified woman in the cabin – probably a passenger or the wife of Behring ’s master – was ‘knocked down’ but otherwise unharmed, as was the chief officer, who was on deck when the incident occurred. 3 The damage sustained by Behring was apparently significant enough that it was sold to the New South Wales colonial government shortly thereafter, and by the end of the following month had been fitted up as a storage hulk for a quantity of recently imported gun cotton.

The vessel’s career as a powder hulk saw it initially moored in Sydney Harbour between Balmain and Spectacle Island, where it remained until October 1882, when it was moved to Middle Harbour. During this time, it was loaded with ‘2000 cans of gun cotton, 100 cases of lithofracteur [an explosive compound of nitroglycerine], and 100 cases of dynamite’.4 The move was precipitated by a heated debate in the New South Wales parliament, in which legislators argued that Behring and the storage facilities at Spectacle Island and Goat Island – which, combined, housed more than 900 tons of explosives –were akin to a ‘volcano’ that Sydneysiders were forced to live next to.

5 In April 1885, as the threat of war between Great Britain and Imperial Russia mounted following the Panjdeh Incident in Afghanistan, Behring was moved from Middle Harbour to an undisclosed ‘safer position’ but returned to its original anchorage following a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in 1887.6

The hulk shown in this Lionel Lindsay sketch from the early 1920s bears a striking resemblance to Behring and was drawn at a time when the vessel was moored at Berrys Bay awaiting disposal. Image National Library of Australia PIC Drawer 8858 #S5652

Behring ’s weather deck looking aft during its use as a powder hulk, c 1912. Note the deckhouse just forward of the quarterdeck, and the timber and corrugated metal awning used to shade the hulk and keep it cool during summer. Image NSW State Archives Collection NRS-4481-3[7/15883]-M2405

Behring in use as a powder hulk at Bantry Bay, c 1912. Image NSW State Archives Collection NRS4481-3-[7/15883]-M2414

The ships’ graveyard at Sailors Bay, c 1930. The line of keel bolts believed to mark the location of Behring ’s surviving lower hull can be seen in the image’s centre-background, behind the bow of the abandoned barque Itata (located in the lower right quadrant of the photograph).

Image ANMM Collection 00051860–001

By 1907, Behring was moored in Bantry Bay with two other powder and explosives hulks. That same year, the fledgling state government of New South Wales opted to construct powder magazines on the western shoreline of the bay near its mouth and remove the hulks. However, it wasn’t until the early 1920s that construction of the magazines finally commenced, no doubt spurred by a severe bushfire that swept Bantry Bay’s entire shoreline in December 1922, the embers of which directly threatened the hulks. Behring was subsequently moved to Berrys Bay, where it remained until 12 January 1925, when it was towed to the ship graveyard at Sailors Bay. Once there, James Williams’ shipbreaking team burned the hulk to the waterline to collect its fasteners and hardware.

Behring ’s story and the location of its final resting place might have gone unnoticed if not for the odd combination of an archival photograph and a bout of inclement weather. In mid-2019, the museum’s maritime archaeologists and their colleagues from the Silentworld Foundation attempted to conduct a 3D photogrammetric survey of the wreck site of Royal Shepherd, a 331-ton iron steamship that sank near South Head in July 1890 following a collision with the collier Hesketh. The conditions outside Sydney Heads were far worse than anticipated, with three-to-four-metre seas forcing the team to retreat inside the harbour and find an alternate wreck site in calmer water. Ultimately, the team chose Itata, an iron-hulled barque abandoned at Sailors Bay in 1906 after catching fire in the Hunter River near Newcastle.

In a fortuitous coincidence, Itata was also a candidate for 3D photogrammetric documentation, and associated archival research uncovered the existence of a photograph of the ship’s scuttled hulk in the museum’s collection. Close examination revealed what appeared to be a line of keel bolts emerging from the water near the shoreline in the image background. This spurred the team to investigate the area following their dive on Itata, which resulted in discovery of articulated timber hull remains partially protruding from the bay’s silty seabed. A search of archival newspapers and other historical sources turned up the names of other vessels broken up and abandoned in Sailors Bay, including Behring. One newspaper article featured a photograph of Behring ’s burning hulk and examination of the surrounding landscape revealed geographical features that corresponded to the location of the hull timbers found in 2019.

Although historical accounts of Behring ’s destruction dovetail nicely with the shipwreck site’s location, additional information is necessary to positively connect each to the other. Collection of archaeological data, including timber samples and hull measurements, will establish a basis for comparison with archival information about Behring ’s construction held in sources such as Lloyds Register of American and Foreign Shipping, the New York Marine Register, and List of Ship Registers for the District of Boston. For example, if measurements collected from the surviving hull closely match dimensions listed for Behring in historic ship registers, and timber samples are identified as American oak or other North American species, then a positive identity for the wreck can be firmly established. This is because no other American-built vessels are known to have been abandoned in Sailors Bay, nor do any other watercraft reportedly scuttled there exhibit Behring ’s specific length, breadth, depth and tonnage measurements.

The museum plans to investigate the Sailors Bay shipwreck site later this year as part of its new ‘American Wrecks in Australian Waters’ research initiative.

1. ‘A ship of many adventures meets doom by fire stick: The end of the Behring ’, [Sydney] Daily Telegraph, 12 January 1925, p 6.

2. ‘New South Wales’, Adelaide Observer, 23 February 1878, p 19.

3. Ibid

4. ‘Latest intelligence’, Mount Alexander Mail, 30 September 1881, p 3.

5. ‘Storage of explosives’, [Sydney] Daily Telegraph, 5 October 1882, p 3.

6. ‘The expected war!’, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 28 April 1885, p 4.

The drawings of Ben Lexcen

Inside the mind of a maverick yacht designer

Ben Lexcen AM was an innovative yacht designer best known for Australia II, the yacht which, in 1983, wrested the prestigious America’s Cup from the New York Yacht Club for the first time in 132 years. Naval architect Andy Pitt FRINA has been studying Lexcen’s yacht plans and shares some insights.

Ben Lexcen had an uncanny understanding of how water worked and how shapes moved through water

The 12 Metre class Australia, designed by Ben Lexcen and Johan Valentijn in 1974 and updated and redesigned by Ben Lexcen for the 1980 America’s Cup. ANMM Collection ANMS1543[237]

Ben Lexcen’s working drawing of the ballast keel on Australia II, which famously won the America’s Cup in 1983. ANMM Collection ANMS1543[323]

Studying Ben Lexcen’s design work is something of an adventure, as there are often faint sketches, calculations or comments, hand-written by the designer

AS A NAVAL ARCHITECT and boatyard manager for 50 years, the opportunity for me to study and write historical notes for some of Ben Lexcen’s design drawings seemed too good to be true. The Australian National Maritime Museum’s collection of his work is a treasure trove of preliminary sketches, typical in-house design work and detailed construction drawings used to build the yachts. They cover a long and rich period of Australian yacht design and yacht building from the late 1950s to 1988.

Every drawing in the collection has its own unique story and time-frame, giving the viewer a window into Lexcen’s way of thinking at the time. They also provide an insight about the boatbuilders who turned the drawings into reality, and the owners and crews who sailed the yachts.

After nine months studying his design work and researching the yachts and how they were built, it was clear to me that Lexcen did not consider his yacht design work as a job; instead, it was a lifelong passion. It’s remarkable that with only five years of formal school education, and being largely selftaught, he achieved international recognition as a yacht designer and naval architect. His drawings and preliminary sketches show his renowned ‘outof-the-box’ thinking and natural understanding of hydrodynamics. Lexcen was an innovator, always pushing the boundaries, with an uncanny understanding of the way water worked on a yacht’s hull and the wind on its sails.

How to study a boat plan

To get an overall view of a yacht plan before writing notes, the initial work requires a very detailed study of the drawing. This starts with the drawing ‘etiquette’, if one is available. This is typically in the lower right-hand corner, and will provide the title of the work, for example ‘Sail Plan’, along with any updates or issue numbers. It usually provides the name of the design company, the author or draughtsperson, and the scale to which it is drawn. Ideally the drawing will provide the date it was made, and sometimes the name of the client or the yacht. Quite often, however, little or none of this is available, so a degree of passionate detective work is needed, along with some luck.

Occasionally the drawing will appear familiar, perhaps related to similar work on the same yacht, so it’s good to keep records. If the drawing has a date, this provides a base to research all the yachts the designer was working on at the time. This might be a new design, or a yacht for which the owners want a design change, to make it faster or safer.

It’s also helpful to cross reference other drawings and check old yacht magazines from the relevant era – in this case, the late 1960s to the late 1980s. It might take some time, but a bit here and a bit there, such as the size or colour of the hull, the name of a crew member, or a check of the entrants in the annual Sydney to Hobart race, sometimes bears fruit.

Studying Lexcen’s design work is something of an adventure, as there are often faint sketches, calculations or comments, hand-written by the designer. So, it’s necessary to zoom in and see any hidden details that might help. They sometimes have an additional comment or a smiley face, so he clearly had a sense of humour. Finding the actual size of the yacht or boat is sometimes a problem, but using what is available on the work can often help. By measuring the height of a crewmember on deck, for example, or by using some known dimension, the size can often be calculated.

Lexcen had an instinctive understanding of how water worked, how shapes moved through water, and what was needed to make a sailing yacht light and fast. His many design drawings and sketches show he was methodical and passionate about his work, while using the time-tested basic principles of naval architecture. He constantly changed and updated drawings until the optimum, most efficient shape was found.

The years from 1955 to 1988 saw dramatic changes in the way yachts were designed, built and sailed. Lexcen was part of this transition, seeing his yachts and boats built first in wood, then progressively aluminium, glass reinforced plastic (fibreglass) and advanced composites. He was constantly searching for new lightweight materials to use.

He always designed and worked by hand, on paper, using the traditional methods of naval architecture. He used a scale ruler and a pencil and carried out calculations using a planometer and mathematical formulas. He used these to find the areas of sails, the volume and weight of the hull and the position of the ballast keel.

With the development of modern-day computers and sophisticated design software for yacht design in the mid-1980s, all these calculations could be carried out in a moment.

Ben Lexcen was an artist, full of energy and with a great imagination and enthusiasm. His creative processes moved quickly. He was sometimes short tempered, but always willing to listen to others, and he often galvanised people around him with his sense of humour.

An instinct for boats

Ben Lexcen was born Robert (Bob) Miller in 1936 and started designing and building boats at an early age.1 At 16, he designed and built the 23-foot Comet on his own. He also learned how to design the best-shaped sails to suit a particular boat. His skills in designing the 18-foot skiff Venom and the winning skiff Taipan – designed when he was just 23 years old – are legendary and an important part of the history of Australian sailing. 2

The move to designing yachts started while he was working as a sailmaker in Sydney in the mid-1960s. He became friends with Ted Kaufman, who wanted a fast yacht to take part in the British Admiral’s Cup. Together they designed Mercedes III in 1966, which became a very successful racing yacht. Its sister ship was Koomooloo, built for Denis O’Neil and winner on corrected time of the 1968 Sydney to Hobart race. Lexcen also designed the 57-foot (17.4-metre) lightweight racer Volante for a New Zealander, Neville Price. All these yachts helped to establish him as one of Australia’s most prominent yacht designers. Other design commissions quickly followed, including the half-tonner Plum Crazy for Gilbert ‘Tig’ Thomas and the 57-foot Apollo for Alan Bond. He also designed the successful 45-IOR (International Offshore Rule) yacht Ginkgo for Garry Bogard and sister ship Apollo II, built in aluminium for Alan Bond. Two smaller yachts with his same design concept, Rampage and Ceil III, both became handicap winners of the annual Sydney to Hobart race.

Following the success of his 57-foot racers Apollo and Apollo II, Alan Bond commissioned Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) to design a 12 Metre class America’s Cup challenge yacht in 1972. 3 The 20.45-metre (67.09-feet) Southern Cross was built by Halvorsen, Morson & Gowland in Sydney and launched in 1974. At the same time, Lexcen also designed the 72-foot (21.95-metre) aluminium maxi-racer Ballyhoo for Jack Rooklyn.

The years from 1955 to 1988 saw dramatic changes in the way yachts were designed, built and sailed

Ben Lexcen’s triangular scale, which he used for boat design. ANMM Collection 00055001 Image Emma Bjorndahl

Ben Lexcen hull construction drawing for the 45-foot (13.7-metre) wooden International Offshore Rule (IOR) yacht Ginkgo. In the lower right-hand corner are the specifications, known as an ‘etiquette’. ANMM Collection ANMS1543[008]

Ben Lexcen was an innovator, always pushing the boundaries

01 Ben Lexcen’s planimeter set, which he used for boat design. ANMM Collection V00055062 Image Emma Bjorndahl

02 View of Australia II ’s winged keel in port at Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, USA, 1983. ANMM Collection ANMS0062[033] Gift from Louis D’Alpuget

The Australian challenge for the America’s Cup in 1974 was not a success, but the tenacious Alan Bond was determined to win. He immediately asked Ben Lexcen to design a yacht for the next challenge. The 12 Metre class Australia was designed in 1976 and built by Steve Ward in Perth during 1977. The yacht was redesigned and rebuilt for the unsuccessful 1980 challenge.

Winning the America’s Cup requires extensive research, testing and design of the yacht. Ben Lexcen spent several months tank testing models of two yachts for the 1983 challenge, Australia II and Challenge 12 During the spring of 1981 the eureka moment came when he discovered that inverting the ballast keel lowered drag, making the boat more stable and manoeuvrable. He also added wings to promote proper hydrodynamic loading when sailing upwind.

