Signals150 by Australian National Maritime Museum

Bearings

From the Director

WELCOME to our autumn edition – the 150th issue of Signals

We had a wonderfully busy summer – a season of exploration with two James Cameron–related exhibitions, Challenging the Deep and Ultimate Depth – A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea, alongside Ocean Photographer of the Year Challenging the Deep continues its world tour, with its next venue closer to home, in Townsville.

Our new boardwalk became the centre of activity outside the museum, providing a solid base (pun intended) for patrons as they explored our vessels or the Halvorsen Centenary Flotilla or dropped into Ripples for a great coffee.

Ocean Photographer of the Year will conclude on 27 April. It’s really very special and I strongly encourage you to visit. It will be followed by Wildlife Photographer of the Year in mid-May.

We were delighted that Endeavour could be the lead attraction of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart in February, and that both legs of the journey to and from Hobart were fully booked. The museum is proud to be a major partner in the festival. Sailing Endeavour remains a priority, and plans are under way for the next voyage.

On the sailing front, Duyfken will recommence its harbour sailing season in March, sailing Fridays and Saturdays. These sails are always very popular, with details and bookings available via the museum’s website.

We recently opened a small exhibition in Wharf 7 entitled Secret Strike – War on our shores. This exhibition features the stern section of the Japanese midget submarine M22 (kindly on loan from the Royal Australian Navy), which took part in the attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942. The exhibition will also feature a range of materials about the strike, including new works by Ken Done. This exhibition, along with a range of other museum initiatives, is being held to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific.

And finally, on this our 150th edition, I invite you to make a $150 tax deductible donation (or any amount you choose) to the museum to support our good work. Details can be found at www.sea.museum/donate. Or if you would like to discuss additional ways to support us, please contact the museum’s Foundation at foundation@sea.museum

Wishing you a fabulous 2025.

Daryl Karp AM Director and CEO

The museum’s revamped boardwalk provides extra seating and shade. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

Autumn 2025

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 A cavalcade of classic craft

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025

10 A vibrant achievement

Celebrating 150 issues of Signals

14 A navigator’s last journey

Matthew Flinders returns to his home town

18 Royals by sea

Regal voyages to the ends of the Empire

26 Meet Bikpela Binatang

A hydrothermal chimney dredged from the deep

30 A view from a window

Charmian Clift – ‘an affinity with the sea and ships’

36 Oh! What a lovely war

Prisoners in Arcady

44 The remarkable tale of the Estramina

A colonial Spanish vessel wrecked in Australian waters

52 Adventure Bay

The safe haven on Hobart’s doorstep

60 One free woman

The true story of convict Hannah Rigby

66 Charting a sustainable future

The winners of the 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards

70 Members news and events

Talks and tours this autumn

74 Exhibitions

What’s on show this season

78 Collections

A model of Tu� Do joins the National Maritime Collection

80 National Monument to Migration

A special panel to honour our Vietnamese migrants

82 Foundation news

A new location for T ∙ u� Do

84 Readings

Admiral VAT Smith, father of Australia’s Fleet Air Arm

88 Currents

Prestigious awards for our former curator Lindsey Shaw

Cover Endeavour in Hobart for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. Pictured aloft during the opening Parade of Sail are voyage crew members Caroline Kane and Jemima Carey and professional crew member Paula Tinney. Image John Bowen

A drone’s-eye view of some of the vessels that took part in the festival. Image Stuart Gibson/ AWBF

Classic craft converge on Hobart

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025

Boats and visitors from near and far gathered in Hobart in February to share stories, skills and knowledge, and celebrate the living history of maritime traditions.

THE AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL is Tasmania’s largest free event and the biggest celebration of wooden boats and maritime culture in the southern hemisphere. It began in the early 1990s, when three friends had the idea to celebrate and promote their state’s superlative boatbuilding timbers and its tradition of fine shipbuilding. Those aims are still at the heart of the festival, and continue to be enthusiastically embraced by local, interstate and international attendees. This year’s Australian Wooden Boat Festival (AWBF) attracted more than 380 vessels from countries around and beyond the Pacific and an estimated 60,000 participants of all ages.

A Pacific focus

The theme of this year’s festival was the Pacific, and guests from Aotearoa New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Tahiti, the Marshall Islands, Japan, the US West Coast and Niue shared their unique maritime stories through captivating demonstrations, interactive workshops and engaging displays. The Pacific Seafarers Precinct offered talks and presentations from esteemed shipwrights, curators and adventurers. Festival-goers were invited to try their hand at traditional art forms such as wood-block rubbings with artist Michel Tuffery and diverse weaving techniques with weavers from Samoa, Niue and Aotearoa New Zealand.

The festival spanned more than 30 venues across the waterfront and into the city and beyond

Cultural institutions from Pacific nations were also represented. The Tino Rawa Trust, founded in 2007, is committed to preserving Aotearoa New Zealand’s classic yacht and launch heritage, and focuses on conserving and restoring historically significant vessels, often employing traditional boatbuilding techniques and materials. The New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananuia Tangaroa welcomed visitors to drop in and join the korerō (conversation) to explore the nation’s voyaging history and discuss the ancient art of Pacific navigation, the significance of first encounters and the diverse narratives that have shaped their nation. The Pacific Traditions Society (PTS), founded in 1988 by Dr Marianne (Mimi) George and Dr David Lewis, teaches young people cultural knowledge about the ocean through voyaging, believing that ancient wisdom about the ocean, climate, and biodiversity, developed over millennia of voyaging in Oceania, is crucial for sustainable living and cultural survival.

01 Entertainment offerings included live theatre, roving music performances, captivating exhibitions, a Pacific Film Festival and plenty of active and hands-on activities for families and kids.

Image Michelle Bowen

A fine display of smaller craft at Constitution Dock.

Image Ben Cunningham/AWBF

The Australian National Maritime Museum once again sponsored the Wooden Boat Symposium

In the Shipwrights Village, festival-goers had the chance to ask questions of expert shipwrights from the Franklin Wooden Boat Centre, chat with current and former students, and even get hands-on experience with traditional tools and Tasmanian timbers.

Image Scarlet English/AWBF

The ever-popular Quick ‘n’ Dirty Boatbuilding Challenge tasked young people with building a craft with limited materials and in limited time, then racing it under sail and oar.

Image Michelle Bowen

The festival’s Pacific theme drew attendees from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Tahiti, the Marshall Islands, Japan, the US West Coast and Niue.

Image Alex Nicholson/AWBF

The Wooden Boat Symposium

The Australian National Maritime Museum once again sponsored the Wooden Boat Symposium. Over three days and two nights, a distinguished line-up of professionals and passionate enthusiasts shared their expertise, exploring traditional watercraft, Pacific voyaging and maritime history, social and environmental issues within the region, and ambitious restoration projects. ANMM Manager of Indigenous Programs Matt Poll spoke about engaging communities in Indigenous collections research. Former Curator of Historic Vessels David Payne discussed an ANMM research project to document and showcase the sophisticated, functional and beautiful traditional watercraft of Papua New Guinea. Ben Hawke talked of the Pacific of the 1940s to the 1970s through the eyes of his grandfather Jack Earl, a yachtsman and artist who sailed on Maris and the wooden gaff ketch Kathleen Gillett, which is now owned by the museum.

Popular sessions at the symposium concentrated on adventure stories and restoration projects

Other presenters of Pacific themes included Darienne Day, who discussed canoes as vessels of wisdom and how they promote learning through voyaging; Dr Mimi George, who related how an ancient Polynesian voyaging vessel is built and used today as sustainable sea transport; and Alson Kelen and Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, who spoke of Pacific projects that address social and environmental issues through seafaring.

Other popular sessions concentrated on adventure stories and restoration projects. Tony Stevenson spoke of the ‘South Sea vagabond’ Ngataki, an iconic Depression-era yacht and its adventures that inspired a generation of New Zealanders. Larry Paul discussed the remarkable recovery of the schooner Daring , beached during a storm in 1865 on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island then buried in sand dunes for 153 years. Leo Goolden detailed the ambitious Tally Ho rebuild that started with a $1 rotten hull and became a crowdfunded YouTube sensation.

The Tasmanian Vintage Diving Group demonstrated the art of old-style diving with authentic gear.

Image Ben Cunningham/AWBF

A Tasmanian ningher, or rolled-bark canoe, was an appropriate vessel for a row around Constitution Dock.

Image Michelle Bowen

Endeavour and James Craig in the Parade of Sail, the traditional start to every festival, in which participating vessels sail together up the Derwent River then congregate at Constitution Dock. Image Michelle Bowen

Traditional skills

The preservation and promotion of traditional maritime skills have always been a cornerstone of the festival. The Shipwrights Village is one of its major attractions, offering a first-hand look at the craftsmanship behind wooden boat building. Live demonstrations showcased time-honoured skills like caulking, roving, rope work and figurehead sculpting, while festival-goers could see boats built on site, explore the materials and techniques that have shaped this craft for centuries, and try their hand at various skills.

Multi-day workshops on and off site catered for those who wished to delve more deeply into a particular skill. Under the tutelage of master craftspeople, participants could make a hollow wooden surfboard or wooden handboard for bodysurfing, try their hand at Japanese joinery and wood crafts, create a boat fender or traditional ocean plait mat from rope, or be introduced to the tools and techniques of turning wood on a traditional foot-operated spring pole lathe.

A wide reach

While the festival centred on boats and Hobart’s waterfront, it spanned more than 30 venues across and beyond the city, providing exposure and a commercial outlet for artists, craftspeople, stallholders, food and beverage providers and varied community interest groups.

Biennially, the AWBF injects around $4 million directly into the wooden boat industry and its supporters. The ripple effect generates a further $25 million for tourism and the local economy. The festival’s success is made possible by the dedication of over 400 volunteers, whose tireless efforts ensured the seamless operation of this world-class event.

AWBF General Manager and Festival Director Paul Stephanus said:

AWBF is Tasmania’s most beloved festival, driven by passionate individuals and community groups dedicated to preserving our maritime heritage. While some may view it as a niche event for wooden boat enthusiasts, they’d be mistaken. This is a celebration for all, uniting our community and visitors to share in the craftsmanship, joy, and stories that make this event truly special.

Compiled by Signals editor Janine Flew from materials provided by the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

A vibrant achievement

Celebrating 150 issues of our flagship publication

FEW MAGAZINES CAN CLAIM the healthy longevity that Signals enjoys. As the museum’s flagship publication, even its name has stood the test of time!

Well before the Australian National Maritime Museum opened its doors to the public, in 1986 a rather slim ANMM Newsletter was instigated to keep our stakeholders up to date. Editing this periodical was soon passed to public affairs officer Jeffrey Mellefont, who conceived a bigger vision and a bold new title. In 1989 he launched Signals, ‘to flag that this would be the very model of a modern maritime museum’.

And so it has been. Signals reported on the museum’s opening in 1991, plus our anniversaries over three subsequent decades. We have boasted visits by prime ministers and presidents, rock stars and sporting legends, ambassadors and performers, artists and seals (yes, seals).

‘Signals gives the museum’s people a vibrant medium to present their work to a wider, general readership,’ enthuses Jeffrey.

‘It welcomes everyone into our fascinating world of maritime and naval histories, cultures and heritage.’ From the outset, the magazine has introduced audiences to the foundations of our institution: volunteers, staff, exhibitions, collections, programs, research and – of course – vessels.

The evolving design of Signals , from a four-page newsletter to today’s quarterly of 80 or more pages.

Image Jasmine Poole/ ANMM

A perk of editing Signals is publishing articles on your particular areas of interest. For founding editor Jeffrey Mellefont, it was Indonesian seafaring history and culture; for current editor Janine Flew, it’s textile arts, ceramics and natural history. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

The museum’s fleet looms large across 150 editions. Pride of place goes to Endeavour, from the building of the replica in Perth, to reportage of its global voyages, then the exultant day when this tall ship came to call Sydney its home port. Readers have learned of the bark’s history, construction, crew, character and quirks. This issue is no exception, with Endeavour sailing home from Hobart as we go to press. Duyfken has likewise graced these pages, alongside cameos from the entire fleet, from diminutive Thistle to the grey bulk of HMAS Vampire.

But more than anything, diversity is the key to the ongoing success of the magazine.

‘I first started reading Signals back in 2002,’ recalls Randi Svensen, ‘and was immediately drawn to the variety and quality of the articles, many of which introduced me to new and fascinating subjects’. Randi subsequently became a regular contributor, sharing her expertise from Halvorsens to tugboats, obituaries to recollections. Behind the scenes, Randi is also the magazine’s longtime proofreader, eyeing off accuracy and expression. She has also taken the helm several times to edit entire issues. ‘It was a daunting prospect but also very exciting,’ she recalls, ‘even if sometimes it felt as if I were trying to juggle one too many balls!’

Signals has taken readers into the depths of the museum, from the conservation laboratory to kids’ programming, yet it also looks outwards. We regularly feature new craft added to the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, as well as stories on colleagues around the country who participate in the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme. Then there have been the nawi-building workshops on Sydney Harbour, as well as visiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on Country. Our maritime archaeology team has regularly showcased wreck sites from around the world, from Gallipoli to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia to Victor Harbor, Rhode Island to the South China Sea.