Ever the innovator, he maintained a lifelong passion for yacht design and a constant desire to design fast, lightweight yachts. Australia II was much lighter in weight than other contenders in its class and had the shortest waterline length ever measured on a 12 Metre class yacht. His innovative design of the inverted winged keel on Australia II sent shock waves through yacht design circles and is considered his greatest legacy.

The America’s Cup trophy was held by the New York Yacht Club, which successfully defended 24 challenges over a period of 132 years. This all changed in 1983, when the Australian yacht Australia II, designed by Ben Lexcen and representing the Royal Perth Yacht Club of Western Australia, beat the American yacht Liberty.

Ben Lexcen was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1984 for his contributions to Australia II ’s winning design. In the same year, he was awarded the Prince Philip Prize for Australian design. Lexcen died of a heart attack, aged 52, in 1988. He was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 2006.

1 Lexcen changed his name by deed poll in 1977, frustrated that his former business partner Craig Whitworth – with whom he had established the boatbuilding firm Miller and Whitworth – was still using the Miller name.

2 Taipan is on display in the museum’s Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Centre, adjacent to the main museum building.

2 The designation ‘12 Metre’ does not refer to any single measurement on the boat, nor to its overall length; rather, it relates to the sum of components within the formula that governs the design and construction parameters of the class. The International 12 Metre class is best known for contesting the America’s Cup from 1958 until 1987.

Andy JJ Pitt FRINA is a Marine Author and Yacht Consultant with 50 years’ experience in yacht building, marine consultancy and boatyard management. He writes training books, feature articles and technical manuals for superyachts, boatyards, shipyards and restoration projects.

All types of activations are tools for interpreting the museum’s collections and objects and educating, engaging and entertaining visitors

Expect the unexpected

An insight into museum programming

Museums work hard to develop a range of ‘activations’ – a term that includes anything, passive or active, with which visitors can interact or be involved. These range from exhibitions, theatre presentations, talks and tours to public programs for all ages, explains Neridah Wyatt-Spratt .

Museum theatre and program activations create drama, are visually stimulating, provide a sense of time and place, encourage camaraderie, have no labels and are fun. Here, actor Emilia Higgs channels cooks from past voyages on our tour Tall Ships Small Ships, which explores the stories of some of the museum’s vessels.

Image Rhiannon Copley

To climb on board the real vessel, to touch objects, to hear a true story – such experiences are enhanced by adding a human component

Actor John Lamzies plays the role of the sole survivor of a maritime disaster. The audience must investigate, listen and solve coded messages and information to uncover this murder mystery at sea. Image Cassandra Hannagan

One aim of a museum activation is to create an experience that people want to talk about and share via social media platforms. Image Marinco Kojdanovski

HUMOUR, EXCITEMENT, JOY, intrigue and even fright are emotions that visitors can experience when taking part in an activation at a museum. Museum theatre and activations can take many forms – staged performances, story-telling time, murder mysteries, theatre games, demonstrations, roving performances, puppetry, author or expert talks and tours of various types. These are all tools for interpreting the museum’s collections and objects and educating, engaging and entertaining visitors. Whether paid, free, booked or something unexpected that crosses the visitor’s path, there is always something wonderful when a visitor experiences – often in unconventional spaces and ways – an encounter that brings stories, objects and collections to life.

When audiences came to the museum in 2021 to see Ocean Spirit Rising, I doubt that they were expecting to see a water laser display mirroring the movements of First Nations and Australian South Sea Islander dancers. And at one of our Classic and Wooden Boat Festivals, a duo called The Grubby Urchins, wearing overalls and with long hair and beards and bare feet, played and sang to the delight of everyone while standing up or rowing in a tinny around the museum’s waterfront. These unexpected experiences are what stay in visitors’ memories.

For many museum visitors, human interaction in a cultural space resonates more than engaging with technology. Museum theatre and activations can be used to interpret an exhibition beyond the objects or themes on display and give them a context that is not immediately obvious.

Tessa Bridal, a leading expert in the field of museum theatre, notes: 2

Theatre is a catalyst, a motivator, a means of encouraging audiences to want to encounter and wrestle with ideas. Theatre fosters an imaginative, creative, and culturally diverse understanding of the objects we choose to display – and sometimes of those we don’t choose to display. It achieves this by adding the personal – a sense of time, a sense of space, and a story.

I am often drawn to objects and unusual offerings when visiting cultural institutions. It’s my desire to feel and experience something rather than just read about it or passively look at it. It’s the knowledge that this object or person or story was there, and is part of our past or present, that draws me in. This is the feeling that I want visitors to experience and engage with when they are taking part in a theatre show or activation. To climb on board the real vessel, to touch objects, to hear a true story – such experiences are enhanced by adding a human component. Labels and QR codes can provide facts and history about an object, but to have an actor tell the love story of Kathleen Gillett, to hear a volunteer who served aboard a submarine sharing their story, to listen to explorers who’ve trekked to the Arctic or sailed solo around the world, or to solve a mystery by using skills that are learnt on the spot – these are the museum theatre and activations that I find excite visitors the most.

The aim of a museum programming team is to take visitors to a different place and share a different story from the one they already know, all while entertaining them. Giving visitors the opportunity to behave differently from their normal routine, or become someone or something else, is also an area in which museums excel. Themed parties, dress-ups and mysteries to solve appeal equally to adults and children and are very popular here at the Maritime Museum.

Anything that takes visitors by surprise, allows them to think, move, play and participate in a different way, that creates unexpected experiences – this is what museum programmers strive for when planning activations.

1 Tessa Bridal, Exploring Museum Theatre (Rowman Altamira, 2004), p 5. This article does not focus on ‘living history’ experiences such as re-enactment groups or re-created historical environments, such as Sovereign Hill at Ballarat, Victoria.

Neridah Wyatt-Spratt is the museum’s Manager Events and Activations.

The museum’s full program of attractions can be found at sea.museum/ whats-on. For more about Kids on Deck, see Signals 122 (Autumn 2018). For an article on the Seaside Stories dementia program, see Signals 141 (Summer 2022–23).

Following the wind

A journey on Endeavour

In early February, the museum’s Endeavour replica sailed out into the open ocean to follow the wind and offer a taste of life aboard a traditional tall ship. Peter Drogitis gives a first-hand account.

Sunrise,

and another day of adventure begins.

All images Mike Jones

As the ship’s master stated, ‘Everyone comes away changed from this’

Unfurling sails while balancing on a rope line high above the deck is a terrific way to begin a journey into the endless ocean

The work aboard the ship was hands-on and incredibly exciting

A SEA OF STARS is the best way to describe my view from Endeavour ’s deck at 2 am in the dark of night. It’s one of the special moments of sailing aboard this faithful replica of James Cook’s ship of exploration, which provides the most authentic experience possible of what life was like for sailors of the 18th century.

February’s journey had no planned itinerary, but simply followed the wind. For a week, everyone aboard ate, slept, worked and lived like a sailor of Cook’s era. The voyage was not for the faint of heart – it was challenging, thrilling, rewarding and unique. As the ship’s master stated, ‘Everyone comes away changed from this’.

Despite the difficult weather conditions – high swell, rough seas and consistent drizzle and rain – everyone worked together willingly. The motion of the ship affected us all, but eventually even I got used to the dance of the constant swaying back and forth. The skipper and crew did not break a sweat and at times were immovable on a ship that was almost doing somersaults. We wore harnesses and connected ourselves to safety lines running across the ship. I lost my footing a few times and might have gone for a swim if not for the line. Another essential requirement to combat the wind, rain and darkness was thick, non-absorbent, high-visibility clothing.

The work aboard the ship was hands-on and incredibly exciting. For me, the most exhilarating but least nerveracking activity was climbing the mast. Clambering up a rickety rope, standing on a small platform and seeing the world from on high was breathtaking. Unfurling sails while balancing on a rope line high above the deck is a terrific way to begin a journey into the endless ocean.

Other jobs needed around the clock were handling ropes and ‘wearing’ (turning) the ship, which involved heaving on lines and tying many a knot. Helming the ship was a two-person job. The person closest to the navigator is the ‘brain’, while the ‘brawn’ helms the other side of the wheel. One repeated the navigator’s instructions to the other and they worked together to turn the wheel, with the power of the ocean fighting them every step of the way.

A typical watch lasted four hours and required you to look out for ships, debris and ocean life, and also communicate, adjust the sails and helm the ship. We had four hours on and up to eight hours off, around the clock. We found ourselves up at all times of the day and night, experiencing life and nature at odd hours. My favourite watch was one from midnight to 4 am, when the clouds parted to reveal a panorama of stars. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight –the vast celestial array over an immense expanse of ocean was enough to make anyone feel small. It was sometimes difficult to keep track of the constellation by which we were navigating amid the distracting splendour of the sight.

Those who sail aboard Endeavour are either professionals or paying voyage crew and come from all walks and all stages of life. Some were descended from those who sailed on the original Endeavour and wanted an insight into their ancestors’ lives. Others used the journey as catharsis from the stresses of everyday life. The voyage had a different purpose and meaning for each person aboard. One of my favourite reasons was simple and understandable: ‘I’ve got four kids at home, so I need a break’.

Sleep came easily after all the demanding work performed over the course of each day. We slept wherever we could, day or night – imagine people lying all over the lower hold, swinging from their hammocks just like in the movies. Sleep on a ship is more exciting than on land – although you’re constantly swaying from side to side, you’re in sync with the ship, and if you close your eyes, you can almost believe you are stable and unmoving.

There were many challenging and thrilling aspects of this voyage, making it a true adventure. I walked away from the journey changed, with a greater appreciation of sailors and tall ships and what they can achieve.

Peter Drogitis is a registrar with the museum.

Helming the ship in rough weather requires a navigator (on the left) and two people working together to turn the wheel.

Crew aloft and preparing to set sail as Endeavour leaves Sydney Harbour.

Endeavour heads to Hobart

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025

In 2025, the Australian National Maritime Museum will continue its sponsorship of the internationally renowned Australian Wooden Boat Festival. This will include the participation of Endeavour and continued support of the Wooden Boat Symposium, writes Richard Wesley.

THE 2025 AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL (7–10 February) will have a strong focus on the maritime traditions of South Pacific nations, including New Zealand, Tahiti and Japan. Other participants will come from as far afield as Hawaii and the United States west coast. All will help showcase oral traditions, shipbuilding skills and contemporary efforts to enhance engagement with Pacific maritime cultures. Australian National Maritime Museum staff and research associates will contribute to these learning opportunities through talks and seminars at the Wooden Boat Symposium.

At the time of writing, it is planned for crew to join Endeavour on 28 January and depart Sydney the next day. They will be based in Hobart from 7–15 February and return to Sydney on 24 February, subject to prevailing conditions. The voyage plan includes potential visits to Jervis Bay, Eden, Wineglass Bay and Port Arthur.

Opportunities exist for up to 30 people to participate in the voyage, supplementing and supporting the professional crew. If you would like to register your interest in joining as a paying crew member or a supernumerary (non-working passenger), please email sail.endeavour@sea.museum.

Richard Wesley is an Assistant Director at the museum.

Endeavour ’s trip to Hobart to attend the Australian Wooden Boat Festive offers adventurers a rare chance to experience sailing 18th-century style. ANMM image

Caring for the Dunbar collection

Conserving items from a colonial shipwreck

The museum has in its care 1,900 archaeological objects salvaged from the infamous wreck of the Dunbar off Sydney Heads in 1857. Funds raised by the museum’s Foundation are now being used to conserve and research some of the items, writes Assistant Conservator Jordan Aarsen.

ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAGEDIES in colonial Australia was the loss of the ship Dunbar. It was returning from England when, on the night of Thursday, 20 August 1857, in a rising gale and with poor visibility, it struck cliffs at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Fifty-eight crew and all 63 passengers died in the disaster; the only survivor was crewman James Johnson, who had been on watch at the time.

More than 160 years on, the memories of the ship and those aboard it are kept alive through the objects and artefacts recovered from the wreck. They represent the lives and times of all those who endeavoured to make the journey from Plymouth, England, to Sydney, only to perish within five kilometres of their destination.

A memorial to the victims of the Dunbar wreck, Watsons Bay, Sydney. The victims of the tragedy were buried in Camperdown Cemetery. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

Recreational diver John Gillies amassed a collection of more than 5,000 objects salvaged from the Dunbar wreck in the 1950s and 60s

In 1991, Dunbar and its associated artefacts and objects were declared a historic shipwreck

Vaguely bird-shaped objects originally of unknown purpose revealed themselves, after conservation treatment, to be cabinet handles. ANMM Collection 00025717, 00025718

Before and after: copper coins conserved by Jordan Aarsen. ANMM Collection 00056476

Tools of the conservators’ trade include low-tech options such as dental probes to chip off flakes of corrosion, and cotton buds to gently apply solutions that remove rust and other deposits.

Images Jordan Aarsen/ANMM

Salvage and acquisition

Scuba technology was invented in the mid-20th century and was soon adopted by a wave of recreational divers and spearfishers, many of whom began to explore Australia’s coastal waters in search of lost treasures. Before Australia’s maritime heritage protection laws came into being, divers spent decades discovering wrecked vessels and salvaging the abundant artefacts.

In 1991, Dunbar and its associated artefacts and objects were declared a historic shipwreck under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act, and the site became legally protected from any further access or salvage by recreational divers. In 1993, the Commonwealth Department of the Arts and Administrative Services declared amnesty from prosecution to anyone who possessed materials from protected shipwrecks. As a result, recreational diver John Gillies declared a collection of more than 5,000 objects he had salvaged from the Dunbar wreck in the 1950s and 60s. These objects were approved by the Department of Arts and Administrative Services for private sale with the condition they be registered and photographed and remain in Australia.

From this agreement, the Australian National Maritime Museum negotiated the purchase of the collection and arranged its transfer into the museum’s climatecontrolled storage facilities and conservation lab.

In the care of conservators

The Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation raises funds for various museum projects. In 2023 it sought support for the preservation and research of Australia’s shipwrecks, with the Dunbar collection as a focal point. Thanks to the generosity of patrons and donors, this year we are undertaking a 12-month program targeted at surveying, researching, archiving and conserving Dunbar artefacts.

The museum’s conservation department has begun to archivally photograph and assess the extensive collection of coins, jewellery, homewares, ironwork and personal items recovered from the Dunbar shipwreck. Each item in the Dunbar collection is in a unique physical state and is assessed to determine its ongoing structural and aesthetic integrity, levels of remaining ocean-borne salts and varied stages of degradation. Knowing in detail the material compositions of the individual objects recovered from the Dunbar shipwreck is crucial to planning conservation treatments. Each material requires different testing methods and an understanding of how salts, salt water, temperature changes and air contact may have affected these materials structurally and chemically after a century of ocean exposure and then decades in different storage facilities, first private and now museum.

Although affected by the same chemical and environmental factors during its long time under water, each material poses a different challenge for conservation. Salt water reacts readily with some metals: with brass and copper, it forms compounds known as corrosion; in the case of iron, it forms rust; while gold is inert, so gold objects do not corrode or tarnish, but are at risk of physical damage by force or erosion. Porous materials such as ceramics, wood and bone are all susceptible to surface erosion and to chloride crystals accumulating within the structures, forming internal crystallisation and potentially causing structural failure or damage.

The second factor to consider when assessing maritime archaeological finds is the impact of air on objects previously submerged for an extended period. Many materials reach a level of degradation stability while submerged in water: structurally diffused salts remain in liquid form; concretions and corrosion reach a point where there is no more available base metal to corrode; and objects can sit in a state of limbo on the ocean floor. If not properly treated once salvaged and exposed to oxygen, objects can undergo rapid oxidation and salt crystallisation, causing seemingly stable artefacts to corrode or crumble.

The museum’s conservation team is assessing, researching and interpreting the Dunbar objects, to ascertain their current degree of degradation and stability, both aesthetically and structurally. Ongoing treatments will further allow these objects to be stabilised and researched for their historical value and physical use, and to ensure their longevity as symbols of early Australian colonial history.

Discovery through conservation

The objects from the Dunbar include personal items and commercial stock being transported from England to Australia. With no official manifest known to exist, many of these objects have lost their identity and purpose outside of their connection to the Dunbar. Through conservation work and curatorial study, the damage and degradation of the ocean can be reversed to a certain degree, stabilising the structure and revealing each object’s composition. Conservation also offers insights into the purpose and use of objects by exposing finer details previously obscured by corrosion. The objects in image 01 demonstrate the effect of corrosion treatment, which was applied to break down the oxide deposits encrusting the brass objects and reveal the details beneath. Before conservation, the items were evidently bird-shaped, but their purpose was unknown. These objects underwent mechanical and dilute acidic treatments, allowing conservators and curators to see behind the encasing corrosion for the first time in 167 years and revealing fine detail of features and feathers. This process has allowed the items to be identified as bird-shaped cabinet handles, a common decorative feature of Victorian-era furniture.

Ongoing conservation and research are significant in maintaining the memory of the Dunbar and its passengers and crew and acknowledging the tragedy’s place in the history of Sydney.

Jordan Aarsen is a conservator working in the Conservation department of the museum and overseeing the cataloguing, archival photography and conservation treatment of the Dunbar collection.

See the Dunbar collection in person

Throughout 2024 the museum’s conservators will continue to document, archive and treat the Dunbar collection. Through our White Gloves tours (see page 55), members of the public can explore beyond the galleries and displays and go behind the scenes into our labs and storerooms.

Conserving the past, securing the future

Foundation news

The Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation raises funds for a diverse range of museum activities, from conserving items in our collection to sponsoring youth sailing adventures. Dr Kimberley Webber reports on some recent projects.

what is being done and showed us examples of objects before and after conservation in our Conservation Laboratory. For more on this project, please see the article on page 28.

THE MUSEUM WOULD LIKE TO THANK all our members who supported our 2023 end-of-calendar-year campaign. Your generosity will enable four young Australians to learn traditional sailing skills and have the chance to sail on our replica vessel Endeavour. (More Endeavour news can be found on pages 22–26.)

In recent months we have been able to share some of our achievements with supporters. In March, donors to the Dunbar campaign had the opportunity to see the work being undertaken to document and conserve this extraordinary collection. The funds raised have allowed us to employ a conservator, Jordan Aarsen, who explained

In April, the Foundation and its director, David Mathlin, welcomed members of the Ena Sanctum and Chair’s Circle to the launch of Walter Reeks: Naval Architect, Yachtsman and Entrepreneur, a biography by David Payne and Nicole Mays. Australia’s first naval architect, Reeks arrived in Sydney in 1884 and designed some of the city’s most significant vessels, including the ferries Kuring-Gai and Lady Northcote and the museum’s SY Ena. We were honoured to have descendants of Walter Reeks and Thomas Dibbs (who commissioned Ena) present.

Over the last three months, Foundation support has also enabled the museum to deliver Seaside Stories, a special program for people living with dementia and their carers. Participants have the chance to handle objects that bring back memories of days at the beach and water sports. One recalled winning awards in waterskiing competitions, while others spoke about learning to swim, zinc cream and sunburn. The swimming costumes from our Education Collection were a particular hit.

The museum’s new Learning Centre will have object-based storytelling at its core

For our 2024 end-of-financial-year campaign, we are asking for your support to redevelop the Learning Centre on the ground floor of the museum. Now 25 years old, the centre has welcomed on average 30,000 students a year, providing a place to meet and learn using the widest variety of educational techniques.

However, demands have changed, as have the expectations of visiting school groups, and in 2024 the centre needs significant physical and technical updating to bring it to the standard of comparable Australian cultural institutions.

The new centre will have object-based storytelling at its core. Key themes will be First Nations culture and heritage, ocean science and sustainability, and migration. Display cases and open shelving will enable children to see and handle some of the 900 objects in the Education Collection, facilitating storytelling about connections to our waterways. Modular furniture will create more flexible spaces, and digital screens and interactives will showcase Australia’s rich maritime history as well the scientific and environmental challenges we face today. Please give generously to this campaign! 01

Elevation of the planned refurbishment of the museum’s Peter Doyle Learning Centre. Image Wendy Osmond 02

Emma, Kate, Jude and Ken Charter on board SY Ena, which was designed by their ancestor Walter Reeks.

You can donate:

• online at sea.museum/donate

• by direct deposit: BSB 062 000, account number 1619309. Please include your name as the reference

• by sending a cheque made out to the Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation and addressed to the Foundation, 58 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont 2009, or

• by phone on 02 9298 3777, asking to speak to Kimberley Webber. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for your support.

Photo Alix Fiveash/ANMM

Filter feeders for the future

Restoring native oyster reefs

Native oyster reefs are important habitats that once dominated many of Australia’s temperate and sub-tropical estuaries. They were devastated by a combination of historical overfishing, habitat destruction, catchment clearing, water-quality degradation, land reclamation and disease. A largely forgotten ecosystem, oyster reefs are now on their way back.

THE NSW OYSTER REEF RESTORATION PROJECT is led by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) under the Marine Estate Management Strategy. It helps to reintroduce oyster reef habitats to the state’s estuaries and to share with the public the story of their rich history, important cultural value and significant benefits to local communities and estuaries. Small wild oyster populations still exist, but most were over-harvested during the early colonial period. Oysters were a familiar and welcome food source for the European colonists, but an unregulated, indiscriminate harvest removed all sizes of oysters to supply the colonists’ voracious appetite.

Oysters didn’t only provide important sustenance. The colonists quickly realised that the extensive Aboriginal shell middens and the abundance of living oyster reefs could provide a source of lime for construction, to support the expanding colony. Aboriginal shell middens were plundered and whole living reef systems broken up, often by convict shell gangs, and shipped off to central lime kilns in Sydney. Temporary kilns, constructed on the riverbank, were used if local needs dictated. The lime created from the burnt shells and consolidated oyster reef was used for lime mortar –forming the foundations of early buildings.

Catastrophic outbreaks of oyster pests and disease affected the populations that remained. The once extensive natural oyster reef system collapsed and has shown few signs of recovery.

Reef regeneration

In 2019, NSW DPI initiated a landmark project to restore reefs in Port Stephens, which once had an abundance of natural oyster reefs. Stage 2 was completed the following year in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Australian Government’s Reef Builder initiative. Reefs of Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) were created, totalling an area equalling almost 11 soccer pitches, on which 34 million oysters are now established. Just a few years later, this project is showing signs of success, currently filtering 9 million litres – or three and a half Olympic swimming pools – of water an hour, and supporting increased numbers of fishes and invertebrates.

In recent years, the DPI has diversified restoration efforts to include another reef-forming oyster species. The Wagonga Inlet Living Shoreline (WILS) project is an ambitious innovative nature-based solution for mitigating foreshore erosion at Wagonga Inlet, Narooma. Combining environmental, engineering and community elements, interwoven with Aboriginal culture, WILS brings together the restoration of an intertidal Sydney rock oyster reef with a sub-tidal native flat oyster (Ostrea angasi ) reef, for the first time in Australia, coupled with revival of saltmarsh and riparian vegetation communities. WILS is delivered in collaboration with Eurobodalla Shire Council, The Nature Conservancy and the Australian Government.

Construction of a native flat oyster reef at Wagonga Inlet, NSW. Image Jay Maartensz/ M + J Marine

A smoking ceremony was conducted by Worimi Elders at a naming event for the Port Stephens oyster reef restoration project. The new reefs were named Bindayimaguba Ninang and Garuwaguba Ninang, which translate to ‘home of the black possum oysters’ and ‘sea country oysters’, respectively. Image courtesy Salty Dingo

Divers from the Joonga Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation and DPI researchers monitor the sub-tidal native flat oyster reef at Wagonga Inlet. Image D Harasti/ NSW DPI

Bidhiinja: restoring our oyster reefs invites audiences to learn about the past, present and future of Australia’s oyster reefs

The Bidhiinja exhibition

A new exhibition developed by the Australian National Maritime Museum in collaboration with NSW DPI, Bidhiinja: restoring our oyster reefs tells the history of native oyster reefs in New South Wales and the work now under way to restore these important ecosystems.

‘Bidhiinja’ is a Dharawal language word for ‘oyster’. The exhibition invites audiences to learn about the past, present and future of Australia’s oyster reefs, by raising public awareness of the deep First Nations history of oyster reefs and what the colonial demise of healthy reef systems has meant for the marine environment. It promotes modern restoration efforts by showing the science behind the reefs, and how this is supported by collaboration with communities, citizen scientists and the oyster farming industry.

The exhibition is a blend of First Nations knowledge, Western science, and design, including illustrations by exhibition artist and Yaegl woman Frances Belle Parker. Features enabled by QR code include an augmented reality interactive that brings an oyster reef to life across the panels, and you can listen to the sound of snapping shrimp, used by researchers to entice baby oysters to settle in a new restoration area. Additional QR codes provide links to a companion exhibition website with deeper information on reef research and featured artists. Physical interactives invite you to see what can be found in a midden, to turn a wheel to see what a healthy ecosystem looks like, or to explore the art and design of oyster shells.

In the final stages of the exhibition development, Dharawal artist Dakota Dixon was brought into the museum’s Indigenous Program team. Dakota had just completed the project management of Whispers, a commissioned public artwork celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House by Quandamooka artist Megan Cope, which comprised more than 85,000 Sydney rock oyster shells.

Bidhiinja has been developed for regional venues across New South Wales in locations where historic native oyster reefs once existed, or in current and future locations for reef regeneration projects. It is designed to foster deeper connections between regional audiences and content that is relevant to the past, present and future of their maritime community. The exhibition will tour to at least 10 venues across regional New South Wales over 2024 and 2025.

The exhibition was launched on 6 February this year at the Port Stephens Visitor Information Centre, with a five-week display hosted by the Tomaree Museum Association and Port Stephens Council. It then travelled to the Ulladulla Civic Centre and featured at the Narooma Library for the Narooma Oyster Festival in May. Future dates are available on the museum’s touring exhibitions web page.

During the tour, the museum will gather data from venues on audience reactions to the content and associated programs, to evaluate possible altered perceptions of oyster reef regeneration activities or the general plight of oysters in New South Wales. We already see great interest from regional venues in developing associated learning programs, speakers’ series and associated displays, including public talks on relevant local issues delivered by NSW DPI staff at Port Stephens and Narooma.

This exciting collaboration between the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Australian National Maritime Museum is funded by the NSW Government through the Marine Estate Management Strategy, which aims to deliver a healthy coast and sea, managed for the greatest wellbeing of the community, now and into the future.

Bidhiinja is on tour now.

Kylie Russell, Charlotte Jenkins (NSW DPI); Cay-Leigh Bartnicke, Emily Jateff, Matt Poll and Tyson Frigo (ANMM)

AI and museums

What does the future hold?

After years of being either a field for theoretical specialists or a trope in popular fiction, artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived as an impactful technology. It threatens to transform many concepts that lie at the core of museums: truth and authenticity, proof and storytelling, significance and trust. Dr Roland Leikauf examines the history of AI and raises questions about its future impact on museums as gatekeepers of authenticity.