Shipwrecks have unsurprisingly surfaced with regularity, especially Australia’s first two submarines, AE1 and AE2 Signals furthermore affirms that Australia is a maritime nation in the Indo-Pacific region, sharing the watercraft traditions and cultures of our near neighbours. That embrace of global journeys and stories has also characterised the many features from the Welcome Wall – our National Monument to Migration. Add in maritime arts and stunning photography, and there’s never any shortage of variety.

‘Turning that into a magazine each quarter is always a pleasure,’ says Jo Kaupe, who with her partner Jeremy Austen has designed Signals from number 82 in 2008. ‘Since that first issue, we’ve mainly worked with two great editors, Jeffrey and Janine. As we’re Jo and Jeremy, we make up what we call the “J-Team”,’ she adds. It’s a slick operation, with Jeffrey Mellefont handing over the reins to the current editor, Janine Flew, after delivering issue 104. ‘As soon as I saw this job advertised in 2012, I knew it had my name all over it,’ says Janine. ‘I grew up around boats, I’ve sailed competitively and I enjoy the challenge of making each issue unique and relevant.’

When I came to the museum in 2021, my proudest moment was knowing that Signals was a key responsibility within my faintly comical job title of ‘Head of Knowledge’ (just add ‘Big’ in front of it!). Having already published in Signals myself, I was aware of the high standards expected for research and expression, as well as the magazine’s immersion in the vibrant fields of maritime history and heritage. This is a place to publish exciting new finds, fresh interpretations of established stories, the exuberance of acquiring objects for the National Maritime Collection, or insights about how our exhibitions come together. No wonder we have attracted impressive research from Jeffrey and Randi, as well as our past and present curatorial team, including Dr Nigel Erskine, Dr James Hunter, Dr Stephen Gapps, Emily Jateff, Kim Tao, Kieran Hosty, Dr Roland Leikauf and Inger Sheil.

So where to from here? We are brimming with ideas, including more about our rivers and lakes, the visceral pleasures of sailing and diving, and the aquatic pursuits that unite Australians, from fishing to surfing. There are also many communities we want to visit, from the River Murray to Channel Country – and Antarctica! But most of all we want you – our readers – to tell us what will keep you turning the pages of Signals for another 150 issues.

Dr Peter Hobbins is the museum’s Head of Knowledge. His job title still makes him chuckle.

To share your suggestions for the future of Signals , please write to the editor at publications@sea.museum

A navigator’s last journey

Bringing Matthew Flinders home

More than 200 years after he died, explorer Matthew Flinders has been laid to rest in his home town in Lincolnshire, UK. By Margie Brophy of the Bass and Flinders Maritime Centre in George Town, Tasmania.

ON 13 JULY LAST YEAR I was fortunate enough to be a part of history being made. I attended the reburial of Matthew Flinders in Donington, Lincolnshire, UK. How could this be possible, you might ask, when he died in 1814? Matthew Flinders was originally buried in the churchyard of St James, Piccadilly, but as the city grew, Euston Station was built on top. People knew he was there, but was he under platform 4 or platform 7? In 2019, as a new line of the London Underground was being created, archaeologists dug the site and, among the 60,000 graves, found Matthew Flinders’ coffin. It had a lead breastplate on top with the words ‘Captain Matthew Flinders RN died 19th July 1814 Age 40 years’.

A committee, called Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home, was formed in Flinders’ home town of Donington to organise a reinterment service and celebrate his life. When we arrived in July, the village was decked out in style, with window displays and flowers and flags from both Australia and the UK lining the streets. We arrived a couple of days early so we could meet with schoolchildren and chat with locals. Everyone was very welcoming –in fact, local people couldn’t believe we had come from the other side of the world to take part. The Bass and Flinders Maritime Centre in George Town, Tasmania, had established an initial relationship with the village back in March, when we cut two birthday cakes simultaneously – one at the centre and another in Donington – to celebrate Flinders’ 250th birthday.

Matthew Flinders was originally buried in the churchyard of St James, Piccadilly, but as the city grew, Euston Station was built on top

Matthew Flinders’ coffin being lowered into the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood, Donington. Image Stephen Daniels

The Hon Nick Duigan MLC gave us a Tasmanian flag to present to the committee, and it is now proudly hanging in the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood next to the stained-glass window commemorating Matthew Flinders, George Bass and Joseph Banks.

The day arrived with sunshine and church bells. Crowds gathered as we were interviewed by BBC, ITV and Lincolnshire Independent. There was a real buzz as officials assembled at the church and service people lined the streets. The Bishop of Lincoln Cathedral, The Right Rev Dr David Court, led the procession, followed by The Hon Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia; mayors and deputy mayors from Lincoln and Boston, in the UK, and Port Lincoln, South Australia; the Australian Deputy High Commissioner, Elisabeth Bowes; and naval officers, including Dr (Capt) Peter Martin from Hobart. The flag draped over the coffin was half British and half Australian, to represent the strong links between the two countries.

After the coffin was lowered into the grave inside the church, sand from three different beaches in South Australia was poured in, along with soil from London and Donington. Laurie Bimson represented Bungaree, the Eora man who circumnavigated Australia with Matthew Flinders. Into the grave Laurie placed a boomerang engraved with a stingray, Bungaree’s totem, and the choir sang Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ with special additional verses about Flinders.

Later, descendants Susie Flinders-Beatty and Rachel Flinders-Lewis presented the breastplate from the original coffin to the South Australian governor to be taken to South Australia for touring and display purposes. We hope one day to have an opportunity to bring the breastplate to Tasmania.

Finally, a marble grave ledger will be placed over the grave, recording Matthew Flinders’ voyages – including his circumnavigations of Tasmania and Australia –and depicting his beloved cat Trim draped over the top.

The flag draped over the coffin was half British and half Australian, to represent the strong links between the two countries

Luckily, the marble carver’s father in-law is Tasmanian and mentioned, ‘Whatever you do, don’t miss King and Flinders islands off the map!’, and I’m pleased to say they are both there.

It was an amazing opportunity to be present, along with volunteers Vince Brophy, and also Craig Dixon and Tom O’Byrne, who helped to build the replica of Flinders’ boat Norfolk and sail its replica voyages. Craig said that for him:

This is such a highlight after having been involved with the replica Norfolk for 30 years. It’s just a shame Bern Cuthbertson [who re-enacted all of Norfolk’s journeys in the replica vessel] wasn’t around to enjoy it as well.

Now we feel an extra link to our replica Norfolk here at the Bass and Flinders Maritime Centre in George Town. Why not come for a visit yourself? We’d be delighted to tell you more stories.

bassandflindersmuseum.com.au

Craig Dixon and Margie Brophy, from the Bass and Flinders Museum in George Town, Tasmania, being filmed by the BBC. Images Vince Brophy unless otherwise stated

Her Excellency the Hon Frances Adamson AC , Governor of South Australia, and other dignitaries enter the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood for the reinterment service.

The coffin plate from Flinders’ original grave, which was uncovered in 2019 under Euston Station in London, and has now been presented to South Australia. Image Flinders University

Craig Dixon inside the church with a Tasmanian flag presented by the Tasmanian visitors to the Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Committee. The stained glass window commemorates Flinders (centre), Joseph Banks and George Bass.

Royals by sea

Regal voyages to the ends of the Empire

While indexing ships’ postcards for the Vaughan Evans Library, Janet Halliday learnt that HMS Ophir carried royalty here in 1901. In a search for other royals who have visited Australia by sea, she found voyages that took months or even years, and which were marked by woeful organisation, protests, chaos, fatalities and even an assassination attempt.

Prince Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria, was the first royal to visit Australia. He arrived as the 23-year-old commander of HMS Galatea, here depicted in Sydney Harbour (left foreground). Hand-coloured print from The Illustrated London News , 11 April 1868. ANMM Collection 00039567

It was time to show the colonies that the Crown and Mother England loved their family

BRITANNIA FAMOUSLY RULED THE WAVES – and, until 1901, it also ruled Australia. Although pleased to call us part of their empire, for the first 79 years after colonising the country no member of the royal house graced our shores. That changed in 1867, when Queen Victoria sent one of her sons, Prince Alfred. There were only five more such visits over the next 87 years, and the first visit by a monarch wasn’t until 1954. All these trips were by sea. The last 70 years have seen more than 50 royal tours, but the old imperial and leisurely appearances have become more businesslike, shorter – and by air.

The second son of Queen Victoria, Prince Alfred had been in the navy since he was 12, and at the age of 23 was commander of HMS Galatea, a 3,500-ton, 26-gun, wooden screw frigate. Ordered to take the ship on a world tour, including India and New Zealand, he arrived in Melbourne in 1867. It was time to show the colonies that the Crown and Mother England loved their family. Alfred’s instructions were vague and the planning of his tour was woeful. In Queensland there were far too many engagements and even poor accommodation, which annoyed the prince. In capital cities, elaborate archways festooned the main streets and people were enthusiastic about the visit, but disaster followed disaster. Three boys climbed up on a procession float depicting the Galatea and set off fireworks that caused a fire, killing them.

A planned ball had to be cancelled because the hall burned down. Alfred attended what was supposed to be a loyal welcome, but which was embarrassingly disrupted by violent protests outside. Noisy Irish republican songs were sung and a boy died in the melée. When a free public banquet on the Yarra River attracted 40,000 people instead of the expected 10,000, Alfred cancelled his visit, annoying the crowd and resulting in mayhem. The tumult was fortified by a wine fountain supplied from a 500-gallon (2,200-litre) cask.

Sydney did its best to outdo Melbourne, with its own archways and fulsome declarations of loyalty, but did not manage to improve on security. The prince was shot by James O’Farrell at a picnic held at Clontarf. He spent a few weeks recovering at Government House, but the New Zealand tour was cancelled and Alfred sailed home.

In 1881 Prince Albert, aged 17, and Prince George, aged 15 (later George V), were sent on a three-year worldwide cruise on HMS Bacchante, on which they were both midshipmen. But Queen Victoria was worried that the vessel might sink and her grandsons drown, so before the boys joined the ship, Bacchante was sent out in a gale to prove itself fit for the task. A 4,070-ton iron-clad corvette with a crew of 450, Bacchante was screw-propelled and armed with muzzle-loading guns, torpedo carriages and machine guns.

The teenaged princes were expected to fulfil two roles –to be both young midshipmen and royal ambassadors 02

As the princes were part of the ship’s company, some restraint was supposed to be put on their activities. Their tutor accompanied them to keep them in check, and their shipboard activities were treated as part of their education. It was presumed that activities on land would be a holiday for them. Not so. Yet again, civic leaders paid little attention to planning and almost no heed of the boys’ youth. Local worthies exhausted the princes with the many balls, dinners, receptions, foundation stones and loyal addresses. By the time they arrived in New South Wales, the boys had had enough.

A big part of the problem was that they were expected to fulfill two roles – to be both young midshipmen and royal ambassadors. On the morning they arrived in Sydney, for example, they faced the ordeal of a practical navigation examination paper, after which they had an appointment to visit the governor. Too late, it was realised that the boys were tired and couldn’t manage everything on their program. People were peeved. The princes’ own thoughts on the matter are not recorded. They were required to keep a diary, but this consists almost entirely of tactful descriptions of what they had seen.

In 1901 things improved with a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York. The duke was Prince George, who had been aboard Bacchante; he and his duchess later became King George V and Queen Mary.

Sketches of life on board HMS Bacchante, from The Graphic, 20 September 1879, pages 288–9.

Prince Albert Victor (left) and Prince George of Wales dressed in mining rig. From their account of their voyage, The Cruise of HMS Bacchante 1879–1882, Vol 1, page 512.

What was supposed to be a loyal welcome was embarrassingly disrupted by violent protests outside

By today’s standards the speeches were long winded and some activities would not now be countenanced

Unlike the first two royal tours, this one was not on a naval vessel, but rather an Orient Line passenger ship commissioned as a royal yacht: the HMS Ophir of 6,910 tons. The visit was much better planned, though by today’s standards the speeches were long winded and some activities would not now be countenanced by the royal person or the public. The focus was to give a royal presence to the opening of the first Federal Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia in Melbourne. Civic leaders were, of course, to the fore. In Sydney, where a reception was held for the duke, he was required to shake hands with all and hear addresses by no fewer than 24 corporate bodies. The duke and duchess were given a very enthusiastic welcome in Melbourne, as was the crew. Illuminated shops and specially built arches contrasted favourably with Sydney’s meagre decorations and small crowds. Sydney was also viewed disparagingly by a crewman, who thought it badly paved, with narrow streets. Much admired, however, were the Australian ships in the harbour displaying a waterfall of fireworks cascading from their upper decks into the water. The royal couple’s reception in Sydney might have been lacklustre, but people were probably jaded, having just celebrated the Commonwealth inauguration. Much bigger crowds turned out to farewell the couple.

After World War I, George V thought that Australia should be thanked for its part in the conflict, so Edward, Prince of Wales, was sent off in HMS Renown in 1920, accompanied by the young Lord Louis Mountbatten. Edward appears to have accomplished this task with considerable enthusiasm. At the equator he was the target of elaborate ‘crossing the line’ ceremonies, part of long-hallowed naval tradition. King Neptune came aboard at 9 am, and lengthy poems were recited with gusto by participants, including Edward. The jollity continued until early next morning.

The Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) being tossed into Ophir ’s pool as part of a ‘crossing the line’ ritual, as recorded by Harry Price in his account of the voyage.

The image that started the author on her search of royal visits by sea: a postcard of HMS Ophir, from the Roy Fernandez postcard collection in the museum’s Vaughan Evans Library –part of his larger collection donated in October 2017.

In many ways these ocean voyages were a holiday for the royals, as long as they were not part of the ship’s crew. Inevitably, however, all endured a very hectic round of engagements once they arrived in Australia. There was also much gift-giving.

Gifts, not always very suitable, have always been presented to royal visitors. The Prince of Wales’ views are unknown, but one wonders whose idea it was to give him a pair of yellow silk pyjamas, made by girls who had each contributed one stitch. When the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and Queen Elizabeth) also came on Renown seven years later to open the provisional Parliament House in Canberra, they were given canaries, parrots, parakeets, ‘flying squirrels’ (probably sugar gliders) and a pair of wallabies. The menagerie only gave Renown ’s crew extra work.

Another of George V’s sons, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, arrived in Australia in 1934 on HMS Sussex A County class heavy cruiser of 13,315 tons, the ship carried plenty of armament and a crew of 650.

The visit of 67 days included kangaroo hunts, but its main purpose was to open celebrations of the centenary of Victoria. At Ballarat Henry was given a gift that few would sneeze at: three gold ingots, one of which he later gave to his cousin, the young Princess Elizabeth. In Sydney he became the first British royal to attend a surf carnival. In early 1945 he came again, this time as Governor-General. As it was still wartime, he and his family travelled in a blacked-out passenger liner.

Queen Elizabeth travelled by sea to Australia in the 1950s, as did thousands of non-regal passengers over the years. Many made the voyage aboard RMS Otranto, an ocean liner that plied the route between England and Australia. This printed menu card from 1956 is the last of a series of six featuring queens of England. ANMM Collection

ANMS0497[031] © P&O Heritage

SS Gothic docked at Circular Quay, Sydney, during the 1954 royal tour of Queen Elizabeth II. Image NSW State Archives NRS-21689-2-5-GPO2_05211

The royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 was a blockbuster –the first by a reigning monarch

The next royal visit was in 1954, and it was a blockbuster – the first by a reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

For what was to be the last royal visit made by sea, no expense was spared. The ship, the SS Gothic of 15,902 tons, was escorted in our waters by two Australian naval ships. Gothic had been painted white and extensively refitted, especially its accommodation. Extra radio equipment was installed to meet the demands of state, navy and the press. There were also three BBC entertainment programs available on board, together with recording facilities.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh joined the ship in Jamaica with a huge entourage: two ladies in waiting, three private secretaries, one press secretary, one Acting Master of the Household, two equerries, 20 officials and staff, 72 naval staff, nine members of the press and a band of the Royal Marines. There was also eight tons of baggage.

The royal party visited 57 towns and cities in the 58 days they were in Australia. It must have been exhausting and repetitious, but the enthusiasm of the crowds was enormous everywhere. In Sydney hundreds of boats were lined up in the harbour as Gothic arrived, and over half a million people gathered on the foreshores.

And, at last, the planning was meticulous. Very detailed communications, maps and diagrams were created –for welcomes at government houses, parliament houses, town halls, airports and railway stations. Children were not forgotten. Many thousands were gathered in cities to wave as the Queen drove past at about 30 kilometres per hour. Adelaide and Melbourne held pageants with children spelling out the words ‘loyalty’ and ‘welcome’. In Sydney 120,000 children sweltered for hours in the heat at Centennial Park and the Sydney Cricket Ground, including this author.

The heyday of the empire, when Britain ruled the waves, had long passed by 1954, but very strong links remained between Commonwealth and Crown. Times have now changed. The House of Windsor still wants to retain what’s left of the British Commonwealth, and royal visits demonstrate this soft diplomacy as they have always done. Television coverage enlarges their audience but has dulled the excitement. There have been so many royal visits since 1954 that the mystique has faded. Visits are now streamlined, much shorter – with no holiday cruises on route – and are usually clearly focused on a particular event, after which the royal personage gets on a plane and is back at the palace in less than a day.

Janet Halliday volunteers in the museum’s Vaughan Evans Library. She formerly owned a boat in Europe and spent a year living on board, exploring canals and rivers in The Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Catt, Emily, ‘The 1954 royal tour’ (blog post). National Archives of Australia <https://www.naa.gov.au/blog/1954-royal-tour>.

Crossing the Line with HRH the Prince of Wales in HMS Renown , Friday–Saturday April 16-17, 1920. No author but ‘by authority’. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1920.

With the ‘Renown’ in Australasia: the magazine of HMS Renown , December 1919 to October 1920. Australasian Publishing Co Ltd, Melbourne, no date. Vaughan Evans Library 910.45 WIT

Maritime Radio, ‘1953–54: SS Gothic as a royal yacht’ <https://maritimeradio.org/ship-stations/gothic-mauq/1953-1954royal-yacht/>.

Nautilus International, ‘Gothic’ <https://www.nautilusint.org/en/newsinsight/ships-of-the-past/2022/june/gothic/>

Pike, Phillip W, The Royal Presence in Australia 1867–1986 Royal Publishing, Adelaide, 1986.

Price, Petty Officer Harry, The Royal Tour: Or the cruise of HMS Ophir being a lower deck account of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York’s voyage around the British Empire, 1901. Webb & Brown, Exeter, 1980. Vaughan Evans Library 910.09171241 PR. Price’s handwritten journal is full of his honest appraisals and watercolour paintings.

The Cruise of Her Majesty’s ship Bacchante , 1879–1882. Compiled from the private journals, letters, and notebooks of Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales, with additions by John N Dalton. Vaughan Evans Library call number 910.45 CRU

Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, The Web of Empire: A diary of the imperial tour of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in 1901. Macmillan, London, 1903.

The chimney was carefully craned into place as a keystone object in the new exhibition Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

Meet Bikpela Binatang

A hydrothermal chimney dredged from the deep

The deepest reaches of our oceans are little known to science and difficult to study. A chance and extremely rare find 25 years ago – a huge hydrothermal chimney –is now a feature of our new exhibition Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea, writes Emily Jateff.

TWO YEARS AGO, I was on board SY Ena for a VIP cruise associated with the inaugural Ocean Business Leaders Summit. There I met Professor Elaine Baker from the University of Sydney. Professor Baker told me a story about a hydrothermal chimney that had been recovered intact during a CSIRO voyage a couple of decades ago. While she wasn’t sure where it ended up, my interest was piqued.

Hydrothermal vent communities are usually found near volcanically or geologically active sites. Hydrothermal chimneys are formed when seawater seeps through holes in the earth’s crust and meets superheated magma. The collision of hot and cold pushes up the crust and shoots boiling seawater infused with minerals and chemicals back into the ocean. Living on the sides of and around hydrothermal chimneys are thousands of microbes that harvest energy from the chemicals and minerals spewed by the chimney in a process called chemosynthesis. It should be impossible for anything to survive here. Yet hydrothermal vent sites support life not only on and around the chimney structures, but even beneath the surrounding volcanic crust.

Jumping forward to 2024, I was hard at work on a new exhibition investigating the five zones of the ocean. While we have several objects in our collection that relate to the upper levels of the ocean (up to 1,000 metres depth),

and we knew we were getting the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submersible to illustrate the hadal zone (6,000–10,000 metres), I had very little to show that anything lived in the abyssal zone (4,000–6,000 metres). A hydrothermal chimney would be perfect.

Fragments of hydrothermal chimneys are rare, and complete specimens are hardly ever recovered. I knew of only one other full cross-section on display in a museum worldwide – a partial chimney vent held by Museums Victoria on permanent display. However, it was not available for loan. Where was the other half? Then I remembered Professor Baker’s story.

Enter Dr Joanna Parr, Executive Manager, Operations at the CSIRO–Kensington Australian Resources Research Centre (ARRC) in Perth, Western Australia, where the other half has been on display in the foyer since its recovery in 2000. Dr Parr and the CSIRO generously facilitated assessment of the chimney by museum conservation staff and, after throwing it a farewell party, allowed it to travel back across the country to share its story with the public. In November 2024, it returned to Sydney for the first time in 24 years, and was carefully craned into place as the keystone object of the abyssal zone in the new exhibition Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

Hydrothermal vent communities are usually found near volcanically or geologically active sites

01 Active sulfide chimneys in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea, at an average depth of 1,640–1,740 metres.

02 Where it broke at the base, the chimney was brightly coloured and stained, with fragments of glassy volcanic rock indicating that the entire structure was recovered intact.

Images courtesy Dr Ray Binns/ CSIRO

Dr Parr also introduced me to Dr Ray Binns, who was chief scientist on board the CSIRO research vessel Franklin voyage to Manus Basin, Papua New Guinea, in 2000, when the hydrothermal chimney was recovered. At the time, the Australian government was investigating the option of mining hydrothermal vent fields to extract the valuable minerals they contain, particularly those with 10–20 per cent copper and high amounts of gold.

In his cruise report, Dr Binns records the find:

Tuesday 25th April 2000, Day 12 (Anzac Day), extract from daily narrative (amended):

Dredge MD-133 deployed after nightfall to sample microbes from active chimneys in the Roman Ruins hydrothermal vent site. On hauling, the dredge immediately became anchored. It was freed after 50 minutes, and on emerging from the water in darkness a giant chimney was precariously balanced across the ring of the dredge. It was quickly and carefully brought inboard. The chimney specimen, which we named Bikpela Binatang (Big Bug in Tok Pisin [a language of Papua New Guinea] ) was a tapered cylinder 2.7 metres long, 2.0 m in circumference at the base and 1.3 m at the top. Its weight, estimated at 800 kg, was later measured at RAAF Darwin as 970 kg.

Bikpela was a little different from the usual type of sulfide chimney as it is relatively low in sulfide minerals, containing more berite and silica with a thin black manganese oxide crust partly dislodged by handling. It contained significant gold, silver and zinc, but was low overall in copper and lead. The basal fracture on which the chimney broke was brightly coloured with orangered and yellowish iron oxide staining, and possessed fragments of glassy volcanic rock indicating the chimney was basically torn out by its roots.

Microbe samples were taken from many locations on the chimney, and also from its interior using a cordless electric drill. Fluid dripping from the chimney on recovery was sampled for microbes and geochemistry. Its acidity indicated the structure was active when recovered. Small pieces of stained dacite, several live gastropods (slugs and snails) and some galatheids (crustaceans) were also present in the chain bag of the dredge.

On return to port in Darwin, the Royal Australian Air Force provided air transport of the chimney from Darwin to CSIRO’s Sydney laboratories, after which it was trucked to Perth and sawn lengthwise by David Vaughan (Common Ore Pty Ltd, Western Australia). The smaller part was donated to Museums Victoria, and the larger piece stayed with CSIRO.

And that’s the story of the hydrothermal chimney Bikpela Binatang so far, now on display in our exhibition Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea Come see it for yourself.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr Ray Binns for his generosity in sharing his notes, images and expertise. Getting a large object across the country and into an exhibition on a tight timeline is a lot to ask in the museum world. For their help with this, I would like to thank Dr Joanna Parr, Professor Elaine Baker, Rheanon Thornton, Alayne Alvis, Cameron Mclean, Rhondda Orchard, Agata Rostek-Robek, Sally Fletcher and Peter Hobbins.

References

Binns, RA. CSIRO Exploration and Mining, Investigation Report Number P2005/227, Cruise Summary, R/V Franklin FR03/00, Binatang-2000 Cruise, Manus Basin PNG

Binns, RA. 2014, ‘Bikpela: A large siliceous chimney from the PACMANUS Hydrothermal Field, Manus Basin, Papua New Guinea’, Economic Geology vol 109, pp 2243–59.

Emily Jateff is the museum’s Curator of Ocean Science and Technology.

A view from a window

Charmian Clift – ‘an affinity with the sea and ships’

Charmian Clift (30 August 1923–8 July 1969) was Australia’s foremost essayist of the 1960s, publishing more than 200 pieces in the Melbourne Herald and The Sydney Morning Herald. She also published two travel memoirs and two novels, and co-authored many others with her husband, George Johnston. In 1964 Charmian returned to Australia with her family, after ten years living and writing on the Greek islands of Hydra and Kalymnos. They first settled in Mosman with a window view that inspired this essay, which was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 25 March 1965.

ON THE WINDOW LEDGE in front of my work table stands a shipwright’s model of an Aegean cargo caique. It was made about a century ago by a man named Stephanos, a shipbuilder of Hydra –which is an island of some maritime distinction in the Mediterranean.

The original paintwork of the model has long since faded to nondescript – the sort of bleached and weathered look a working boat wears at the end of a long journey – and some of the planks have splintered slightly, but its shape is beautiful, round-bellied and wide like a split melon, and its detail is a marvel.

Through the hand-carved blocks and the faithful intricacies of the Aegean rig I look out across the sea. Australian waters, not Mediterranean. But the model does not look alien. It sits well against its background.