THIS ARTICLE is not a professional introduction by an expert in artificial intelligence (AI). It is a curator’s perspective on something that will reshape everything we think and do as a species. Since the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022, the technological ‘singularity’ – a hypothetical point where development becomes uncontrollable and irreversible – is suddenly so much closer. Everyone is looking for institutions to lead the way into a future that remains full of uncertainty. Museums could – and should – be these institutions going forward.

A short history of expecting too much from AI

Artificial intelligence research has been burdened from the start with grand expectations, aimed at nothing less than developing ‘machine models of human cognition’. 1 Since the 1950s, AI discussions have been caught between lofty goals and attempts to specify areas where AI would never work.2 The concept of ‘AI summer’ and ‘AI winter’ was born: at any time, there was either massive interest in the discipline or a complete lack of trust and funding. 3 The modern technical foundation for creating AI that fulfills specific tasks is the machine learning process.4 Algorithms are not programmed but developed through a process of learning. Input and output layers of data are connected through learning and feedback, so the algorithm develops data-based solutions that satisfy the defined goals by the user. The achievable AI that results from these learning processes is focused (‘narrow’) because its knowledge is situation-based. This makes it hard or impossible for AI to act outside of established patterns.

The inability of AI to understand context has long been brought up as its core limitation, but modern AI tools accept these limitations as necessities for task-oriented solutions. 5

AI today

In the current AI renaissance, chatbots are one of the AI solutions that have garnered much attention. As text processors, they are of special interest to museums. Simply put, large language models (LLMs) are tools that finish text as a user types. An LLM is taught to learn what a good answer is supposed to look like, which creates the illusion that the model understands the question and gives an answer based on cognitive reasoning. The finalised text, however, is developed out of its datasets, and the quality of the result is highly dependent on its training data.

Unintended answers and problematic expressions by chatbots have led to acts of censorship by the operating companies, which has led to a strong negative impact on the useability of the product.6 Chatbots are also far from easy to use. Simple commands will only provide unsatisfying results, and the user has to develop skills at ‘prompt engineering’ the commands for specific AI tools.

Challenges and dangers for museums

The tendency to call AI a ‘disruptive technology’ is often rooted in experiences with the effects of other processes of rationalisation, especially human obsolescence and job loss.7

A woman pickets outside Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike in the USA.

It concerned, among other things, fair pay, residual payments and issues on AI. While some artists are already embracing AI, others have seen their intellectual property devoured to feed its algorithms. Image Josiah True/Shutterstock

The creation of fake evidence and manipulation of data and visual images have been constant concerns for academics

However, for a sector where authenticity is paramount, what will affect museums the most is the significant impact AI will have on the concept of truth.

The creation of fake evidence and manipulation of data and visual images have been constant concerns for academics. With AI support, digital representations of historical photos and even movies can already be created with so much detail that – very soon – it will be beyond the capability of experts to recognise the visual difference between original and fake.

For curators, the biggest challenge from AI is that many questions about using it in a professional environment remain unanswered. It is hard or impossible to recommend specific tools because it is far from clear which software will be popular or successful, and which will languish or vanish. People will be using programs like Google Bard, Claude or ChatGPT parallel to each other. 8 Additionally, what is now an affordable product could quickly become costly once the market consolidates on a few predominant platforms – as happened with word processing and spreadsheets in the 1990s.

AI is being pushed into products many people use daily. Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot will be present in most Office products shortly. 9 Completely avoiding AI will soon be hard or impossible. In the next couple of years, a strong consolidation is sure to take place. Museums wanting a tailor-made, future-proof offering will have to invest in the knowledge and skills of their digital teams to develop bespoke yet robust systems and react to developments on the market.

The inability of AI to understand context has long been brought up as its core limitation

A fundamental question with AI is whether there is any human discernment behind the information that it creates.

Image Poca Wander Stock/ Shutterstock

A rally in London on 21 July 2023 was held in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strike in the USA.

Image John Gomez/Shutterstock

Legalities and ethics

Another unknown concerns legality. Most aspects of AI are currently being tested in courts, making the technology a potentially perilous prospect for public institutions. Many AI tools are essentially based on mass-harvested sources. Did the companies acquire their training data ethically, or did they ‘download the internet’ without consent from individual content creators? Does this mean that all text generation by AI is copyright infringement on a global scale, and what would be the ethical implications of using text based on these products? This is one of the reasons the Australian Research Council bans the use of AI for their grant programs.10

The way in which modern AI design has overcome its old limitations presents several problems. Many AI processes are closed systems to the user. Companies want to keep their algorithm from being accessed and analysed. Analysing the reasoning behind an answer provided by an AI is therefore often impossible.

While some AI tools quote sources, these citations are often not comprehensive. For a user, there is no way to find out if the quoted source is the basis of the answer or is effectively a random link. Even if the text produced by an LLM is satisfactory for exhibition or online use, the procedure that led to its creation is not available for analysis. This opaque and unverifiable process is naturally at odds with the expertise, research, referencing and fact-checking that is integral to the very idea of curation.

Conclusion

Today, museums are suddenly challenged to develop procedures and concepts that acknowledge this new phase of human-machine interaction. There will be no more ‘AI winters’.

The usefulness of AI tools overlaps with many key museum activities. These programs can create text for outlines, analyse documents, correct grammar, make design suggestions for layouts, attempt to transcribe interviews, and draw pictures in seconds. The quality of the result differs greatly and the software user will have to invest much work into learning how to use it and then correct shortcomings in the results. Yet even at this experimental stage, the results are often impressive. Museums can utilise several different approaches to this development. We are now entering a phase of experimentation and exploration, trying to find out how our core business and day-to-day work might profit from AI. Such approaches must be governed by the museum’s role as a custodian of heritage, knowledge and truth. The possibilities seem as endless as the challenges.

1 Frana, PL & Klein, MJ 2021, Encyclopedia of artificial intelligence, ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara, p 105.

2 Smith, BC 2019, The promise of artificial intelligence: Reckoning and judgment, The MIT Press, Cambridge (Mass), p xiii.

3 Garnham, A 2017, Artificial intelligence: An introduction, psychology, revivals , Routledge & Kegan Paul, Oxon.

4 Girasa, RJ 2020, Artificial intelligence as a disruptive technology: Economic transformation and government regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland.

5 Wilks, YA 2023, Artificial intelligence: Modern magic or dangerous future?, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, p 14.

6 Ashley Belanger: ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots. Data shows ChatGPT use decreased by nearly 10 per cent from May to June 2023, on: Ars Technica, uploaded 7/8/2023, visited 27/10/2023, https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ chatgpts-user-base-shrank-after-openai-censored-harmful-responses/

7 Girasa, op cit.

8 Bard.google.com, visited 27/10/2023; Claude.ai, visited 27/10/2023; Chat.openai.com, visited 27/10/2023.

9 Blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365copilot-your-copilot-for-work , visited 27/10/2023. Copilot is a chatbot, similar to ChatGPT, which responds to user queries and is aimed at improving business productivity by collecting data and creating texts.

10 The participants are not allowed to provide text from the grant program to LLMs to analyse. Australian Research Council: Policy on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the ARC’s grants programs, 7/7/2023.

Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Immigration.

Parts of this story are based on the author’s recent article ‘The impact of AI tools on the historical profession’ in Circa, the journal of Professional Historians Australia (issue 8, 2024). The author would like to thank the Circa staff and Professional Historians Australia for agreeing to its use as a basis for this contribution in Signals

A critical mission

Protecting the Great Barrier Reef

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) serves as Australia’s maritime safety regulator. Its tasks include protecting our coastline from distressed or damaged vessels and rendering aid to stricken mariners. AMSA recently signed a ten-year contract with Smit Lamnalco to provide firstresponse emergency towage capability in the Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef. David Fethers, Smit Lamnalco’s Managing Director for Australia and Papua New Guinea, gives a summary.

Being at the forefront of safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef – one of the planet’s most valuable ecological treasures – is a significant responsibility

ESTABLISHED IN 1963 and operating on four continents, Smit Lamnalco provides a variety of maritime services, including towage and offshore support vessels for oil and gas platforms, as well as emergency and environmental response and salvage. In this latter role, it has recently been contracted by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) to supply an emergency towage vessel (ETV) to serve the Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a pristine natural environment in which any significant oil spill could have devastating consequences, severely affecting the region’s tourism and potentially causing catastrophic ecological damage. Smit Lamnalco has previously secured contracts for more minor regions, where vessels are staffed as required. The new contract is for an ETV to be staffed around the clock, 365 days a year.

Initially, one of the existing ‘Super-M’ class vessels from the Middle East region, the SL Manakin, will be mobilised as a front-runner in the contract for the first two years, while the new RASalvor 6500 design is completed. AMSA has selected Reef Keeper as the new name for SL Manakin in this role.

Coral Knight protects the Australian coast through its towing and emergency response support.

Image courtesy AMSA

The new vessel will respond to stricken ships, addressing pollution from shipping and assisting in maritime search-and-rescue operations

The RASalvor 6500 design will be a game-changer in terms of first-response capability, as well as environmental sustainability. It will be dedicated to emergency responses and will actively patrol the Great Barrier Reef, specifically within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Designed by Robert Allen Ltd of Vancouver, Canada, and built by Kingda Shipyard, China, at a cost of US $32 million, it will replace the existing Coral Knight, offering a more modern build with a 46 per cent increase in bollard pull (120 tonnes versus 82 tonnes) to tow larger ships. It will also have a greater top speed, of 13.5 knots (25 km/h), for a faster response time.

The dedicated vessel will be more fuel efficient than Coral Knight, with a hybrid propulsion system that allows the power generation system to be optimised for the desired operational profile and speed. Consideration has also been given in the design stage for the use of methanol as an alternative future fuel source, which aligns with the global push to reduce emissions and decarbonise shipping.

The new vessel will respond to stricken ships, addressing pollution from shipping and assisting in maritime searchand-rescue operations. It will also serve as a versatile platform for conducting maintenance on navigation aids, such as buoys and lighthouses, particularly those within the Great Barrier Reef that are inaccessible from land.

The vessel will dedicate a significant portion of its time as a working platform. It will be equipped with a large workboat and an eight-wheeled amphibious craft, further enhancing its operational flexibility.

This vessel will also be staffed by more crew, ensuring round-the-clock readiness. The vessel will be practically always at sea, docking for only two days every five weeks, which underscores its constant vigilance in patrolling the critical Great Barrier Reef region.

The vessel crew will require a distinct skill set, more aligned with offshore oil, gas and salvage operations than traditional towage. This shift means the current towage-specialised workforce will need to be augmented with externally recruited professionals possessing the required expertise. Smit Lamnalco aims to employ 24 such people to ensure a continuous 12-person crew at sea, with another 12 on leave, to maintain operational efficiency and readiness.

Winning this contract from a field of international contenders represents prestigious recognition for Australia. Being at the forefront of safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef – one of the planet’s most valuable ecological treasures – is a significant responsibility, and Smit Lamnalco will commence this role in July 2024, after the current contract ends.

Smit Lamnalco is a sponsor of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

A render of the new RASalvor 6500 emergency towage vessel, designed by Robert Allan and to be built in China. Image courtesy AMSA

Offshore supply vessel SL Manakin will be deployed in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait until the new ship is ready. Image © Bjorn Helge Amundsen/Marine Traffic

Ocean Youth Summit

Sharing stories, shaping change

The Australian National Maritime Museum is proud to have hosted the OceanEarth Foundation’s inaugural Ocean Youth Summit, bringing together hundreds of young Australians to learn, connect and be inspired to champion ocean conservation. By Curator of Ocean Science and Technology Emily Jateff.

ON 11 AND 12 APRIL, more than 400 young people aged 12 to 24 attended the Ocean Youth Summit at the museum, where they engaged in discussions, interactive activities and networking opportunities focusing on empowering and amplifying the voices of youth advocates.

The summit featured inspiring youth leaders, including:

• Kal Glanznig, United Nations COP27 and COP28 youth delegate and co-founder of Plastic Free Cronulla, a community movement that has helped drive legislative change against single-use plastics in New South Wales. Kal presented his new documentary series, Rising Up, about solutions to the plastic and climate crisis, in collaboration with Take 3 for the Sea.

• Indiana Rhind, Ocean Youth Ambassador, and cofounder and Chief Technology Officer at Farmwall, a company using indoor farming as a well-being solution to improve agriculture and sustainability awareness.

• Lottie Dalziel, Young Australian of the Year 2023 and founder of online retailer and sustainability company Banish, who gave a stirring keynote speech.

The packed two-day program delivered everything from an introduction to the federal government’s Sustainable Ocean Plan Taskforce, to presentations from students, youth activists and entrepreneurs, who shared their stories and solutions to secure our oceans’ health.

An informative panel from industry leaders in food, fashion and finance shared hints on how you can shape your personal commitment to sustainability through the choices you make in what to eat, wear and spend.

On the second day, Ocean Impact Organisation delivered a youth-centred version of their annual PitchFest for ocean innovations.

A suitable accompanying display in the Tasman Light Gallery was the work of winners and runners-up from the 2024 Litterarty waste-art competition for schools.

More so than previous generations, young people today are informed about how environmental impacts will shape our future

This program is managed by the Volvo Ocean Alliance and invites primary and secondary students from schools across New South Wales to construct artworks from collected rubbish for the opportunity to win cash prizes and acclaim. The museum is proud to assist in judging this competition and to offer budding environmental artists the chance to see their winning works exhibited at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

More so than previous generations, young people today are informed about how environmental impacts will shape our future. They are ready to implement sustainable habits and ‘make their own change’. Events like the Ocean Youth Summit serve as key steps in the process to create change, by encouraging people to talk about it with peers, in a safe space, where participants are heard and acknowledged.

Daryl Karp AM, Director and CEO of the museum, said:

It is wonderful to see so many passionate young people coming together and sharing their ideas. As the next generation looks to improve our environment, it is important that we empower them and listen to their concerns and ideas and be inspired to take action.

The museum is thrilled at the success of the inaugural Ocean Youth Summit and is committed to ensuring opportunities for intergenerational equity in conversations about our sustainable ocean future.

Attendees embraced the chance to talk to their peers about the changes they wish to see in the world.

The summit was designed to showcase and create youth-led stories and solutions for ocean health.

Images courtesy OceanEarth Foundation

All images Tim

‘What will you change for the ocean?’

Assessing visitors’ knowledge of our blue planet

This summer, the museum premiered the Ocean Photographer of the Year exhibition, in which we asked visitors questions to explore how ocean literacy influences perspectives of ocean science. Madison Wright presents the results.

THE OCEAN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR exhibition features more than 100 photographs spanning the full spectrum of life and stories on our blue planet. Photography is a window to ocean issues, offering a way in to explore the wonders and challenges of human–ocean connections. But is displaying these images enough to deliver our mission of change for the ocean? What else can we do? With that in mind, this exhibition included a small ocean literacy project to better understand what the public knows about marine science now, and identify any knowledge gaps. We provided visitors with pencils and cards and invited them to answer the questions ‘How has the ocean changed you?’ and ‘What will you change for the ocean?’.

We received 1,418 answers across all demographics, from three submission periods from 22 December to 6 March. The responses were organised based on the prevailing themes of advocacy, appreciation and scepticism, and further categorised by the challenges for a future sustainable ocean as identified by the IOCUNESCO Decade of Ocean Science and Sustainable Development. The most cited challenges were

awareness and accountability, education, biodiversity conservation, and marine pollution. More than one challenge was present in many responses.

A QR-code-linked ocean literacy quiz was also developed to correlate with the UN’s key Ocean Literacy Principles. Our initial quiz contained 14 questions. In March, the museum changed the delivery method to a stand-alone kiosk and removed the more difficult questions, creating a simpler six-question quiz. Of all the exhibition attendees, only 752 responded to the quiz – one for every 53 visitors.

The project’s aim was to understand what the public knows about marine science currently and to identify knowledge gaps on which to focus future discussions.

The initial QR-code-linked quiz results show an average score of 37%, suggesting low public fundamental knowledge of the ocean. Following the quiz changes, early results reveal a new average score of 56%. While this is better, the lengths necessary to produce this result indicate that there is work to be done to increase ocean literacy in Australia. This highlights a need for redirection to improve knowledge of the ocean and its processes before we can expect public support.

The Ocean Photographer of the Year exhibition was a chance for the museum to assess how ‘ocean literate’ our visitors are.

Pascoe

Ocean literacy principles

The IOC-UNESCO Ocean Decade states that every ocean-literate person should understand the following principles:

1. Earth has one big ocean with many features.

2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth.

3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate.

4. The ocean makes Earth habitable.

5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.

6. The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.

7. The ocean is largely unexplored.

The ocean literacy principles are guided by the idea that understanding the ocean is essential to comprehending and

Visitors’ answers to our questions are displayed on our ‘Tell us’ wall to inspire others to provide their own answers and to become part of the change they wish to see.

Responses spanned all demographics, offering insights into the current perspectives, future aspirations and general concerns of individuals who are often overlooked amid global

To the question ‘How do you save the ocean?’ there were 1,418 answers in total. Of these, advocacy accounted for 63.12%, appreciation 35.47%, and scepticism 1.41%.

‘Appreciation’ responses expressed their love for the ocean, suggesting that the public is passionate about the environment and that our exhibitions are effectively evoking emotion. ‘Advocacy’, by comparison, acted as an umbrella term that bridged issues in legislation (1.2%), sustainable fishing and food (4.16%) and climate change (1.9%), with a more significant focus on marine pollution (37.31%) and conservation of biodiversity (18.05%).

This is where public understanding of how to save the ocean stalls, however. Whether it was littering or saving turtles, it’s clear that the public knows about pollution and conservation and the actionable steps they can take to reduce their contribution. But when it comes to mentions of more niche environmental issues, there is a drastic drop. For example, while climate change is the largest driver of many of the challenges mentioned, the responses demonstrate a lack of public understanding of the many interdependent variables causing ocean health decline that need to be addressed.

Our analysis of the advocacy responses specifically revealed a troubling trend in awareness (9.59%) where individuals advocated to ‘save the ocean’ but were not knowledgeable about how to move past belief or personal stance into action. Inversely, some respondents suggested extreme actions such as abstaining from seafood or plastics entirely. These results suggest a need for clearer communication about what actionable change should look like for individuals and groups.

We also assessed response language to determine public perception of responsibility for fixing environmental issues. This involved analysis of how many included ‘I will’ statements – such as ‘I will encourage the world to value and protect the ocean’ – to express how they will make personal changes, compared with how many used ‘we’. Results revealed that a worryingly low amount (14.81%) felt sufficiently empowered to take personal responsibility for environmental change. Collective language use through ‘we’, while slightly higher (15.51%), suggests a low number of individuals feel it’s our collective responsibility to change for the ocean. Wishing that others would fix our environmental issues was not the cause of this reluctance, however, as accountability (4.44%) was rarely identified as the challenge in responses. But if we consider the large number of responses that stressed advocacy without action, it’s evident that the problem isn’t the public not knowing about how important the ocean is or whether it’s at risk. Instead, the problem lies in our current ocean literacy programs providing insufficient education on how many ways the ocean is at risk, where action is best directed, and what each of us can do to mitigate these risks, thus failing to empower individuals to be the change they wish to see. Solutions to environmental issues are often lost among our reliance on statistics and growing climate anxiety, and if we want to inspire, we need to redefine real actionable change in our ocean literacy frameworks and improve communication.

The conversation surrounding ocean conservation has long focused on trying to convince the world to care about environmental issues. Our results show that the public does care about the ocean and understands that it’s at risk, but does not understand what being ‘at risk’ means for the ocean, or what they can do about it. Future ocean literacy programming at the museum could address these gaps by educating people more on the holistic nature of ocean systems, the interconnectivity of both processes and workable solutions, and the need to work together to restore our blue planet.

Madison Wright undertook a museum internship during her undergraduate degree at the University of New South Wales. Her work on the museum’s ocean literacy project has strengthened her commitment to being at the forefront of change.

Cruising Sydney’s naval sites

On the water with the Naval Historical Society

Would you like to know more about the navy in Sydney Harbour? The Naval Historical Society of Australia is offering three cruises that explore naval activities and facilities in Sydney Harbour from 1788 to the present, especially during World War II.

THE NAVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA is an all-volunteer non-profit organisation that aims to promote an understanding of Australian naval history. It has developed three cruises that focus specifically on the story of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), as seen from the water, each with an in-depth and expert commentary by volunteers from the Naval Historical Society. Several of the people involved are also volunteers at the Sydney Heritage Fleet and the Australian National Maritime Museum.

All cruises are aboard MV Bennelong , a large, specially chartered launch. Included are a wellcatered morning tea and a souvenir booklet with plenty of information and photos.

Cruises are $80 per person and leave from King Street Wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney (opposite the Maritime Museum). This year’s tour itineraries are as follows.

The three cruises focus specifically on the story of the Royal Australian Navy, as seen from the water

Cruise 1 – The Navy in Sydney Harbour, West

HMAS Waterhen The navy mine warfare and clearance diving base.

Cockatoo Island Learn about shipbuilding, ship repair and submarine refits. Also, the conversion of merchant ships to troop and hospital ships.

Spectacle Island Where high-explosive ammunition was held for RAN ships.

Snapper Island Where many young people were trained in navy skills.

Cruise 2 – The Navy in Sydney Harbour, East

Dawes Point The story of the observatory built by William Dawes and the construction of the gun battery.

Sydney Cove The story of Fort Macquarie and naval activities to protect ships and the colony after the arrival of the First Fleet.

Garden Island The first use of Garden Island as a garden and its later development. The construction of the Captain Cook Graving Dock, the story of the hammerhead crane and the role of HMAS Kuttabul.

HMAS Rushcutter A Naval Reserve training facility for anti-submarine warfare, diving and radar.

Clark Island Gun barrels were stored here during World War II. The Japanese midget submarines were also brought here after they were salvaged.

Rose Bay The story of HMAS Tingira, which trained more than 3,000 sailors from 1912 to 1927.

For more information and to book, see navyhistory.au/tours-and-cruises . Alternatively, email cruises@navyhistory.au or phone 0451 218 336.

Watsons Bay HMAS Watson is the training centre for maritime warfare. Watsons Bay was the home base for pilot boats and lifeboats over the years.

Georges Head The location of the western end of the anti-submarine boom net during World War II.

Chowder Bay The base to protect the harbour with mines during the 1880s, and now a fuel installation for the RAN.

Bradleys Head The story of our navy’s first battle and first victory, involving HMAS Sydney (1) and SMS Emden

Neutral Bay – Sub Base Platypus Home of the six Oberon class submarines for 30 years.

Cruise 3 – Sydney under Japanese attack

This cruise focuses on the 1942 Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour and visits the ‘battlefield’ locations where the action occurred. It is held annually, around the anniversary of the attack.

Lady Bay and Georges Head Locations of an underwater loop to detect ships entering and leaving the harbour.

Taylors Bay Where midget submarine M-22 was destroyed by depth charges.

Clark Island The salvaged wrecks of the submarines were taken here for inspection.

The location where midget submarine M-24 fired its torpedoes The target was the cruiser USS Chicago but the torpedoes missed and sank HMAS Kuttabul

The Harbour Cruise West includes Spectacle Island (foreground), formerly an explosives store for the RAN, and Cockatoo Island (background), where many navy ships were built and refitted. Image John Carnemolla/ Shutterstock

Message to members

Welcome to winter

As we hit the halfway point of the year, we still have still plenty of talks, tours, book launches and other events in store for our members.

I CAN’T BELIEVE we are halfway through 2024 already. It’s been wonderful catching up with so many of our members at museum events over the last six months. It’s also been so great to see so many new members joining up after attending one of our talks, tours or cruises. We are always planning and developing a range of events with wide appeal, to ensure we have something for everyone. Remember you can always bring along a friend as well, at member prices.

While we try to lock in our events far in advance, every month there are special opportunities that arise with short notice, and miss out on being printed in Signals. To make sure that you are kept up to date with all the latest news and events, check that you are receiving our monthly Members Events email and also follow us on Eventbrite to receive information about new events as soon as they publish. To do this, scan the QR code on page 57.

And talking of far in advance, we’ve set the date for this year’s Members Anniversary Lunch – it will be on Saturday 30 November. Make a note in your diary; it will be a fantastic event as usual.

We look forward to seeing you at the museum again soon.

Matt Lee, Manager – VIP Relations & Membership

The golden age of steam is the topic of a talk on 27 June; see opposite. RMS Queen Mary in Sydney Harbour, loading troops from Sydney ferries for transportation to war. Image

Samuel J Hood Studio ANMM Collection 00020465

Behind the scenes

White Gloves tours

10.30 am–12.45 pm alternate Tuesday and Thursdays

Explore some of the museum’s 165,000 collection items in this private behindthe-scenes VIP tour. You’ll experience items recovered from shipwrecks, Indigenous artefacts, ship models and a broad range of items from commercial, naval, sporting and exploration maritime history. The tours run for about two and a quarter hours, and finish with a cup of tea or coffee in our Members Lounge.

Members $30; non-members $40. Check Eventbrite for dates and bookings

Talk

Cats ahoy: How the ship’s cat sailed into Australian history

2–3.30 pm Saturday 22 June

Cats have been an integral part of ships’ life for hundreds of years on vessels both big and small. Cats joined the ranks as expert ratters and mousers but also as champion cuddlers and loyal companions.

Join Dr Jodie Stewart, Australia’s (potentially) first cat historian, as she claws back the layers of how felines helped shape our country.

Members free; non-members $11

Seaman with a cat and kitten.

Samuel J Hood Studio ANMM Collection 00039608

Talk

Characters of the Pyrmont neighbourhood

2–3.30 pm Saturday 29 June

This event brings together some of today’s residents of Pyrmont, who talk about why they migrated or moved to this vibrant city-fringe precinct. Details are still being confirmed as Signals goes to press; see our website for more information.

Author talk

Lauren Chater

2–3.30 pm Friday 14 June

Lauren Chater talks about her new book, The Beauties – the story of an incomparable beauty, a promise to a king, and a portrait that can never be completed. She also discusses her previous bestseller The Winter Dress –inspired by a real historical shipwreck off the Dutch Island of Texel – and what it’s like writing historical fiction.

Free for all attendees

Speakers talk

The golden age of steam

2–3.30 pm Thursday 27 June

Join us to hear how the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the steam engine led to the construction of steam-powered ships and boats. Some of those discussed will be Sydney steam tugs and the great liners, including Lusitania, Mauretania and the doomed Titanic

Presented by Noel Phelan from the museum’s Speakers Group.

Members free; non-members $10

Members tour

Port Botany and tugboats

2–3.30 Thursday 25 July

A special tour of the operations of Smit Lamnalco Port Botany base and a guided tour of one of its tugboats.