Here too there is an affinity with the sea and ships. Not perhaps in that intimate friendly backyard sense that belongs to home waters studded with islands, where all communication, trading, and transport depend upon the familiar little boats that are known individually to everybody. It is all on a grander scale here – ships and seas, distances, dangers. More total, in a way.

‘considerably more than half the country’s population lives in sight of an ocean or within reach of one’

Sydney Harbour by James R Jackson was painted in 1965, the same year in which this essay by Charmian Clift was first published. It depicts a scene that would have been very familiar to Clift, looking across Taylors Bay to Rose Bay and Point Piper. Oil on canvas, Mosman Art Collection, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Neil Balnaves AO, 2011. Image Tim Connolly courtesy Mosman Art Gallery and © the artist

There are nearly three million square miles of land enclosed within this enormous freehand scrawl that describes the continuous coast of our country – three million square miles with no seas at all and scarcely even a lake worth speaking of. On the face of it we would not seem to be entitled to much of a nautical heritage, but the fact remains that every one of our biggest cities dips her skirts in the sea, as if for reassurance, and considerably more than half the country’s population lives in sight of an ocean or within reach of one.

For all our great open spaces our touchstone is the sea. Sydney’s harbour seethes with maritime traffic. Melbourne’s suburbs look out on cargoes of lives and freight negotiating the South Channel. In Brisbane, as in Sydney, and Melbourne, masts and derricks and coloured smokestacks make brave romantic cul-desacs of city streets. Millions of urban dwellers have an easy acquaintanceship with things like Gellibrand and Pinchgut and buoys and beacons and channel markers and leading lights and the busy fuss of tugs. And with waterfront pubs with ship prints on the walls, and tide tables, and tattooed men drinking beer. Conrad’s world, this. Stevenson’s world. Still recognisably there.

At weekends and holidays the rigging of my old Aegean caique rules angles across casual blue acres of pageantry that I would not exchange as a spectacle for the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Hundreds of white sails skimming, hundreds of heraldic spinners curved taut and blazoned before the wind. They form and reform in changing patterns, bunch together, stream out in procession, swoop and challenge and leap forward in single pride. Beyond the visual delight one feels such pleasure in order and discipline, in the fine austerity that underlies the airiest things.

And all the time through this gadfly carnival commerce moves with deliberation and dignity, more soberly heraldic but displaying its own precise designations, which I am learning to recognise now. A black stack with two blue bands is Norwegian and its name begins with a ‘T’. Grey hull with red and black stack, and that must be Port Something-or-other, although the ships called City of Something-or-other belong to Ellerman and Bucknall and you know them by their yellow, white, and black. I’ve learned to pick the ‘Marus’ and to tell a tanker from an ore boat, and to know that a Blue Star ship has a ‘Star’ in its name and signifies chilled beef. I’ve learned the Union green, the Orient yellow, the British-India black. And that a Blue Funnel liner means good luck. This is enchantment.

It is more than that, of course. It is for me a re-learning, or re-appreciation, of a traditional sense of isolation. In spite of all the marvels of modern communication one is conscious here of distance – vast distance – and of a bred-in-the-bone dependence upon ships that cannot easily be discarded.

It is not really so very long ago that ships were our only link with the rest of the world. Before the invention of radio and submarine cable the only news Australia had, or could have, of ‘outside’ came by ship, a month old, three months old, six months old, happenings already remote in time as in space. How weirdly opaque the rest of the world must have seemed then. (Even when my husband was a young shipping reporter there was still, he says, this tremendous sense of urgency and excitement in going out with the pilot to board the incoming liners and hear the news of Europe by word of mouth. As if it might be more credible that way.)

Darling Harbour and Pyrmont Bridge, David Moore, c 1948.

‘Sydney’s harbour seethes with maritime traffic’, Charmian Clift notes in this essay. The area depicted here now includes the site of the Australian National Maritime Museum. ANMM Collection 00018900

‘In Brisbane, as in Sydney, and Melbourne, masts and derricks and coloured smokestacks make brave romantic cul-de-sacs of city streets’

‘For all our great open spaces our touchstone is the sea’

All our history has a seasoning of ocean salt. One pretty reminder of this is in the iron-lace balconies and grillwork and railings that have lately been rediscovered as decorative treasure. Ironware junked from the cottages of early Victorian England and shipped out here as ballast for clipper ships coming out to race home again with the wool clip. As ballast it was junked again and grabbed by builders poverty-stricken of materials. It is charming, I think, that the junked ballast from the golden days of sail should be now so high chic.

One can be carried away by this sort of thing. Sail. Clipper ships. Grain races. Sometimes, looking out through the rigging of Stephanos’ caique and across the moving blue miles that darken imperceptibly towards the rim of the horizon, it seems that the merest blink of intent might really reveal the ghosts that still haunt these waters. The immigrant packets with their topsails backed, hove-to for the pilot – the Blackwall and the Kent and the Windsor Castle and the Dunbar ; the greenhulled clippers coming in – Thermopylae and Salamis and Aristides; and the little Blackadder and the Cutty Sark ; Joseph Conrad’s own Otago; the Liverpool ships of the gold rush days – Lightning and Red Jacket and Flying Cloud

Charmian Clift on the terrace of the Hydra house she shared with her husband, George Johnston, c 1956. Images courtesy Charmian Clift Estate. Reproduced with permission

There is a headland juts into the view from my window, a scrubby promontory scarred with grey and orange that tumbles down to weedy shoal. Perhaps one day I will be tempted to blink twice, and through Aegean rigging suddenly out-of-focus I might see – rounding the headland cautiously in a white whirl of gulls – some little bluff-bowed ship that will need no heraldry for identification. Sirius, say. Or the brig Supply. With the paintwork faded to nondescript – the sort of bleached and weathered look a working boat wears at the end of a long journey. A very long journey.

Text © Charmian Clift Estate. Reproduced with permission. Clift’s final, unfinished novel, The End of the Morning , has just been published by NewSouth Press: https://unsw.press/books/the-end-ofthe-morning/

Charmian Clift in her house in the Greek island of Hydra, 1957.

Oh! What a lovely war

Prisoners in Arcady

The internees used bush timbers and bark slabs to construct 49 riverside huts and clubhouses complete with jetties for their home-made boats

A boat decorated for the 1916 Venetian Carnival on the Wingecarribee River with the internees’ Heideheim Villa in the background.

All images Berrima District Historical & Family History Society

In the earliest days of World War I, crew members from the German cargo steamship Pfalz and the infamous raider Emden were interned in the small New South Wales town of Berrima. There they spent the remainder of the war in industrious peace, constructing a village, building and sailing a variety of eccentric craft and establishing a thriving and harmonious community, writes Bruce Stannard AM .

AUSTRALIA’S INVOLVEMENT in the First World War began on 4 August 1914. The declaration was made in London at 11 pm GMT, which in Melbourne was 9 am AEST on Wednesday 5 August. Earlier that morning, Captain Wilhelm Kuhleken, master of the 6,500-ton Norddeutscher Lloyd cargo steamship Pfalz, prepared to depart No 2 Victoria Dock under the guidance of the Port Phillip Pilot Service’s Captain Frederick Henry Robinson. With the official declaration of war expected at any moment, Captain Kuhleken was anxious to proceed to sea. Heavy traffic on the Yarra River delayed Pfalz getting clear of the river and she steamed slowly toward The Heads. Near Portsea, the Pfalz was released from naval inspection, and with no legal impediments to her departure, she was free to head out into Bass Strait. But at that moment, the Royal Australian Artillery Garrison at Fort Queenscliff, on the opposite side of The Heads, received news by telephone and heliograph that the federal Solicitor General, Sir Robert Garran, had at last signed the official legal instrument authorising military action. Then came the unequivocal order: ‘Stop her or sink her!’

The naval officers from the Emden built Emden Villa, their own clubhouse with its impressive veranda commanding splendid views over the river

01 German mariners interned at Berrima pose beside the rustic log cabin they built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Wingecarribee River at Berrima.

Under painted paper lanterns and boughs of scented boronia, German merchant service officers sit down to Christmas dinner in the sandstone confines of the old Berrima Gaol.

As the Pfalz passed through The Rip, Captain Kuhleken ignored the flag signal to ‘heave-to’ and despite the pilot’s protests, he insisted on steaming toward The Heads and the open sea beyond. German consular officials came onto the bridge and cheered what looked certain to be their narrow escape. Their jubilation was short lived. On board the Naval Examination Service vessel SS Alvina, an alert young midshipman, Richard Veale, smartly hoisted the white and red International Signal Flag H –identifying the Pfalz as a hostile vessel. That signal was followed by an immediate response from Fort Nepean’s artillery crew. Bombardier John Purdue opened fire with a booming warning shot that saw a 100-pound shell from a 6-inch gun strike the water close to the steamship’s stern. A huge plume of white spray showered the bridge. The pilot immediately ordered ‘full astern’, but when Captain Kuhleken insisted on ‘full steam ahead’, the pilot, Captain Robinson, warned that the next shot would very likely be aimed directly at the ship.

It was only when a second warning shot was fired from Fort Nepean that Captain Kuhleken reluctantly ordered the Pfalz to stop. It was then 12.45 pm on Wednesday 5 August 1914. In London it was 2.45 am GMT the same day. Thus, Fort Nepean earned the dubious distinction of discharging the first shot fired by the British Empire in World War I. The Pfalz struck her black, white and red German tricolour in surrender and Captain Kuhleken and his crew were taken into custody as prisoners of war. The Pfalz was seized and forfeited as a war prize.

Throughout ‘the war to end all wars’ the federal government maintained prisoner-of-war detention camps at Holsworthy, Bourke, Molonglo in Canberra, at Trial Bay on the north coast of New South Wales and at Berrima in the NSW Southern Highlands. In these camps thousands of men designated as ‘enemy aliens’ were interned for the duration of hostilities. In the tiny village of Berrima, 329 German prisoners were housed within the formidable sandstone walls of the 19th-century gaol overlooking the pellucid waters of the Wingecarribee River. Among the Berrima internees were Captain Kuhleken and the officers and crew of the Pfalz. They were interned together with the surviving sailors and officers from the German commerce raider Emden, which was wrecked in the Cocos Keeling Islands on 9 November 1914 during her epic battle with the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney

Many of the internees wrote of their sadness at leaving ‘this wonderful place’ by the river where they had spent four years in peace and tranquillity

As capable seafarers, the German sailors naturally formed a cohesive and resourceful community. They were well educated, well disciplined and closely bonded by their proud maritime cultural heritage.

Mustered at Sydney’s Central Station, the internees were taken by steam train to Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands and marched along the nine kilometres of dusty country lanes to Berrima, the village founded in 1831 on the meandering Great South Road, then the main road linking Sydney and the inland city of Goulburn. The village was essentially unchanged since the colonial era in which the impressive gaol and the adjacent sandstone courthouse were built. Although the internees quickly dubbed the gaol ‘Castle Foreboding,’ the mariners were not unduly fazed at the prospect of living cheek-by-jowl in cramped, dimly lit and musty quarters. Each prisoner was issued with two woollen blankets and a straw-filled palliasse. Their two-metresquare cells were certainly spartan and freezing cold in the depths of the Highland winters, but the uncomplaining seamen soon installed their few personal possessions and made their cells habitable.

The Berrima camp was organised by a committee made up entirely of elected German officers and NCOs. The internees were each week well supplied with excellent quality beef, lamb and pork, freshly slaughtered locally.

The sailors soon refurbished the gaol’s cast-iron ovens, creating a wood-fired bakery turning out loaves of fresh bread and cakes. The authorities gave the internees permission to roam freely within a threekilometre radius of the gaol. A high fence was erected around the perimeter and within this sylvan setting, which included the broad Wingecarribee River and its rich alluvial flats, the men established their own flourishing vegetable gardens and orchards.

They used bush timbers and bark slabs to construct 49 riverside huts and clubhouses complete with jetties for their home-made boats. The ships’ officers built Erholung, an elaborate cottage for their exclusive use. The naval officers from the Emden built Emden Villa, their own clubhouse with its impressive veranda commanding splendid views over the river. There, in the privacy of a grassy, brush-walled solarium, the naturists among the Emden survivors indulged in naked sun-bathing. The heath-and-sapling huts along the river bank were given nostalgic German names: Schloss am Meer (Castle on the Sea), Heideheim Villa and Alsterburg. In this bucolic setting far from the sea there were no fewer than six high-ranking German captains, all of whom had no difficulty maintaining good order and discipline.

The paddle-wheeler Emil, propelled by a cranked axle turned by the coxswain’s feet.

In a masterpiece of German engineering, 12 internees form a carefully constructed ‘tower of strength’ on the banks of the Wingecarribee River, c 1916.

The bicycle boat, an ingenious pedal-powered paddle-wheel catamaran.

The mariners wasted little time in building a flotilla of watercraft, including impressive rowing skiffs, slender lightweight kayaks and a large gaffrigged dugout canoe

01 Captain Hannig’s hydroplane entry in the internees’ boating carnival on the Wingecarribee River, c 1918. The boat won first prize. It was his adaption of a bicycle boat built earlier, pictured on page 41.

02 Internees boating on the Wingecarribee River, c 1916. In the background are huts that they built, with washing on the line.