Members $60; non-members $70

Port Botany container terminal. Image Yuliaphoto/Shutterstock

Speakers talk

100 years of Halvorsens

2–3.30 pm Friday 26 July

Celebrating 100 years of Halvorsen boats in Australia. Halvorsens were renowned for their innovative design, quality vessels and distinctive styling. Their vessels combine practicality, beauty and craftsmanship with fidelity to the demands of the sea. Lars Halvorsen’s sons Harold, Carl, Bjarne, Magnus and Tryvge became accomplished sailors and boatbuilders, winning many prestigious yacht racing events in yachts designed and built by the firm.

Presented by Gillian Lewis from the museum’s Speakers Group.

Members free; non-members $10

Adventurers talk

Kayaking the Tasman

2–3.30 pm Thursday 1 August

After more than two months and 2,000 gruelling kilometres, Aussie kayaker Richard Barnes pulled off one of the world’s most perilous paddling feats.

It took 67 days to kayak the treacherous Tasman Sea solo from Hobart to New Zealand. Barnes made the journey in a custom-built, self-righting, 9.9-metre-long kayak called Blue Moon. Join Richard as he talks about what it was like to undertake this hazardous journey.

Members free; Non-members $10

Author talk

Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

2–3.30 pm Tuesday 20 August

Heather Morris talks about her new book Sisters Under the Rising Sun – a tale of women in war, including Australian Army nurses Nesta James and Vivian Bullwinkel. Their story is a testament to resilience, bravery and friendship in the darkest of times. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author.

Heather Morris is the bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Free for all attendees

Image courtesy Echo Publishing

Evening editions

Breaking the Enigma code

5.30–8.30 pm Wednesday 31 July

This fascinating talk covers German U-boats and their role in World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic.

Large volumes of radio traffic passed between the U-boats and German headquarters. The messages were encrypted using the Enigma cipher machine, which the Germans thought unbreakable ... but it wasn’t. We will have two 1940 Enigma machines on display and will demonstrate how these complicated machines work and ‘talk’ with each other.

Includes pre-talk wine and refreshments. $30 members / $40 non-members

Book launch

Dive! by Mike Carlton

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 7 August

Mike Carlton talks about his new book Dive!, on the history of Australian submariners at war.

Submariners are a special breed. With stealth and daring they go deep and dark, alone and unseen, in often dangerous waters. They sometimes call themselves the Silent Service, with good reason. Australian submariners have performed extraordinary deeds in both World Wars and more recently the Cold War.

Free for all attendees

Life in our Navy: Jack on board a submarine after a storm (WWI-era postcard).

ANMM Collection 00000490

Speakers talk

The story of the Dunbar

2–3.30 pm Thursday 22 August

The Dunbar was within sight of its home port of Sydney when, in August 1857, it struck the cliffs of The Gap in a rising gale and broke up. On board were local residents returning from a visit to ‘the old country’, as well as people migrating from Europe to join family members in Australia. All the passengers and all but one of the crew perished in the tragedy.

Pam Forbes and Greg Jackson from the museum’s Speakers Group tell the story of one of Australia’s worst shipwrecks. Members free; non-members $10

Harbour cruise

SY Ena

August – date to be confirmed

Join us for a cruise aboard a timeless beauty from a bygone age.

SY Ena is an Edwardian steam yacht, one of only three still extant in the country.

Walter Reeks and built by WM Ford Boatbuilders, the vessel had a varied career. It spent a few years as a pleasure craft, then undertook war service as HMAS Sleuth in World War I, before becoming a commercial cargo and fishing vessel, renamed Aurore. After sinking in 1981, it was salvaged then restored in 1987 as close as possible to its original specifications.

In 2017 Ena was generously donated to the museum by John and Jacqui Mullen.

Members $50; non-members $80 Includes light refreshments

Ena in Darling Harbour. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

Harbour cruise John Louis

August – date to be confirmed

Built in Broome for pearling, John Louis is one of the last sail-rigged working craft built in Australia. The design of the Broome luggers evolved in response to the local environment, with the shallow draft and broad beam needed for the large tidal movements of the region.

In the early 20th century, Australia supplied 75 per cent of the world’s pearl shell. John Louis collected young pearl shells for the cultured pearl industry which thrived after World War II.

The crew, mainly Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Malay, or Japanese, slept and lived on the deck.

Come aboard for a look into this historic vessel and to gain an insight into its working past.

Members $40; non-members $50 Includes light refreshments

John Louis on Sydney Harbour. Image Jenni Carter/ANMM

Unless otherwise noted, talks are free for members and one guest. Book launches are free for all guests. Bookings are essential. To book members events, email memberevents @sea.museum and tell us which event you wish to attend, and who is coming. Alternatively, book through Eventbrite, phone us on 02 9298 3777, or scan the QR code at left.

For all other events, please see sea.museum/whats-on/events for further details and how to book.

For children’s and family programs, please check sea.museum or sea.museum/kids .

A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck

From 5 July

A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck is a is a visually arresting exhibition that takes visitors through the process of creating a graphic novel about South Australia’s oldest known shipwreck, the whaling ship South Australian (lost 8 December 1837).

AFTER YEARS OF RESEARCH, the wreck site was finally discovered in 2018. Since then, maritime archaeologists have re-created the disaster in the form of a stunning graphic novel and developed a Virtual Reality Diving Experience (VRDE) of the site.

This exhibition presents the dramatic graphic imagery from the novel as well as real shipwreck artefacts recovered from the site. Visitors can take a virtual dive on the wreck, then learn of the archaeological detective work and the thrilling wreck dives that fed into the artistic and creative processes that created the illustrations.

Image courtesy Prof Holger Deuter

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 59

From 15 June

From the Natural History Museum in London, this exhibition features more than 100 exceptional images that capture the breathtaking diversity of the natural world in 16 categories. Photography’s emotive power is used in the exhibition to advance scientific knowledge, spread awareness of important issues and nurture a global love of nature.

In its 59th edition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year drew over 49,000 entries from photographers around the world, in all experience levels and ages. The exhibition showcases images across sixteen categories, including Animals in their Environment, Underwater and Photojournalism, judged by an international panel of industry experts. This exhibition features the winners from the 2023 competition.

Coral connections (Alex Mustard, UK) shows the biodiversity of a healthy coral reef as ghost gobies swim within the branches of a sea fan. Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. © Alex Mustard/WPY

Inundated: Photos of the Lismore Floods by Natalie Grono

From 22 August

When Lismore and other towns on the New South Wales north coast were swept away during the worst floods seen in decades, photographer Natalie Grono captured the extent of how this catastrophe affected the communities and their people. Many Australians only experienced the floods through the news, far removed from the waters. Natalie Grono’s photos were taken on ‘ground zero’, recording the personal anguish the waters caused and the forces of nature at play.

See the article on page 66.

Image © Natalie Grono

Bridge to the Future

Now showing

In March 1924, the New South Wales government signed a contract with English firm Dorman Long & Co to build a steel arch bridge across Sydney Harbour. At the same time a Special Service Squadron headed by the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, steamed into Sydney Harbour. This exhibit showcases a beautiful architectural painting commissioned by Dorman Long, capturing the winning design for the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This is the first time the work has been exhibited in Australia.

Australian Legacies of British Slavery

Opens 22 August

This exhibit explores what happened when former slave owners across the British Empire were compensated to free their enslaved workers. What were the financial, cultural and human consequences when former slave owners arrived in the Australian colonies?

On the night of 22 and 23 August 1791, in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), an uprising began that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

The exhibit opens on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition – a day intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples.

Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life

Now showing

At a time when oceans are under more threat than ever, Valerie Taylor AM has been a key change-maker, breaking the mould, pushing boundaries, and capturing an underwater world that – in some places – no longer exists. She shows the impact one person can have and stands as encouragement to act now.

Over 60 years in the ocean, Valerie Taylor has captured the underwater world and shared her knowledge with the public, encouraging greater protection of species and their habitats. In 2018, she donated a vast archive of photographs, objects and stories to the National Maritime Collection.

Featuring objects and more than 1,400 images, Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life is not just one woman’s incredible story, it is a call to action for all the potential ocean change-makers out there –to inspire all of us to advocate for the oceans in our own way.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ valerie-taylor

Valerie Taylor testing a wetsuit to see if its striped pattern, mimicking that of a sea snake, would deter a reef shark (it didn’t). ANMM Collection donated by Valerie Taylor through the Australian Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Ron Taylor

Show us the Keel

Now showing

This display celebrates the success of Australia’s 1983 America’s Cup win. It presents the story of the masterminds behind the innovative engineering and avant-garde design of Australia II, the passion and dedication required by the Australian team, and the fallout after Australia won the cup from the Americans, for the first time in the race’s 132-year history.

On show in the foyer of the museum’s Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Building from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ show-us-the-keel

Mäna and Bäru: The Sea Country of Guykuda Munuŋgurr

Now showing

An installation of 19 sculptures of fish and other marine creatures by Guykuda Munuŋgurr, representing species found in his Garrthalala homeland in northern Australia. He crafts his shapes out of the bush timber that surrounds his remote homeland. Many of the species represented in these works are depicted in the museum’s internationally significant Saltwater Bark paintings. Protecting Sea Country is an important message aligned with the museum’s commitment to the United Nations Ocean Decade.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ mana-and-baru

HMB Endeavour cannon

Now showing

A small display of artefacts associated with Lieutenant James Cook’s famous HM Bark Endeavour. In June 1770, 48 tonnes of material, including six iron cannons, were jettisoned from Endeavour in a successful attempt to save the ship after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. One of the cannons is on display, along with some of the ballast.

Cannon on loan to the museum courtesy of NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ endeavour-cannon

The Wharfies’ Mural

Now showing

For the first time since it was donated in 1997, the entire Wharfies’ Mural is on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum. The mural, painted from 1953 to 1965, expresses the history and political philosophy of the Waterside Workers Federation and other maritime trade unions. Its subjects include the struggle for the eight-hour day, anti-conscription, a general strike and the fight against Fascism.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ wharfies-mural

Travelling exhibitions

Cats & Dogs All at Sea Port of Echuca Discovery Centre, VIC Now showing

Townsville Maritime Museum, QLD Until 30 June

In a seafaring life from which families and children are usually missing, and are often very much missed, pets provide a focus for emotions and affection. Sydney photographer Sam Hood went aboard countless ships between 1900 and the 1950s. He took hundreds of photographs of crew members as souvenirs of their visit or to send home to families. This selection of images shows how much pets meant to many seafarers. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ cats-and-dogs-all-at-sea Image courtesy Port of Echuca

Bidhiinja – Restoring our oyster reefs

Touring regional New South Wales Oyster reefs were once abundant along our coastlines, but today only one per cent of reefs remain around Australia. This unique exhibition combines First Nations knowledge and Western science and is a collaboration between the NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries (DPI) and the museum. It explains the forgotten history, benefits and First Nations relationships with oyster reefs in Australia – and why NSW DPI wants to bring them back.

lab.sea.museum/en/bidhiinja Volunteers monitor oyster reefs. Image Rosy Williams

Voyage to the Deep – Underwater Adventures

Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut, USA From 7 June

Based on French author Jules Verne’s 1870 classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the exhibition brings to life the adventures of Captain Nemo and his fantastical Nautilus submarine. Kids can venture through the world below the waves, including the octopus’s garden, a giant squid to slide down and a maze of seaweed to wander through in the kelp forest.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ voyage-to-the-deep

Brickwrecks – Sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks

Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden Now showing

Featuring large-scale LEGO® models, interactives and audiovisuals, Brickwrecks explores some of the world’s most famous shipwrecks, including Vasa, Batavia, Titanic, Terror and Erebus

Developed and designed by the Western Australian Museum in partnership with ANMM and Ryan McNaught. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ brickwrecks

James Cameron – Challenging the Deep

Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, WA

Until 28 July

Encounter the deep-ocean discoveries, technical innovations and scientific and creative achievements of James Cameron. Created by the ANMM’s USA Programs and supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund. Produced in association with Avatar Alliance Foundation and toured internationally by Flying Fish.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ james-cameron-travelling

Capturing the Home Front

Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW From 7 July

An exhibition that shines a light on life at home in World War II, as captured by famous American photojournalist Dorothea Lange and Australian photographers

Samuel Hood, William Cranstone, Hedley Keith Cullen and Jim Fitzpatrick. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ capturing-the-home-front-travelling

William Russell putting the four-gallon (18-litre) monthly ration of petrol into a customer’s car, Drouin, Victoria. National Library of Australia nla.obj-147029034

Duyfken in the classroom

Big lessons from a small ship

Museums are immersive places for students to learn. The Australian National Maritime Museum, through its historic vessels, objects and digital technology, is well placed to share stories about early European exploration and its impacts on Australia. Dr Mathew Sloane outlines new learning materials relating to the Dutch trading ship Duyfken.

IN 1606, 164 YEARS before the arrival of James Cook in Kamay (Botany Bay), the captain of Duyfken (meaning ‘Little Dove’ in Dutch), Willem Janszoon, and his crew of 20 men, made the first recorded contact between Europeans and First Nations people in Australia. The museum is now telling this overlooked part of our history to school students around the country.

In Year 4 history, students learn about the effects of first contacts between First Nations peoples, and people from Asia and Europe. They explore significant navigators and events related to world exploration while applying skills of historical inquiry. The curriculum is a guide for teachers, suggesting explorers to investigate, such as Zhen He, Luís Vaz de Torres, Abel Tasman, James Cook and Willem Janszoon.

More than half of the museum’s school visitors come to tour the Endeavour replica. But a stone’s throw away, on the recently rebuilt Heritage Pontoon, is docked the replica of Duyfken. It holds stories of great feats of navigation, conflict, sadness, adventure and hope for reconciliation – stories which must be shared with our youth.

Very little is known about Duyfken ’s voyage to Australia. There is no surviving copy of Janszoon’s orders or journal. A copy of his original chart was discovered in the Austrian National Library in Vienna and republished in 1933, over 300 years after the journey. Most of what we know comes from second-hand accounts from merchants and sailors of the time, and oral traditions of First Nations people.

Duyfken belonged to the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), a global trading force during the 15th and 16th centuries. On 26 November 1605, Duyfken departed Indonesia on a voyage to New Guinea. An Englishman based in Banten at the time, Captain John Saris, wrote that Duyfken set sail ‘for the discovery of the [island] called Nova ginnea which, it is said, affordeth great store of Gold’.

In the early 1600s an outline of Australia had yet to appear on world maps. Janszoon unknowingly charted the coastline not of New Guinea, but of the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First landfall was made at the Pennefather River, on Wik country, in March 1606. The Europeans travelled south, charting 300 kilometres of coastline, before meeting the locals at a place called Thewena.

Animations, interactive maps, videos and a virtual tour of Duyfken are available on the museum’s website for students across the country to access. See lab.sea.museum/en/1606contact-at-cape-keerweer

A graphic reimagining of the first contact between people of the Wik nation, on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, QLD, and Europeans. Image Roar Film

Students from Marrickville West Public School examine a replica of Willem Janszoon’s chart aboard Duyfken Image Megan Baehnisch/ANMM

Duyfken holds stories of great feats of navigation, conflict, sadness, adventure and hope for reconciliation

The journey of Duyfken and the stories of the people connected with it are evoked through replica artefacts that students can handle. Image Alicia De Audney/ANMM

There is no first-hand account of what happened at Thewena, but it had a profound impact on both parties. Oral histories of Wik elders recorded since the 1970s indicate that there was fear and curiosity, but also a peaceful exchange of goods such as tea and tobacco. But then the Dutch attempted to kidnap Wik women, culminating in violence and loss of life on both sides. Clive Wolmby, a Wik Ngathan man, said:

A man who was the great, great, great … grandfather for myself and other members of the Wolmby family was the tribal leader for the clan at the time of this encounter. He didn’t appreciate the Dutchmen on his land. Things took a turn for the worse when the Dutch tried to take a young girl to their boat.

Janszoon lost half his crew and gave Thewena the name Cape Keerweer, or Cape Turn-about, as it was the point from which the Dutch were repelled by the Wik.

Duyfken ’s story is now being told in a museum workshop and through digital outreach, designed by the Education team (Alison Babbage, Anna Gregory and Mathew Sloane) in collaboration with shipkeepers Mirjam Hilgeman and Andrew Bibby, First Nations curators Matt Poll and Dakota Dixon, and Roar Film. Students step back in time aboard the vessel and handle objects from the Education Collection as they learn about the importance of historical sources. Animations, interactive maps, videos and a virtual tour of Duyfken are available on the website for students across the country to access.

A key message is reconciliation. Nyungar elder Neville Collard made a message stick that travelled on board the Duyfken replica from Fremantle to Cape York when the original voyage was re-enacted in 2000. It was a message of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people meeting, resolving past wrongs, and moving forward together with respect and in harmony. Twenty-four years later, he made a replica set of message sticks for this program to inspire students to create their own messages of hope and reconciliation for Australia.

Dr Mathew Sloane is the museum’s Head of Learning.

References

Gerritsen, R, Ruigrok, A, Guivarra, P, et al (2015). The Duyfken: unveiling of the first contact memorial at Mapoon, Queensland. Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Canberra, ACT.

Loos, N A (1974). Aboriginal – Dutch relations in North Queensland, 1606–1756. Queensland Heritage 3(1): 3–8.

Wolby, C (2018). The Duyfken told by Clive Wolmby (Wik Ngathan). In Pormpuraaw: Stories, art and language. Pormpuraaw Arts and Culture Centre Inc, Pormpuraaw, QLD.

A community in crisis

The Northern Rivers floods

Early in 2022, two catastrophic floods devastated the city of Lismore and surrounding areas of northern New South Wales, in the most expensive disaster in Australian history. The museum has recently acquired a selection of photographs of the floods and their aftermath, by photojournalist Natalie Grono, who relates the stories behind some of the images.

A pile of flood-damaged items discarded in a Lismore street. Image © Natalie Grono ANMM Collection 00056545

It was difficult to witness the contents of people’s entire lives piled up along the roads

ON 28 FEBRUARY 2022, the most significant flood in modern Australian history inundated communities of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. The disaster resulted in a loss of lives, livestock, homes and livelihoods. In the following days and weeks, the mammoth clean-up task began in hot and humid weather. Thousands of homes were uninhabitable, and entire towns were enveloped in thick dark mud and a heavy gut-wrenching stench. Despite the overwhelming circumstances, the residents and volunteer mud armies bravely took on the task of stripping premises and cleaning streets, showcasing their unwavering resilience.

As a photojournalist, I initially covered the event on foot, wading through high waters, relying on the people I encountered to tell me about their experiences. With communication networks down and roads disappearing, a sense of mayhem dominated.

On 6 March, a Sunday afternoon, I met Peter, a largerthan-life and robust character, outside his Wardell home after he had spent the entire day discarding his life’s possessions. During a quiet pause in our conversation and a break in his resilience, he sat on his old lounge chair to recuperate. I was immediately struck by his sense of exhaustion, heightened by the intimidating stack of his redundant, broken belongings contrasted against the beautiful blue sky and tropical palms. I took his photograph, capturing not just Peter’s fatigue and overwhelmed state but also the profound emotional toll the disaster had taken on him and the wider community.

Friends Ivy, Bean and Gracie, 31 March 2022. Ivy’s house went under in both Lismore floods and was deemed uninhabitable, so she was living with her friend Bean. Gracie was cut off from returning home to Nimbin and was also staying with Bean until the road opened. Image © Natalie Grono ANMM Collection 00056552

02 Natalie Grono was named the winner of the 2022 Nikon Photo of the Year Prize and Walkley News Photo for her image ‘Peter takes a moment’. Image © Natalie Grono ANMM Collection 00056551

The residents and volunteer mud armies bravely took on the task of stripping premises and cleaning streets

With communication networks down and roads disappearing, a sense of mayhem dominated

01 Whatever happens, the dogs still need their walks … Ballina residents Denise Cooper and Lorraine Cook try to keep up normal routines after being flooded twice in one month.

30 March 2022. Image © Natalie Grono ANMM Collection 00056553

02 West Ballina resident Susan WIlliamson on flood watch.

Image © Natalie Grono ANMM Collection 00056548

Once the waters receded and summer continued to cast a heavy stench upon the streets, surreal scenes such as cows up trees and objects intertwined in power lines bizarrely became the norm. It was difficult to witness the contents of people’s entire lives piled up along the roads, a tangible representation of the upheaval and loss experienced by individuals and families. These items, once cherished possessions, now displaced and damaged, highlighted the profound emotional toll of the disaster. For many residents, their world had been suddenly lost.

On my rounds, I met teenagers Ivy, Bean, and Gracie walking the flooded streets of Lismore carrying skateboards. As I captured them standing bewildered amid the destruction, analysing the new landscape of their regular haunts, I wondered where they had planned to skate. I can only imagine the angst for the youth, mounting on the back of the isolating COVID years. For Ballina residents Denise and Lorraine, doing everyday things like walking their dogs helped maintain their sanity during the madness.

One month later, as the clean-up was in full swing and people were regaining their livelihoods, many floodaffected residents were again evacuated. Another severe weather event hit the Northern Rivers, resulting in putrid flood waters inundating their homes and destroying their businesses for the second time in weeks.

This traumatised many people, leaving some on a relentless flood watch. I met West Ballina resident Susan as she waited anxiously on her front porch, watching the waters rise and wondering whether they would inundate her home for the second time that month.

Susan is just one of thousands of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the floods. More than two years later, up to 1,200 residents are still living in emergency accommodation or temporary ‘pod’ villages. As awareness of climate-fuelled disasters grows, ensuring people’s safety becomes more urgent – and the most concerning question is when the next flood will hit.

Natalie Grono’s accolades include the Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture and the People’s Choice Award of the National Photographic Portrait Prize. She has also won three Walkley awards, including the Nikon Walkley Photo of the Year in 2022 for the image reproduced on page 69. nataliegrono.com

The exhibition Inundated: Photos of the Lismore Floods by Natalie Grono will open at the museum on 22 August.

Adrift on treacherous waters

Time travellers navigate the 21st century

MULTI-GENRE MASH-UPS are tricky beasts. Done badly, they can be dire; but Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel –a mix of speculative fiction, time travel, rom-com and spy thriller – is deftly handled, wholly engaging, moving and very funny.

In the near future, the British government has acquired a time portal. To test the effects of time travel on humans, several ‘expats’ are rescued from imminent deaths in past events. The government’s logic is that, as they would have died in the past, their resurrection shouldn’t disrupt the space–time continuum. Each is paired with a minder–helper–housemate, known as a ‘bridge’, for a year, to help them acclimatise to their strange new lives – and to monitor them closely and report back to the newly formed Ministry of Time.

The expats’ government IDs are the years from which they have been plucked: 1645 and 1916 are soldiers, 1665 is a would-have-been victim of the bubonic plague, and 1847 is Commander Graham Gore, the only expat based on a historical figure.

The real Gore was a member of Sir John Franklin’s expedition aboard Terror and Erebus, which set out in 1845 to seek the then-hypothetical Northwest Passage. Little is known of Gore: not his date and place of birth, nor those of his death. From his two extant letters, and references to him in others, it is known that he was calm and good-tempered, a crack shot, a musician and an artist. He visited Sydney in 1840, there joining HMS Beagle and serving as first lieutenant under John Lort Stokes during the ship’s survey of Australia. His extraction from the past is cleverly woven into a real historical mystery: why the Franklin expedition’s Camp Felix, discovered in 1859, had been abruptly abandoned.

The only known picture of Gore is an 1845 daguerreotype, reproduced at the back of the book. The half-length studio portrait shows a capable-looking chap with arms folded, eyes focused on an imaginary horizon, a hint of a smile on his mouth. It’s an image to hang an adventure on, and the author transforms Gore from a tiny footnote in history to a brilliantly realised and very appealing character.

He adapts quickly to some aspects of modern life –the motorcycle, Spotify, Southeast Asian cuisine –but mostly, this explorer is adrift on the unknown sea of the 21st century with few reference points. He finds an ocean of sadness – the fates of his former expeditioners, the Holocaust, and random encounters that summon ghosts from his past.

Gore is believably portrayed as adaptable, curious and restless, charismatic, enigmatic and flinty. A very sweet and funny four-way crush develops among Gore, his unnamed bridge and expats 1665 and 1912. Then something deeper happens between Gore and his bridge. They are a trans-temporal Odd Couple, each trying to fathom the other. She is a disaffected civil servant who has taken this job for the money; he is an early Victorian man’s man who has been a sailor since the age of 11. She calls him ‘an anachronism, a puzzle, a piss-take, a problem’. There’s much fun to be had, especially in the early part of the book, with how the expats negotiate the modern world. They encounter strange new concepts, such as germ theory, reliable plumbing, sexual freedom, gender politics and inclusive language. In the latter part, things turn darker, as secrets emerge and a mole in the ministry threatens the lives of expats and bridge, as well as the future of the planet. Their only option is to go literally underground, where further betrayals await.

There’s much fun to be had, especially in the early part of the book, with how the expats negotiate the modern world

Interwoven with the plot are notions of belonging and alienation, empire and colonialism. They arise naturally from the narrator’s 21st-centuryness as a young, progressive Anglo-Cambodian woman (as is the author) who is well versed in negotiating differing worlds. Such large themes don’t overwhelm the rom or the com, however. This is both a very funny novel and a slow-burn romance of yearning intensity between two outsiders exploring their ‘times’, in all senses. It is also, in places, unexpectedly erotic.

Throughout all the book’s genres and moods, the writing is assured, engaging and often beautiful. Bradley has an ear for characterisation, description and dialogue, and gives each expat a voice appropriate to their past. Short flashbacks show in stark prose the desperation of Franklin’s expeditioners as their time and options run out. Bradley’s wit, her striking turns of phrase and the elegiac beauty of some passages make this book a mashup to remember.

A footnote on Gore: his parents and four siblings emigrated to Australia in 1834 as some of the first free settlers, eventually settling near Lake Bathurst, NSW. The only known memorial anywhere to Gore is in St Saviour’s Cemetery, Goulburn, on his parents’ headstone. For more on the discovery of the ships of the Franklin expedition, see Signals 112 (Spring 2015) and 121 (Summer 2017–18).

Reviewer Janine Flew is the museum’s Publications Officer and the editor of Signals

The Ministry of Time By Kaliane Bradley, published by Sceptre, London, 2024. Softcover, 352 pages.

ISBN 9781399726351

RRP $32.99

Daguerreotype of Lieutenant Graham Gore in 1845. Unknown artist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brother mariners

Navigating the history of a seafaring family

ONE RARELY ENCOUNTERS the evergreen British television program Antiques Roadshow in accounts of 19th-century shipping. Yet an episode that aired in 1992 featured an oil painting of Miles Barton, launched in 1853 at New Brunswick, Canada, and soon despatched from Liverpool to Melbourne. In command was Captain William Kelly, the subject of this personable dual biography that also encompasses his younger brother, Captain John Kelly.

Born in Antrim, Ireland, the Kellys established a solid seafaring dynasty. Written by their great-great grandnephew, Harold Bradley, Seaward brings to life their voyaging through a time ‘when oceans were the lifeblood, sea lanes the arteries, ships the muscle, and mariners the heartbeat of a global impulse to move people and goods around the world’.