The beautiful Wingecarribee River became their Grosse See (Big Lake) – the centre of their existence. The mariners wasted little time in building a flotilla of watercraft, including impressive rowing skiffs, slender lightweight kayaks and a large gaff-rigged dugout canoe, big enough for five seated paddlers. They named the canoe Störtebeker after the notorious German pirate who plundered Hanseatic trading ships in the late 14th century. The mariners swam in the river and staged regattas and elaborate aquatic carnivals. On Kaiser Wilhelm II’s birthday (28 January), the river became the venue for a spectacular waterborne frolic with all manner of fanciful craft, including Hansa, a floating Zeppelin; a beautifully accurate two-man model of Hanover, the Kaiser’s luxurious steam yacht; a ‘submarine’ complete with a mock cannon mounted on the foredeck; a dragon boat; a Venetian-style gondola; and a bicycle-powered catamaran affectionately named Emil. There was also a superb two-man largescale model of the mighty five-masted, full-rigged ship Preussen, ‘the pride of Prussia.’ The first prize was awarded to a floating biplane emblazoned with the German military emblem, the Teutonic Schwarzes Kreuz (Black Cross).

Profits from the camp’s bakery were channelled into the purchase of musical instruments for a band. When the sailors weren’t messing about in boats, they were singing in their camp choir or involved in producing German comic theatre and gaiety musicals to which the Berrima people were always invited. After the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, an air of despondency descended and became more pronounced in the succeeding months as the onerous terms for war reparations were exacted by the victorious Allies.

It was not until 1919 that the German government chartered a ship to bring the internees home. A train took them direct to Darling Harbour, where the White Star liner SS Ypiranga waited to return them to their war-ravaged homeland. Many of the internees wrote of their sadness at leaving ‘this wonderful place’ by the river where they had spent four years in peace and tranquillity.

Today there is no trace of the old German encampment at Berrima. On the eve of their departure, the internees destroyed their huts and their boats. Only the hull of their cherished dugout canoe Störtebeker was left on the riverbank. Now, 110 years later, a forest of whitebarked gums has reclaimed the tranquil riverbanks. It was there that lines from Wordsworth’s famous sonnet came floating back to me: ‘As I cast my eyes I see what was, and is and will abide. Still glides the stream and shall forever glide.’

Bruce Stannard AM is a renowned maritime author and a Life Member of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Hydrographic chart entitled Part of Hunter’s River (or the Coal River) surveyed by Lieutenant Charles Jeffries [sic] Commander of HMG Brig Kangaroo, 1816 The location of three shipwreck sites, including that of Estramina, appear on this chart. Image State Library of New South Wales

The remarkable tale of the Estramina

A South American vessel wrecked in Australian waters

On 19 January 1816, His Majesty’s Colonial Schooner (HMCS) Estramina wrecked on the notorious Oyster Bank at Newcastle, New South Wales, while attempting to depart the Hunter River. Its loss marked the end of a distinguished and eventful career that began in Spain’s South American colonies and included hydrographic surveys, piracy, convict transportation and a coup d’état. Dr James Hunter reveals the story of one of Australia’s few shipwrecks of legitimate Spanish origin.

ON THE EVENING OF 16 NOVEMBER 1800, the Spanish fifth-rate frigate Santa Leocadia approached Santa Elena, a small coastal community near the entrance to the Rio Guayas and port city of Guayaquil, an important mercantile and shipbuilding centre in the then-Viceroyalty of Peru. Under the command of Capitán de Navío (Captain) Antonio Barreda and armed with 34 guns, Santa Leocadia was a capital warship in Spain’s Armada del Mar del Sur (South Sea Navy) and at the vanguard of a convoy of naval and merchant vessels sailing to Panama. Within the frigate’s hold was the situado (military payroll) for the Spanish garrison at Panama City and several merchant consignments, totalling more than a million pesos in gold and silver specie. The ship also carried four passengers and 34 British prisoners.

Santa Leocadia sailed ahead of the convoy to reconnoitre Puntilla de Santa Elena, the westernmost point of continental South America, when it ran aground on an uncharted reef around 8.30 pm.

The ship quickly began to break up, resulting in the loss of 140 of its crew of 301. Forty-eight other crewmen were injured. Incredibly, no passengers or prisoners were injured or killed and all were safely transferred to Panama. Over the course of eight months, extensive salvage operations recovered more than three-quarters of the specie, as well as 28 of the ship’s 34 cannons. Salvage also targeted Santa Leocadia itself, including the removal of accessible ship’s timbers and other elements of its hull architecture.

Within a year, several of Santa Leocadia ’s salvaged timbers would find new life in the hulls of two naval schooners under construction at the Guayaquil shipyard of León Aycardo. Both were specially built to conduct hydrographic survey work along the Pacific Coast of Spain’s South American colonies. Their names were San Juan de Mata (more commonly referred to as Alavesa) and Extremeña

Extremeña was the first to slide down the ways, on 13 October 1802, and sailed to Callao the following month, where it was commissioned a Goleta de Guerra (armed schooner) under the command of Teniente de Navío (Lieutenant) Mariano de Isasbiribil y Azcárate. The 102-ton vessel measured 70 feet (21.3 metres) overall. Six hundred quintals (approximately 28 tonnes) of ballast were placed in the schooner’s hold to stabilise the hull. Although pierced for 12 cannons, Extremeña was only armed with four 4-pounders when commissioned, and during its subsequent hydrographic voyages in Spanish naval service.

The schooner embarked on its first hydrographic survey voyage in April 1803, sailing to Valparaíso as an auxiliary to the Spanish naval brig Peruano. The two vessels’ crews drafted a chart of Valparaíso’s port, then proceeded north along the Chilean coast and undertook surveys of the ports of Quintero, Papudo and Pichidangui during October 1803. A second hydrographic voyage the following month travelled south, visiting the Chilean ports of Chiloé, Valdivia, Talcahuano and Santa María Island, before returning to Valparaíso in March 1804.

On 20 June 1804, Extremeña and Peruano again sailed north to survey the port of Coquimbo. Seven days later, Peruano was damaged during a storm and forced to return to Valparaíso. Isasbiribil was ordered to continue to Coquimbo and survey adjacent bays and harbours between Lengua de Vaca and Punta de Teatinos. In late July, Extremeña returned to Coquimbo with orders to remove four foreign sealing vessels suspected of illegal fishing and smuggling. With the port cleared of interlopers, the schooner journeyed north and conducted a series of coastal surveys before arriving in the port of Huasco. It then continued to Copiapó (modern-day Caldera, Chile), arriving on 16 September 1804.

Although pierced for 12 cannons, Extremeña was only armed with four 4-pounders when commissioned

On 29 September, Isasbiribil received intelligence that a heavily armed British privateer had attacked Coquimbo five days earlier and taken possession of the Spanish merchant brig San Francisco y San Paulo Extremeña ’s four cannons were brought out of the hold and mounted on carriages, and preparations made to leave Copiapó and search for the British vessel. However, contrary winds prevented the schooner’s departure, and Isasbiribil was still awaiting favourable conditions when an unidentified brig arrived at the mouth of the port the following morning.

The unfamiliar vessel was Harrington, a 180-ton snow operating under a Letter of Marque from the Presidency of Fort Saint George (an administrative subdivision of British India) and armed with six 12-pounder carronades, as well as six 6-pounder and two 3-pounder long guns. Harrington ’s captain, William Douglas Campbell, was a Sydney-based merchant who had conducted illegal trade along the Chilean coast in 1802 and 1803 on behalf of a Bengali trading house. He was returning to do more of the same in September 1804 when he heard in Tahiti that war had erupted between Spain and Great Britain. This information proved false, but Campbell saw it as an opportunity to harass Spanish shipping and take prizes. While at Más Afuera (modern-day Alexander Selkirk Island), Campbell discovered Peruano and Extremeña were operating off the Chilean coast and decided to seek out and engage them. Harrington attacked and seized San Francisco y San Paulo shortly thereafter.

Draught of an armed schooner of the Spanish Navy, c 1800. Extremeña would have been built according to similar lines and resembled this vessel.

Image Archivo Histórico de la Armada JS de Elcano, Madrid

Extremeña embarked on its first hydrographic survey voyage in April 1803, sailing to Valparaíso as an auxiliary to the Spanish naval brig Peruano

Extremeña returned to Coquimbo with orders to remove four foreign sealing vessels suspected of illegal fishing and smuggling

Hydrographic chart titled Plano del Puerto de Pichidangui, Levantado por los Oficiales del Bergantin Peruano, y Goleta Extremeña, Ano de 1803 (Plan of the Port of Pichidangui, Surveyed by the Officers of the Brig Peruvian, and Schooner Extremeña, in the year 1803). This chart was one of several generated from Extremeña ’s survey work along the South American coast before it was seized by the Harrington. Image Spanish Ministry of Culture, Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliografico

Isasbiribil quickly realised his vessel was disadvantaged, not only in terms of firepower, but also its ammunition stock, which only comprised 21 round shot. Nevertheless, he ordered Extremeña prepared for action and anchored close to shore to ensure a successful retreat should the battle be lost. Extremeña fired the first shot at 9 am, which was immediately answered by a volley from Harrington. Isasbiribil and his crew acquitted themselves well and kept up steady fire for about an hour, but ultimately ran out of ammunition. At this point, Campbell ordered a boarding party to take Extremeña and cut off the crew’s escape. The Spanish captain had prepared for this possibility and commanded his vessel be beached and set on fire to prevent capture. Most of the schooner’s crew were then evacuated ashore with Isasbiribil’s commission and other sensitive documents, while he and a small group of officers spread sulphur throughout the cabin and set it alight.

The fire proved ineffective, and the boarding party was able to put it out. A prize crew took charge of Extremeña, and it departed Copiapó with Harrington and San Francisco y San Paulo. The three vessels set a course for Tahiti and then split up, with Harrington reaching the islands in November 1804, and the Spanish vessels arriving the following month. Extremeña then sailed to Jervis Bay, about 150 kilometres south of Sydney, where the prize crew hid it from sight and awaited further instructions from Campbell. Instead, they were discovered by the crew of His Majesty’s Armed Tender Lady Nelson on 5 April 1805 and apprehended while attempting to leave the bay.

The schooner was brought into government service and rechristened with the Anglicised name Estramina

of Lt

of the

The last recorded mention of this remarkable vessel occurred on 3 May 1817, and in subsequent years, Estramina disappeared beneath the waves

News of Campbell’s activities on the Chilean coast reached New South Wales Governor Philip Gidley King shortly before Harrington ’s return to Port Jackson in March 1805, and he determined that Spain and Great Britain were not at war at the time Extremeña and San Francisco y San Paulo were seized. This meant their capture was illegal and King responded by detaining Harrington, Campbell and the crew. Extremeña, flying the Spanish ensign and escorted by Lady Nelson, arrived at Port Jackson on 9 April, after which King ordered it surveyed and fitted out as a supply vessel for Norfolk Island and settlements in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). The schooner had completed several voyages on the colonial government’s behalf by April 1806, when official news of war between Spain and Great Britain reached Sydney, and it was claimed as a prize by the British government. However, the Vice Admiralty Court ruled Extremeña was not a legal prize and should be put up for auction, with the proceeds placed in trust. King found the vessel so useful he ordered the colonial government to lodge a bid of £2,100, which was successful. The schooner was brought into government service and rechristened with the Anglicised name Estramina after undergoing repair and refit, including the addition of new copper sheathing.

Two years later, the schooner was involved in two significant events. The first was the Rum Rebellion against Governor William Bligh, which commenced on 26 January 1808. On the following afternoon, one of the leaders of the coup d’etat, Major George Johnston, ordered Estramina ’s commander, John Apsey, to lower Bligh’s Broad Pennant. This action visually symbolised the end of Bligh’s authority in the colony – an insult exacerbated by the coup leaders’ suggestion he immediately embark aboard the schooner and leave New South Wales. Bligh refused, owing to its small size and reportedly poor condition.

Four months after Bligh’s overthrow, Estramina participated in its second major event of 1808. The vessel departed for Norfolk Island in April, tasked with assisting the British government’s directive to evacuate the penal colony due to its remote location and high maintenance costs. It was the fourth (and second-to-last) vessel to transport Norfolk Islanders to Van Diemen’s Land and embarked 60 free settlers and two male convicts, as well as their belongings, departing on 15 May and arriving at Hobart Town three weeks later.

For the next eight years, Estramina mostly plied coastal waters between Sydney and other east coast settlements, transporting people, supplies and cargo. During one such voyage to Newcastle in early 1816, the schooner took on a cargo of coal and cedar before attempting to depart the Coal (now Hunter) River on 19 January in company with the schooner Elizabeth and Mary. Caught between a strong northeasterly gale and an ebb tide, Estramina was forced onto the Oyster Bank at the river’s entrance where it ‘soon filled’ before breaking up. Within a few months, Estramina ’s wrecked hull would be marked on a hydrographic chart drafted by Lt Charles Jeffreys RN, and the last recorded mention of this remarkable vessel occurred on 3 May 1817. In subsequent years, Estramina disappeared beneath the waves and the location of its wreck site remains a mystery.

You can watch Dr James Hunter discuss Estramina and other historic shipwrecks in the Newcastle area in Shipwrecked Newcastle, a new film by Glenn Dormand and Tony Whittaker. It can be viewed on YouTube at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPT2tw4I-qQ>. An expanded version of this article, including suggestions for further reading, will appear in a future issue of The Great Circle, the journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History.

Dr James Hunter is the museum’s Acting Manager of Maritime Archaeology.

Portrait of Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales, c 1798. Artist unknown. Image State Library of New South Wales

Detail

Jeffrey’s 1816 chart

Hunter River, with the location of Estramina ’s shipwreck site highlighted. Image State Library of New South Wales

Adventure Bay

The safe haven on Hobart’s doorstep

A small bay at the edge of the known world was once a favoured resting place for European ships of exploration. Dr Nigel Erskine traces its history.

View of Adventure Bay, Van Diemen’s Land, New Holland, William Wade Ellis, 1777. National Library of Australia nla.obj-136155946

All early European voyages sailing the southern route to Botany Bay or sailing further west into the Pacific Ocean passed south of Van Diemen’s Land

IN 1914, A FOUR-YEAR-OLD GIRL searching in the wake of her father’s plough for worms to feed her chooks was surprised to find what looked like a coin, exposed in the freshly turned soil of the family’s farm at Killora on Bruny Island in southern Tasmania. It featured the head of King George III on one side and, on the other, two sailing ships with the words ‘Resolution’ and ‘Adventure’ and ‘Sailed from England March MDCCLXXII’. It was not a coin, but a medal struck prior to the departure of James Cook’s second voyage of exploration in the southern hemisphere.

The near loss of Cook’s ship Endeavour on the Great Barrier Reef during his first voyage had persuaded the Admiralty to purchase two ships for Cook’s second expedition, with Cook commanding the Resolution, and Captain Tobias Furneaux the Adventure Sending two ships to support each other was wise, but they could not always be guaranteed to stay together, and when Adventure became separated from Resolution in heavy fog deep in the Southern Ocean, Captain Furneaux sailed for Van Diemen’s Land, part of the coast of which had been charted by Abel Tasman over a century earlier.

There he found an ideal and secure anchorage protected from the prevailing westerly winds by steep hills, in a bay fringed with white-sand beaches and forest, with several streams flowing into the sea. Furneaux named it Adventure Bay after his ship. Once its location was established, the bay became a favoured place for later European explorers. There they could replenish firewood and water, obtain fodder for onboard animals and procure fish and other fresh food for crews perennially facing the debilitating effects of scurvy.

William Bligh found himself revisiting Adventure Bay in August 1788 in command of the Bounty while en route to Tahiti

My own ‘discovery’ of Adventure Bay was in 1972 during a summer hitch-hiking tour of Tasmania staying in youth hostels. The hostel in Adventure Bay consisted of several old caravans deeply rooted to the soil, with their rusted wheels and axles slowly sinking into the bracken, a short distance from the beach. It rained a lot, but nothing could spoil the magic of the crystal-clear sea, the pristine beaches stretching north, the towering trees in the nearby forest, and the views to the distant Tasman Peninsula after the gaspingly steep climb to the summit of Fluted Cape. It was also my first encounter with William Bligh, who, according to a sign attached to a fence protecting an old apple tree, ‘Planted this tree in 1792’. Someone had crossed out the sign and scrawled ‘Bullshit’, but as I would later discover, the claim was true. That holiday to Tasmania persuaded me to later return and take my undergraduate degree at the University of Tasmania, and years later may have influenced my fascination with William Bligh’s career.

Captain Furneaux spent five days at Adventure Bay in March 1773 but failed to make contact with the Indigenous inhabitants, whose presence was obvious from shell middens and simple shelters. We now know these were Nuenonne people, part of the southeast clan whose territory included the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and adjacent country south to Port Davey and beyond. In his journal, Furneaux recorded that he left some medals and other items in one of their shelters before leaving to explore the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land. The medal found at Killora may be one of those, but it could also be from Cook’s five-day visit to Adventure Bay in January 1777 during his third voyage of exploration – this time, with Discovery commanded by Charles Clerke accompanying Cook in Resolution

A colour slide of Adventure Bay shows the place where Cook and other explorers took on water, and is very similar to the Ellis painting on the preceding pages. Image Nigel

Two thousand copper alloy ‘Resolution and Adventure’ medals had been struck for Cook’s second expedition

Erskine

An unfinished sketch attributed to voyage artist John Webber depicts Cook presenting a medal to an Aboriginal man at Adventure Bay on 29 January 1777

01 (left) Reverse of a ‘Resolution and Adventure’ medal, depicting the ships. Image courtesy Sterling & Currency; (right) Obverse of a similar medal recently bought by the museum. It shows significant wear, prompting the question: could it have been among those that sailed with Cook?

ANMM image

02 Capt Cook’s interview with natives in Adventure Bay, Van Diemen’s Land, January 29, 1777

Below the title is an extract from Cook’s log outlining their meeting with ‘about twenty’ men and boys, their behaviour towards Cook’s landing party, their appearance, and Cook’s gifts to them. National Library of Australia nla. obj-230721728

Two thousand copper alloy ‘Resolution and Adventure’ medals had been struck for Cook’s second expedition for the purpose, in Cook’s words, ‘to be distributed to the Natives of, and left upon New Discovered countries as testimonies of being the first discoverers.’ 1 At the end of the expedition a surplus of medals remained, and while their inscriptions related specifically to the second voyage, they continued to be given to local people during Cook’s third fateful expedition to the Pacific.2 An unfinished sketch attributed to voyage artist John Webber depicts Cook presenting a medal to an Aboriginal man at Adventure Bay on 29 January 1777. Cook described the event in his journal: 3

We had not been long landed before about twenty of them, men and boys joined us, without expressing the least sign of fear or distrust.

… They were quite naked, and wore no ornaments unless we consider as such, and as proof of their love of finery, some large punctures or ridges raised on different parts of their bodies, some in straight, and others in curved lines.

I gave each of them a string of beads, and a medal, which I thought they received with some satisfaction.

This was the only time Cook visited Tasmania, but William Bligh, Master aboard Resolution during Cook’s third voyage, was to return to Adventure Bay during the first breadfruit expedition a little over a decade later.

A longer visit

James Cook’s Endeavour voyage and survey of the east coast of Australia in 1770 greatly augmented the work of earlier Dutch explorers in mapping much of continental Australia’s coastline, but in 1787, when the British government sent the First Fleet and its cargo of convicts to Botany Bay, most of the south coast remained unknown to Europeans. Despite speculation that a strait might exist separating Van Diemen’s Land from the mainland of New Holland,4 the proof of its existence would have to wait until Bass and Flinders’ circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in 1798. As a result, all early European voyages sailing the southern route to Botany Bay or sailing further west into the Pacific Ocean passed south of Van Diemen’s Land.

Thus it was that William Bligh, somewhat unexpectedly, found himself revisiting Adventure Bay in August 1788 in command of the Bounty while on route to Tahiti to collect breadfruit plants. His original plan to sail into the Pacific by way of Cape Horn had been abandoned in face of the unrelenting westerly gales that battered the ship and its crew throughout most of April, and he had reluctantly turned the ship eastward and headed for the Cape of Good Hope to repair and replenish the ship and its stores. After a seven-week passage across the Southern Ocean, Adventure Bay offered a welcome respite from the weather and an opportunity to take on fresh water and firewood for the galley.

Accompanying Bligh on this voyage was the gardener David Nelson – like Bligh, a veteran of Cook’s third voyage. The vessel remained at anchor in the bay for two weeks, and Nelson and Bligh spent much of this time investigating the remarkable flora, 5 planting fruit trees and vines and sowing a variety of seeds. Bligh also noted that in their encounters with the Aboriginal people, he and Nelson recognised ‘one man, whom we had formerly seen among the party of natives that came to us in 1777, and who is particularised in the account of Captain Cook’s last voyage, for his humour and deformity’. This man is recognisable in the drawing in the image opposite and appears to have had severe spinal curvature.

The title cartouche on the chart of Adventure Bay by Peter Fannin, Master aboard HMS Adventure on Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific. Note the depiction of a penguin; Tobias Furneaux named the small island just off Grassy Point at Adventure Bay ‘Penguin Island’ after seeing penguins there. National Library of Australia

MAP NK 10592A/3

Image from a 19th-century sketchbook containing watercolours on maritime themes, including whaling. The South Sea whale fishery comprised vast areas of the Pacific and South Atlantic oceans, including along the east coast of Australia.

ANMM Collection 00004451 Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Whatever plans and drawings that may have been made during Bounty ’s stay in Adventure Bay were lost when, following the infamous mutiny aboard the ship after collecting the breadfruit in Tahiti, Bligh and members of the crew loyal to him were set adrift in the ship’s launch. Against the odds, Bligh sailed to the Dutch settlement at Timor and, after returning to England, was commissioned to lead a second breadfruit voyage, this time with two ships and marines to support his command. Three years after the mutiny, Bligh was again at Adventure Bay, and several watercolour pictures by Lieutenant George Tobin provide an evocative record of the bay and its inhabitants in 1792.

That same year, a major French scientific expedition led by Admiral Bruny D’Entrecasteaux arrived in the area, setting up base in a bay on the mainland to the west of Bruny Island, which he named Recherche Bay after his ship. During this expedition, the beautiful channel separating Bruny Island from the mainland of Van Diemen’s Land was discovered and surveyed by Europeans for the first time. The French named the channel in honour of their commander, and the Huon River after Captain Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, commander of the second expedition vessel, Esperance

In May the expedition sailed for the Pacific in search of the missing La Perouse expedition, but returned to Recherche Bay early the following year to complete their work. By February they were preparing to move on, and the ships spent a week at Adventure Bay taking on wood and water before departing for New Zealand.

Six years later, during their circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in the Norfolk, Matthew Flinders and George Bass attempted to enter the bay but were foiled by contrary winds. Flinders already knew Adventure Bay from his time as a midshipman aboard the Providence on Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage and would have been aware of Bligh’s meticulous surveys of the area. In any case, he was in a hurry to return to Sydney with the news of the discovery of the strait he and Bass had now proved existed.

Shore whaling at Adventure Bay

Several of the early European explorers remarked on the number of whales they saw in the waters around Van Diemen’s Land, and several shore-based whaling stations operated along the southern shore of Adventure Bay from the 1820s to the 1840s. This form of whaling exploited the seasonal migration of whales along the coast and was a much cheaper alternative to owning a whaling ship and financing a long voyage.

A signal from the lookouts high on Fluted Cape would set a chase in motion, with the boat crews launching their boats from the shore and setting off in pursuit of the whale. If successful, the whale was towed back into the bay, where it was winched ashore. There the process of flensing began – cutting the blubber into pieces that were fed into the tryworks and rendered into oil. The remains of these whaling activities are still visible today, particularly at Grassy Point, in the form of stone outlines of huts and fire hearths.

Today Adventure Bay’s rugged cliffs, giant forest trees and pristine beaches attract bushwalkers, kayakers, and sightseers – all coming to experience the magic of this extraordinary bay.

1 The Journals of Captain James Cook, Vol 2, JC Beaglehole (ed), Cambridge University Press and the Hakluyt Society, 1961, p.16.

2 Sir Joseph Banks contracted the firm of Boulton and Fothergill to produce the medals for the Admiralty. He commissioned a further 142 in silver, which he presented to friends and associates in England. He also commissioned two in gold, presenting one to the King and keeping the other.

3 The Journals of Captain James Cook, Vol 1, JC Beaglehole (ed), p 99.

4 On his chart of Van Diemen’s Land, Peter Fannin, Master aboard HMS Adventure, noted: ‘There appears to be a large river, deep bay or perhaps entrance of straight [sic] between Van Diemens Land and New Holland.’ See MAP NK10592A/2, National Library of Australia

5 In his narrative of the Bounty voyage, Bligh noted while at Adventure Bay: ‘Mr Nelson informed me, that, in his walks today, he saw a tree, in a very healthy state, which he measured, and found to be thirty-three feet and a half in girt; its height was proportioned to its bulk.’ A Voyage to the South Sea undertaken by command of His Majesty for the purpose of conveying the Bread-Fruit tree to the West Indies, George Nicol, 1792, p 46.

Dr Nigel Erskine is an Honorary Research Associate of the museum, its former Head of Research and the author of Bligh: Hero or Villain? (Australian National Maritime Museum, 2019).

Hannah Rigby’s certificate of freedom, dated 1837. The General Remarks note: ‘Lost several front teeth. Wife of George Page, free by servitude. Was originally tried at Lancaster QS [Quarter Sessions] 2 October 1821 & sentenced to seven years transportation’. State Archives of NSW

One free woman

The true story of convict Hannah Rigby

Liverpool seamstress Hannah Rigby was one of thousands of poor British women sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales. Jane Smith has traced her life in a new book, One Free Woman.