This is family history that delights in maritime environs. Bradley generously draws readers into his journey of research, discovery and surmise. The book’s main focus is William Kelly (1811–77), a master mariner who learned the ropes on emigrant passages to Canada in the wake of Ireland’s great famine. John (1816–60) also earned his master’s ticket but seemed less assured of a seagoing career, especially once gold was discovered in California in 1848.

A different gold rush bolstered the career of William, who captained Miles Barton from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1853, 1854 and 1855. He earned the acclaim of passengers and crew alike for swift transits, attentive consideration and fair dealing. William’s next command was Merrie England, with John as first mate. ‘Together’, writes Bradley of its 1857 passage, ‘the Kelly brothers constituted a remarkably experienced and proficient executive tag team for Ireland’s grandest clipper ship on her extended maiden voyage to Australia and China’.

Seaward: Chasing Master Mariners in the Golden Age of Sail

By Harold Bradley, published by Luminare Press, 2023. Softcover, 316 pages, illustrations, endnotes, index. ISBN 9781643886305 RRP approx $25.00

John Kelly was lost while serving as first mate on Hilton in 1860, probably near Mauritius. William, meanwhile, prospered at the helm of Express , before retiring from the sea in 1862. Thereafter he owned Sterling , Express (lost 1866), Merrie England (lost 1870) and Princess Alexandra, at a time when wood and sail were succumbing to iron and steel.

In 1876 William Kelly commissioned a new barque, the iron-hulled James Beazley. A contemporary of Sydney Heritage Fleet’s glorious James Craig , albeit with finer lines, Captain Kelly’s final vessel proved his most enduring antipodean legacy. Renamed Bankfields, it was owned in turn by the Adelaide Milling Company and the Adelaide Steamship Company, who hulked it in Fremantle. Bankfields ended its days off Rottnest Island in 1950, providing target practice for the Royal Australian Air Force.

Bradley has crafted this engaging account from family papers, periodicals and a respectable range of secondary sources, leavening the narrative with period extracts. Seaward traces not just the careers of its two subjects, but their sailing sons and the vessels they commanded. This is maritime history with a head and a heart.

But what of the tantalising Antiques Roadshow reference? You’ll have to read Seaward to reveal more!

Reviewer Dr Peter Hobbins is the museum’s Head of Knowledge.

Recent additions to the Vaughan Evans Library

EACH MONTH WE ADD NEW WORKS to our library across a wide range of topics, including naval history, immigration, diverse local cultures, ocean science, river stories, Australian history, school textbooks and titles for kids. We also offer a variety of maritime, genealogical and general research databases. Check our library catalogue, schedule a visit and enjoy our wonderful new books. Visit sea.museum/collections/library

Glenn Barkley

Ceramics: an atlas of forms

738.09 BAR

Jim Blake

Sea change: a pictorial history of the City of Holdfast Bay 994.231 BLA

James Bradley

Deep water: the world in the ocean 551.46 BRA

Catherine Cole

Slipstream: on memory and migration

304.894041 COL

Commonwealth of Australia

The AUKUS nuclearpowered submarine pathway: a partnership for the future 359.93834 AUK

Janine D’Agati and Hannah Schiff

From sleepwear to sportswear: how beach pajamas reshaped women’s fashion 391.42 DAG

Melinda Ham

The lucky ones 305.800994 HAM

Bonnie Hancock

The girl who touched the stars 797.1224 HAN

Tom Lewis

The sinking of HMAS

Sydney: how sailors lived, fought and died in Australia’s greatest naval disaster 940.545994 LEW

Elizabeth McCarthy Abide with Me 359.00994 MCC

Nick Merriman (ed) Museums and the climate crisis 069.07 MER

Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen Brand Antarctica: how global consumer culture shapes our perceptions of the ice continent 919.8902 NIE

Ebony Nilsson

Displaced comrades: politics and surveillance in the lives of Soviet refugees in the West 305.809947 NIL

Julie A Phillips

The lives of seaweeds: a natural history of our planet’s seaweeds and other algae 579.88 PHI

Angela Wanhalla, Lyndall Ryan and Camille Nurka (eds)

Aftermaths: colonialism, violence and memory in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific 325.320990 AFT

Sandy Winterbottom

The two-headed whale: life, loss, and the tangled legacy of whaling in the Antarctic 639.28 WIN

A Firefly II family reunion

Revisiting a record-breaking hydroplane

WHEN KEITH BARRY, then president of the Australian Power Boat Association, learned in late 1949 that his rival Ernie Nunn was going to challenge for the 91 cubic inch (1500 cc) class world water speed record in his family’s boat Do, the scene was set for a dramatic showdown.

In less than two weeks, Keith – an engineer – built his own 3.8-metre ‘three-point’ hydroplane, fitting it with an engine from a friend’s MG racing car. He said, in a 1947 article for Seacraft magazine: 1

The three-point suspension hull gets its name from the fact that, when travelling at speed, it rides or ‘planes’ on three points – the two forward pontoons (sponsons or skis), and the after end of the hull proper. The efficiency of these three planing surfaces in relation to the weight

distributed over them is the main, and perhaps the only factor for the amateur builder to worry about; other factors, such as air lift, torque, etc, are far less important.

At dawn on 14 January 1950, watched by several thousand spectators, the two boats met at Kogarah Bay, New South Wales.

Enid Nunn, Ernie’s niece, drove her family’s boat in the first heat, reaching a speed of 65.90 mph (106.07 km/h) and beating American Jack Cooper’s world record of 64.69 mph (104.10 km/h) established at Salton Sea, California, in 1941. Forty minutes later, in the second heat, Keith reached 72.289 mph (116.34 km/h), beating the previous times and making Firefly II the first Australian boat to hold a world water speed record. In the process, he also broke seven national records.

Firefly II went on to break its own record in November that same year, when Keith’s friend Bill McLachlan, who was 18 kilograms lighter than Keith, took the hydroplane to 78.01 mph (125.54 km/h), a record that stood until 1952.

Keith retired from racing to Tumut in 1951, taking Firefly II with him. In 1957 the boat was sold and ten years later Keith’s son Chris discovered it abandoned in a field on Sydney’s northern beaches. It was reunited with the Barry family in 1984, and in 1987 Keith donated it to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where it was restored and conserved to a high standard.

When the museum was contacted about a reunion of Keith Barry’s family and the possibility of viewing Firefly II as part of the occasion, the Curatorial, Registration and Learning teams worked with Moira McAlister, Keith’s daughter, to arrange a special display of the hydroplane in the Wharf 7 Foyer. There were 42 family members present, coming from as far away as Cairns, Queensland, for this special event. Many of Keith’s adult grandchildren had been present at the opening of the museum when they were children. In Moira’s words, ‘The family is grateful that his legacy is being passed on to another generation’.

1 Barry, Keith. ‘Building a Three-Pointer’, Seacraft, Vol 2 No 1 July–August 1947, p 30.

Several generations of Barry family members with Firefly II in the museum’s Wharf 7 building in April 2024. Image Sheridan Beaumont

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Acknowledgments

The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the support provided to the museum by all our volunteers, members, sponsors, donors and friends.

The museum particularly acknowledges the following people who have made a significant contribution to the museum in an enduring way or who have made or facilitated significant benefaction to it.

Honorary Fellows

Peter Dexter AM

John Mullen AM

Valerie Taylor AM

Ambassadors

Norman Banham

Christine Sadler

Dr David and Jennie Sutherland

Major Donors

The Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler

Acquisition Program

David & Jennie Sutherland Foundation

Honorary Research Associates

RADM Peter Briggs AO

John Dikkenberg

Dr Nigel Erskine

Dr Ian MacLeod

Jeffrey Mellefont

David Payne

Lindsey Shaw

Major Benefactors

Margaret Cusack

Basil Jenkins

Dr Keith Jones

Geoff and Beryl Winter

Honorary Life Members

Yvonne Abadee

Dr Kathy Abbass

Bob Allan

Vivian Balmer

VADM Tim Barrett AO CSC

Lyndyl Beard

Maria Bentley

Mark Bethwaite AM

Paul Binsted

David Blackley

Marcus Blackmore AM

John Blanchfield

Alexander Books

Ian Bowie

Colin Boyd

Ron Brown OAM

Paul Bruce

Anthony Buckley AM

Richard Bunting

Capt Richard Burgess AM

Kevin Byrne

Sue Calwell

RADM David Campbell AM

Marion Carter

Victor Chiang

Robert Clifford AO

Helen Clift

Hon Peter Collins AM QC

Kay Cottee AO

VADM Russell Crane AO CSM

Stephen Crane

John Cunneen

Laurie Dilks

Dr Nigel Erskine

John Farrell

Dr Kevin Fewster CBE AM FRSA

Bernard Flack

Daina Fletcher

Sally Fletcher

Teresia Fors

CDR Geoff Geraghty AM

John Gibbins

Anthony Gibbs

RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN

Paul Gorrick

Lee Graham

VADM Mark Hammond AO

RADM Simon Harrington AM

Jane Harris

Christopher Harry

Gaye Hart AM

Janita Hercus

Robyn Holt

William Hopkins OAM

Julia Horne

Kieran Hosty

RADM Tony Hunt AO

Marilyn Jenner

John Jeremy AM

VADM Peter Jones AO DSC

Hon Dr Tricia Kavanagh

John Keelty

Richard Keyes

Kris Klugman OAM

Judy Lee

Matt Lee

David Leigh

Keith Leleu OAM

Andrew Lishmund

James Litten

Hugo Llorens

Tim Lloyd

Ian Mackinder

Stephen Martin

Will Mather

VADM Stuart Mayer AO CSC and Bar

Bruce McDonald AM

Lyn McHale

VADM Jonathan Mead AO

Rob Mundle OAM

Alwyn Murray

Martin Nakata

David O’Connor

Gary Paquet

David Payne

Prof John Penrose AM

Neville Perry

Hon Justice Anthe Philippides

Peter Pigott AM

Len Price

Eda Ritchie AM

John Rothwell AO

Peter Rout

Kay Saunders AM

Kevin Scarce AC CSC RAN

David Scott-Smith

Sergio Sergi

Ann Sherry AO

Ken Sherwell

Shane Simpson AM

Peter John Sinclair AM CSC

Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ (RADM)

John Singleton AM

Brian Skingsley

Eva Skira AM

Bruce Stannard AM

J J Stephens OAM

Michael Stevens

Neville Stevens AO

Frank Talbot AM

Mitchell Turner

Adam Watson

Ian Watt AC

Jeanette Wheildon

Hon Margaret White AO

Mary-Louise Williams AM

Nerolie Withnall

Cecilia Woolford (née Caffrey)

Honour a migrant on the National Monument to Migration

The National Monument is one of the museum’s most important and visible tributes to our migration heritage.

The museum collects the stories of migrants to Australia, and the National Monument is one of our most important and visible ways of recognising the people behind these stories.

Over 34,000 names already appear on the wall of bronze panels that runs down the northern promenade of the museum, facing Pyrmont Bay.

As an acknowledgement of your taxdeductible gift of $500, your name, or the name of a family member, relative, co-worker or friend, will be etched in bronze onto the museum’s National Monument to Migration in recognition of their journey across the seas to make Australia their new home.

Electra, George, Helen and Fotini Manikakis at the National Monument to Migration, March 2021. Image Jamie Williams

Signals

ISSN 1033-4688

Editor Janine Flew

Staff photographer Jasmine Poole

Design & production Austen Kaupe

Printed in Australia by Pegasus Media & Logistics

Material from Signals may be reproduced, but only with the editor’s permission.

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Signals 147

Bearings

From the Director

WELCOME TO THE WINTER EDITION of Signals.

Contents

Winter 2024

Acknowledgment of Country

The long, strange tale of the Behring

An American vessel abandoned in Sydney Harbour

The drawings of Ben Lexcen

Inside the mind of a maverick yacht designer

How to study a boat plan

An instinct for boats

Expect the unexpected

An insight into museum programming

Following the wind

A journey on Endeavour

Endeavour heads to Hobart

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025

Caring for the Dunbar collection

Conserving items from a colonial shipwreck

Salvage and acquisition

In the care of conservators

Discovery through conservation

Conserving the past, securing the future

Foundation news

Filter feeders for the future

Restoring native oyster reefs

Reef regeneration

AI and museums

What does the future hold?

AI today

Challenges and dangers for museums

Legalities and ethics

Conclusion

A critical mission

Protecting the Great Barrier Reef

Ocean Youth Summit

Sharing stories, shaping change

Assessing visitors’ knowledge of our blue planet

Ocean literacy principles

Cruising Sydney’s naval sites

On the water with the Naval Historical Society

Cruise 3 – Sydney under Japanese attack

Message to members

Welcome to winter

Harbour cruise

Harbour cruise John Louis

A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck

From 5 July

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 59

From 15 June

Inundated: Photos of the Lismore Floods by Natalie Grono

From 22 August

Bridge to the Future

Now showing

Australian Legacies of British Slavery

Opens 22 August

Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life

Now showing

Show us the Keel

Now showing

HMB Endeavour cannon

The Wharfies’ Mural

Now showing

Bidhiinja – Restoring our oyster reefs

Voyage to the Deep – Underwater Adventures

James Cameron – Challenging the Deep

Capturing the Home Front

Duyfken in the classroom

Big lessons from a small ship

A community in crisis

The Northern Rivers floods

Adrift on treacherous waters

Time travellers navigate the 21st century

Brother mariners

Navigating the history of a seafaring family

Recent additions to the Vaughan Evans Library

A Firefly II family reunion

Revisiting a record-breaking hydroplane