THE CONVICT VESSEL Lord Sidmouth set off from England in September 1822, having spent almost three weeks idling at Woolwich as women from all around the country boarded in dribs and drabs. The cargo was 97 convict women and their 23 children, and 21 free women with their 49 children, all bound for New South Wales. The convicts were servants, laundresses, dressmakers and seamstresses. In age they ranged from about 15 to early forties. They were pickpockets, thieves, receivers of stolen goods, forgers, even highway robbers. Some had been convicted for assault, and one for arson. They had stolen money, promissory notes, clothing, fabric, jewellery, blankets, handkerchiefs, and all manner of sundries: a tea caddie, a tobacco box, kitchenware, a brush, a seal, keys, and a set of bellows. Most were English, some were Irish, a few were Scottish. They faced sentences of seven years, 14 years, or life.

Amongst them was Hannah Rigby, a Liverpool seamstress who would later become notable for serving three separate sentences of transportation: one from England to New South Wales, and two from Sydney to Moreton Bay. She would also become known as the only female convict to remain in Moreton Bay when the penal establishment there closed.

Hannah had been sentenced in 1821 to transportation for seven years for stealing two caps and 28 yards of cotton print. The crime was not her first. She had three previous convictions for larceny: two in 1818 and one in 1819, all for the theft of haberdashery. Like many women of her class and time, she must have been finding it hard to make ends meet. With industrialisation throwing many out of work and driving hordes from rural areas into cities, unemployment, overcrowding, poverty and crime in places like Liverpool were rife.

Transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales had provided a solution to the problem of overflowing gaols since 1788. In the 30 or so years since the horrifying first three fleets had sailed, conditions on convict transport vessels had improved. Death rates were no longer sky-high, but seasickness and other illnesses still prevailed. A ship’s surgeonsuperintendent was a busy man, being responsible for the convicts’ health and discipline; on Lord Sidmouth, this man was Robert Espie. Although Espie’s log reveals that he regularly doled out punishments for stealing, insolence and rowdy behaviour, Rev Henry Williams from the Church Missionary Society (who was en route to New Zealand with his wife and children) felt that the surgeon was too lenient. The two men clashed in matters of philosophy and religion. Williams had a little more respect for the captain, James Ferrier, though he disapproved of his coarse language.

The colourful journals and letters of the missionary and his wife, read alongside the more matter-of-fact surgeon-superintendent’s log, provide a fascinating picture of the voyage that Hannah Rigby and her unfortunate companions endured as, exiled from their families and friends, they sailed towards an uncertain and daunting future in a mysterious land.1

Transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales had provided a solution to the problem of overflowing gaols since 1788

Plans of the Anson as fitted for a female convict ship, prepared for the guidance of the authorities in the colony, 1843. Hannah Rigby was transported on another ship, the Lord Sidmouth, some 20 years earlier, one of 190 convict and free women and their children.

State Library of NSW

Below is an extract from One Free Woman:

The True Story of Convict Hannah Rigby:

On Sunday 6 October, the heat was so intense below that when Williams was performing the evening service in the prison, chaos erupted. One of the women disturbed the proceedings by ‘going into fits’ and others started gasping for air. Since the women had to be locked in the prison at sunset, Espie asked Williams to forgo the evening services until the ship reached cooler climes. The reverend grudgingly agreed, admitting that the heat was indeed ‘melting’ in the prison. 2 He refrained from delivering services but continued to visit.

On the first evening, he was pleased to see some of the women gathering of their own accord to sing a hymn. His pleasure was short-lived, though, for one of the women was drunk and started throwing punches and knocking others down. Because of the rowdy behaviour after their Sunday wine on that day, Espie reduced the ration from half a pint to a quarter thereafter.

The next night, the women were singing again, but this time their repertoire extended beyond hymns. The singing continued until midnight. The reverend remarked tetchily that if they had the energy to sing such songs, they should be able to sing psalms and hymns. 3 He said as much to Espie, who agreed that a bit of quiet time in the evening might be a good idea, and Williams was allowed to resume his evening services.

His wife wondered about their effectiveness:

I hope his labours among the women will not be in vain, although the bad, the dissolute and the careless seem very far to exceed the quiet, the attentive, and the serious.4

Which type was Hannah? Not quiet, attentive or serious, perhaps, as her later behaviour would suggest. But not bad nor dissolute either – at least, not enough to be noticed, not enough to be punished. Careless, maybe.

On 9 October, the ship passed the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, which Reverend Henry Williams deemed ‘not in the least inviting, for they appeared dry parched up spots’. 5 Many of the women were still suffering from seasickness, and Espie treated them with porter. The heat continued to grow more oppressive.

The wind dropped and the ship was becalmed for almost two weeks. In the sultry conditions, the women grew irritable. More were handcuffed and thrown into the coal hole for abusive and rebellious behaviour. Many complained of weakness, fatigue and seasickness. During this time, their bawdy behaviour caused tensions between the reverend and the doctor to boil over. Reverend Williams had been growing daily more uneasy about the foul language the captain, crew and Espie were using freely in front of the prisoners.

In his naïveté, he believed they’d taught the women to swear. These were women from the lower classes – poor and streetwise. They knew how to swear.

One evening in late October, things came to a head. The reverend went up onto the deck later than was his habit, only to hear a racket emerging from the prison: the women were singing some ‘shockingly obscene’ songs, while Captain Ferrier and Espie stood at the hatchway listening with obvious enjoyment. The women, knowing they had an appreciative audience, grew bolder. Williams would not have a bar of it:

I then spoke to the two Officers as to the evil tendency of their appearing to sanction this shocking conduct. They were at first disposed to treat it lightly and said the women must amuse themselves, and added they were glad to observe it. While I was speaking the women began another obscene song set to a hymn tune and given out by two lines at a time; to shew the effect of this, everyone on deck and below flocked to the spot – both young and old to drink in this intoxicating poison.6

The reverend did not name the women who led the choir. It seems unlikely that Hannah was one of them; she was no stranger to rule-breaking or defiance, but neither was she an attention-seeker. But if Williams’ claim that everyone on deck was enjoying the spectacle is accurate, Hannah was among the throng, laughing along, revelling in a moment’s relief from tedium, discomfort and sorrow, indulging in a moment of minor rebellion.

Hannah Rigby would become known as the only female convict to remain in Moreton Bay when the penal establishment there closed

A watercolour painting showing the settlement of Moreton Bay in 1835, by Henry Boucher Bowerman. It is the earliest known signed and dated painting of the future township of Brisbane. The convict barracks is the multi-storey building with a walled yard. In front of the two-storey military barracks are convicts yoked to carts with a soldier overseeing them. State Library of Queensland accession number 3944

The fun didn’t last. Williams spoke severely to the two officers, and eventually Espie grudgingly ordered silence. A roar of defiant laughter erupted below. But the reverend had won; thereafter, the prisoners were more subdued –at least in his presence.

1 National Archives; Kew, England. Surgeon’s Journal of Her Majesty’s Female Convict Ship Lord Sidmouth , Mr Robert Espie, Surgeon, from 22 August 1822 to 1 March 1823, ADM 101/44/10, accessed via <https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au/docs/ships/LordSidmouth1823_ SJ.pdf>.

2 Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington, NZ. Henry Williams, Letters to the Church Missionary Society from Henry Williams , vol 1 (1822–1830), typed transcript, ref qMS-2230, letter of 15 Oct 1822.

3 Williams, Letters to the Church Missionary Society, 15 Oct 1822.

4 ATL. Henry Williams, Mrs Marianne Williams and Mrs Jane Williams, Letters and Journals Written by Rev Henry and Mrs Marianne Williams and the Rev and Mrs Jane Williams, Vol 1 & 2 (1822–1828), typed transcript (1936), ref qMS-2225, page 14.

5 Williams, Letters and Journals , p.13.

6 Williams, Letters to the Church Missionary Society, 26 Oct 1822.

Jane Smith is a Queensland author, archivist and freelance book editor. She was awarded a 2024 Visiting Fellowship with the Harry Gentle Resource Centre (Griffith University) to research and write the biography of Hannah Rigby.

Charting a sustainable future

The 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards

The Australian National Maritime Museum came alive with purpose and celebration as the winners of the 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards were unveiled in November. The event marked a significant moment in recognising exceptional contributions to sustainability across New South Wales, from grassroots projects to transformative technological innovations.

the Banksia Foundation.

THE 2024 NSW SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS were hosted by the Banksia Foundation and supported by the NSW Government through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). The awards highlight the resilience and ingenuity of communities, businesses, and individuals working toward a sustainable future.

A celebration of visionaries

The venue for the award ceremony, the Australian National Maritime Museum, served as a fitting reminder of Australia’s deep connections to its environment. It provided the perfect stage for honouring those who are steering the nation toward a future where people and nature coexist harmoniously.

The awards ceremony showcased projects and initiatives that address pressing environmental challenges and champion social equity and cultural heritage. Each winner represents innovation and excellence, proving that meaningful action is possible across diverse sectors and scales.

In her address, Graz van Egmond, CEO of the Banksia Foundation, captured the essence of the occasion:

These awards remind us of the power of collective action. From local schools to large-scale enterprises, every winner exemplifies the creativity and determination needed to combat climate challenges and secure a better world for future generations.

Transforming narratives of sustainability

The awards presentation was not merely a celebration of winners but also a call to action for every sector of society. From the innovative efforts of Citizen Wolf in fashion to the community-driven impact of the Littie Committee, the shared stories resonated deeply with attendees. Each project underscored the critical importance of collaboration, creativity and resilience in addressing today’s most urgent challenges.

This year’s awards also emphasised the vital importance of regional and community leadership in the sustainability movement. As seen with the Mulloon Rehydration Initiative and the Australian Agricultural Centre, regional initiatives are proving that solutions tailored to local needs can deliver significant environmental and social benefits.

Each winner represents innovation and excellence, proving that meaningful action is possible across diverse sectors and scales

Haystacks Solar Garden won the Marketing and Communications for Impact Award.

All of the 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards winners. Images Banksia Foundation

Award categories and notable winners

The awards featured 11 categories, each recognising unique contributions to sustainability:

• Minister’s Young Climate Champion: Cowra Public School – Littie Committee

The Littie Committee at Cowra Public School was honoured for their ‘Reuse Your Shoes!’ initiative, which collected and redistributed over 400 pairs of shoes to community members in need. This project addressed footwear waste and also fostered community engagement.

• Biodiversity Award: Mulloon Rehydration Initiative

This initiative received recognition for its extensive catchment restoration efforts, collaborating with 23 landholders to restore 23,000 hectares and 50 kilometres of creeks. Their work supports threatened species and enhances local biodiversity.

• Circular Economy Award: Citizen Wolf

Citizen Wolf revolutionised sustainable fashion with their zero-waste manufacturing system and innovative Magic Fit® technology. Their approach reduced carbon emissions by 48% per garment while offering lifetime repairs and a take-back scheme.

• Climate Technology Impact Award: Solar Thermal Australia Pty Ltd

Recognised for their wi-fi hot water heat pump technology, Solar Thermal Australia has contributed to reducing more than 20 million tonnes of emissions while optimising renewable energy usage.

• Large Business Sustainable Leadership Award: Hawkesbury City Council

Hawkesbury City Council demonstrated exceptional leadership by transforming their organisational culture and implementing comprehensive sustainability strategies over three years.

Green Gravity were finalists in the Climate Technology Award.

Bridge Housing Limited won the SME Sustainable Leadership Award and Placemaking Award

The Cowra Public School Littie Committee were winners in the Minister’s Young Climate Champion category.

Images Banksia Foundation

• Marketing and Communications for Impact Award: Haystacks Solar Garden

Haystacks Solar Garden was awarded for launching Australia’s first large-scale solar garden, providing renewable energy access to communities previously unable to benefit from rooftop solar installations.

• Net Zero Action Award: Taronga Conservation Society Australia

Taronga achieved significant sustainability milestones, becoming the first New South Wales zoo powered entirely by renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions by 35% in the fiscal year 2022–23.

• Placemaking Award (shared)

Bridge Housing’s Glebe Aboriginal Women’s Housing Project

This project delivered 20 sustainable homes tailored to cultural needs while emphasising environmental responsibility.

Central Station Metro

Central Station Metro earned accolades for its transformative upgrade of Australia’s busiest railway station, achieving both a six-star Green Star Custom Rating and a Leading Infrastructure Sustainability rating.

• Primary Industries and Regional Development Award: Australian Agricultural Centre

The Astronomical Agriculture program connected over 800 primary school students with agricultural experiences, fostering environmental awareness through innovative STEM education.

Regional initiatives are proving that solutions tailored to local needs can deliver significant environmental and social benefits

• SME Sustainable Leadership Award: Bridge Housing

Bridge Housing was recognised for its comprehensive sustainability framework that addresses environmental, social, and governance factors while supporting vulnerable communities.

• Sustainable Tourism Award: Taronga Conservation Society Australia

Taronga received additional recognition for its extensive conservation projects and educational programs that reached more than 1.8 million visitors while achieving a status of 100% renewable power.

The role of partnerships

The success of the 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards would not have been possible without the steadfast support of the NSW Government and other key partners. The collaboration with DCCEEW highlights the vital role of public-private partnerships in fostering innovation and scaling impactful solutions. As Graz van Egmond remarked:

The journey to a sustainable future is one we take together. These awards showcase the incredible potential of partnerships and shared purpose in addressing the climate crisis … Sustainability is not just an ideal – it’s a responsibility we all share. Together, we can create a thriving, resilient future for our state and our planet.

The Banksia Foundation invites everyone to explore the innovative projects and consider how they, too, can contribute to the broader sustainability movement.

Entries for the 2025 NSW Sustainability Awards open in March 2025, providing an opportunity to showcase groundbreaking initiatives and leadership in sustainability. For more information, visit the Banksia Foundation website: banksiafdn.com

Message to members

What’s on this autumn

Dear Member,

As we celebrate our 150th edition of Signals, we want to say a big thank you for your continued support of the Maritime Museum. Whether you have been with us for a long time or have recently joined us, we value your contribution and patronage. It’s wonderful that we still have more than 100 founding members, who have been with us since we opened back in 1991, so we’d like to extend an extra special thank you to them.

We have some great member events scheduled this autumn, including talks with award-winning authors. We are also part of this year’s Sydney Writers Festival, with a special event exploring why we love being immersed in water.

And over the following months, our program will include cruises on the harbour and tours to historic sites around Sydney, so remember to follow us on Eventbrite to hear about events as we announce them. You can follow us through this QR code.

Hope to see you at the museum again soon.

The Members Team

Unless otherwise noted, talks are free for members and one guest. Book launches are free for all guests. Bookings are essential. Email memberevents@sea.museum and tell us which event you wish to attend, and who is coming. Or book through Eventbrite, phone us on 02 9298 3777, or scan the QR code below. For all other events, please see sea.museum/whats-on/events or sea.museum/kids

Online activities for kids sea.museum/kidscraft

Play, create, experiment! Have fun at home with easy creative activities and printable downloads for children. There are puzzles, colouring, crafts and much more to keep the kids and grandkids amused over the Easter break.

Why do we swim? That’s the topic under discussion at a special Sydney Writers Festival event on 21 May. See details on page 73. Image of Tamarama Beach, Sydney, by Francesca Pianzola/Shutterstock

Book launch

The Secret Submarine

2–3.30 pm Thursday 13 March

In this groundbreaking work, leading military historian Tom Lewis rewrites the history books. The Secret Submarine reveals a forgotten victory and immerses readers in the harrowing experiences of those who served in World War II bombers and submarines. It also chronicles the broader, brutal struggle between Japanese forces and the combined might of the USA and Australia, which saw more than 40 ships sunk and countless lives lost off our east coast.

Free for all attendees

Colourised image of Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-152.

Talk

Australia’s Titanic hero

2–3.30 pm Saturday 15 March

Join Michael Adams as he looks at the world’s most famous disaster story, the sinking of RMS Titanic, through an entirely new and very personal lens. He tells the tale of the ship’s boatswain, forgotten hero Albert ‘Big Neck’ Nichols, who was born and raised on Australia’s tiny Lord Howe Island.

This is a story with a surprise happy ending you won’t see coming.

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Speakers talk

Bass and Flinders

2–3.30 pm Friday 21 March

Matthew Flinders and George Bass are two names forever linked with the maritime history of Australia.

Find out about the backgrounds of these two famous maritime explorers, their fates and their voyages of exploration around the coasts of Terra Australis in small boats. Presented by Neville Turbit from the museum’s Speakers Group.

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Evening editions

The midget sub attack in Sydney Harbour

5.30–8 pm Wednesday 26 March

War came to Sydney on 31 May 1942, when three Japanese midget submarines entered the harbour. Twenty-one men from HMAS Kuttabul and six Japanese sailors lost their lives on that fateful night. Learn how the attack was carried out and how the harbour defences, which were inadequate to say the least, failed to prevent them. Presented by Gillian Lewis of the museum’s Speakers Group. Includes a visit to our exhibition Secret Strike: War on our shores (see page 76).

$40 / $30 Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Special author talk

The Wide Wide Sea with Hampton Sides

1–2.30 pm Sunday 23 March

Award-winning author Hampton Sides joins us virtually from his home in the USA to talk about his new book on the fateful final journey of Captain James Cook.

In July 1776, Cook began his third Pacific voyage, in HMS Resolution. Two and a half years later, in Hawaii, he was killed by the indigenous inhabitants. What brought Cook to this end?

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Author talk

James Fairfax

2–3.30 pm Saturday 29 March

James Fairfax was one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists, collectors and champions of Australian art, who put together one of the country’s most important collections of European Old Masters.

In this evocative biography his nephew, Alexander Gilly, pieces together Fairfax’s life through his art collection. Through eleven treasured objects, Gilly reveals the complex private and public lives of a man at the centre of the Fairfax media dynasty.

Free for all attendees

Detail from cover courtesy NewSouth Books

Evening editions

Friendship and friction: Crew and passenger relationships in the wake of Titanic

5.30–8 pm Tuesday 15 April

As Titanic survivors waited for rescue in the aftermath of disaster, unusual connections were forged that crossed barriers of class, nationality, occupation, and gender. Some of these encounters resulted in friendships, such as the mutual regard between Fifth Officer Harold Lowe and theatrical entrepreneur Renee Harris or that between Able Seaman Thomas Jones and Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, Countess of Rothes. In other cases, there was conflict and confrontation – in Lifeboat 6, passengers accused Quartermaster Hichens of refusing to attempt to rescue victims in the water. We look at the lives of these diverse individuals, their experiences during the sinking, and the roles they played in the evacuation that in some cases formed a bond, and in others resulted in anger and recrimination.

Hosted by museum curator Inger Sheil.

$40 / $30 Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Speakers talk

The Teddy Sheean story

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 23 April

After HMAS Armidale was struck by Japanese torpedoes in December 1942, Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean ignored orders to abandon ship, strapped himself to a gun and went down with Armidale in battle. He was just 18.

Teddy’s family and others fought for his recognition. More than 70 years later, he became the first person in Australia’s naval history to receive the Victoria Cross – confirming him as an Australian hero.

Presented by Kez Hasanic.

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Speakers talk

Women in the navy

2–3.30 pm Thursday 8 May

This is the story of how women came to be in the Royal Australian Navy. It discusses some of the people who made it possible and others who tried to prevent it. But most interestingly, it is also the story of what went before these events. What was the inspiration for having women in the navy in the first place?

Presented by Justin Holmwood from the museum’s Speakers Group.

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Author talk Upon a Starlit Tide

2–3.30 pm Saturday 3 May

Author Kell Woods talks about her latest book, a dark and enchanting historical fantasy inspired by fairy tales.

St Malo, Brittany, 1758 – Lucinde St Leon rescues a drowning stranger from the sea. Drawn to his charm, she enters a world of faerie magic, seduction and brutality. As she wrestles with warring desires, her own power shines ever brighter, like a sea-glass slipper ... or the scales of a sea-maid’s tail.

$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Image Tor Books

Sydney Writers Festival special event Why we swim

1.30–3.30 pm Wednesday 21 May

What it is about water that seduces us, heals us and brings us together?

Guest presenters include Chris Baker, author of Swimming Sydney: A tale of 52 Swims; Ali Gripper, author of Saltwater cures; Yusra Metwally, founder of Swim Sisters; and Indigenous marine scientist Dr Chel Marshall. Hosted by Julia Baird.

$25 / $20 concession / $15 Members. Enter promo code MEMBER

Image Hector Pertuz/Shutterstock

Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

Now showing

Embark on a journey from the ocean’s sunlit surface to its deepest, darkest depths, exploring five unique zones, each brimming with its own wonders.

The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submersible is the centrepiece of the exhibition Ultimate Depth Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

THERE IS ONLY ONE WORLD OCEAN, and it covers 70 per cent of the planet. Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea invites you to experience and understand our ocean, so together we can help to protect it. Join us as we dive in to experience each zone, encounter extraordinary creatures, and uncover the cutting-edge technologies that reveal their secrets and their hidden world.

Make your own deep-sea creature and release it into the midnight zone, then end your adventure in the deepest reaches of our ocean, the hadal zone, where you can investigate the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, the submersible that took James Cameron to these extreme depths in 2012.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ultimate-depth

Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024

Until 27 April

The Ocean Photographer of the Year exhibition features more than 100 beautiful and thought-provoking images from some of the world’s best ocean photographers. The images are chosen through an annual competition presented by Oceanographic magazine and Blancpain, attracting both amateur and professional entrants. The photographs reveal the full spectrum of ocean life both on and under the water, including imagery of wildlife encounters and seascapes and beautiful interpretations of the human–ocean connection.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ ocean-photographer

A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck: Rediscovering the South Australian Now showing

Australian maritime archaeologists have partnered with German virtual design experts to re-create the 1837 wreck of the barque South Australian as a stunning graphic novel and an immersive diving experience. These depictions, plus artefacts from the shipwreck site, allow visitors to virtually explore the ship and reveal the detective work that uncovered its story.

Artwork by Professor Holger Deuter (University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserlautern, Germany) brings to life the terrifying tale of South Australian ’s loss. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ south-australian

Inundated: Photos of the Lismore Floods by Natalie Grono Now showing

When Lismore and other towns in the New South Wales Northern Rivers district were swept away in early 2022, during the worst floods seen in decades, photographer Natalie Grono captured the extent of how this catastrophe affected the community and its people.

Many Australians only experienced the floods through the news, from a macro perspective, 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.

ANMM Collection 00056531 © Natalie Grono

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

Chains of Empire Now showing

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?

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, was 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

Secret Strike: War on our shores

From 6 March

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. To commemorate this historic milestone the Australian National Maritime Museum is opening a new temporary exhibition focusing on the 1942 Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour.

The exhibition Secret Strike: War on our shores features the stern section of the midget submarine M22 and voice pipes from HMAS Kuttabul. The exhibition explores the raid and includes historic images of the aftermath of the attack and firsthand accounts of the impact it had on ordinary people’s lives.

*Please note, Secret Strike: War on our shores is located in Wharf 7, adjacent to the main museum building, and is not open on weekends or public holidays.

Touring exhibitions

Bidhiinja – Restoring our oyster reefs

Touring regional New South Wales venues

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.

Partner: NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns)

Orange Regional Museum

From 15 March

This beautiful exhibition brings together some of the finest examples of Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Islander) artist Alick Tipoti’s unique and intricate linocut printmaking practice. The exhibition also contains some of his award-winning sculptural works, contemporary masks and film.

Kisay Dhangal © Alick Tipoti.

ANMM Collection 00054952

The Halvorsen Centenary: crafting a legacy on water

Now showing

The Halvorsen family has shaped Australian boatbuilding since 1924. This display showcases the journey of the Halvorsen family from Norway to Sydney and the evolution of Halvorsen designs, from classic wooden craftsmanship to modern innovations. It offers a rare insight into the artistry and engineering that have endured for 100 years.

Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks

Chatham Historic Dockyard, UK

From 8 March

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 the Australian National Maritime Museum and Ryan McNaught.

Image Rebecca Mansell/WAM

James Cameron – Challenging the Deep

Queensland Museum Tropics, Townsville

From 22 March

Encounter the deep-ocean discoveries, technical innovations and scientific and creative achievements of underwater explorer James Cameron. Created by the Australian National Maritime Museum’s USA Programs and supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund. Produced in association with Avatar Alliance Foundation.

ANMM image

Mission X

Bribie Island Seaside Museum

Until 4 May

In 1942 a ragtag flotilla of Australian freighters, fishing trawlers, tugs, ketches, schooners and launches was assembled to sail under the American flag.

As Mission X of the US Army Small Ships Section, they plied deadly waters from Queensland to Papua New Guinea and beyond, being bombed and strafed, hiding by day, landing troops and supplies by night and returning with the wounded and dead.

Deemed too old, too young or unfit for regular service, skippers and crew enlisted from coastal towns and villages across southeast Australia. They had the knowhow and bravery to navigate the shallow bays, reefs and estuaries of the tropics and establish a lifeline to American and Allied troops in the war against Japan.

The Mission X exhibition presents this little-known story of daring and courage by Australians during the Second World War.

Mission X is a USA Program of the Australian National Maritime Museum supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund.

Staff of the Myer Emporium hang a giant portrait of General Douglas MacArthur outside the Melbourne store, July 1943. Image Australian War Memorial 139190

Voyage to the Deep

The Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, USA Until 10 May

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, his fantastical Nautilus submarine and his mythical world. Kids can venture through the world below the waves, including the octopus’s garden with its giant clamshell, a giant squid to slide down and a maze of seaweed to wander through in the kelp forest. This exhibition’s tour is managed by Flying Fish.

For information regarding all touring exhibitions please see: sea.museum/en/about/ touring-exhibitions

Cats & Dogs All at Sea

National Wool Museum, Geelong Until 15 July

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.

A miniature of hope

A model of Tu’ . Do joins the National Maritime Collection

How do you explain a ship? It is not just modern maritime museums who have to ask this question. Like shipwrights, shipping companies and ship enthusiasts, museums often use an ancient yet highly effective tool to present their knowledge about ships to the visitor: models. Dr Roland Leikauf explains.

The new model of Tu� Do with (from left) Lex Wilson, Dr Roland Leikauf and Stephen Black. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

The model was created by using a blend of historic understanding, traditional techniques and up-to-the-minute technologies

MORE THAN A YEAR after work on it began, a model of Vietnamese refugee vessel T ∙ u� Do has been given into the custodianship of the museum by the proud members of the Sydney Heritage Fleet Model Workshop. Ship models have always been immensely useful. They can help builders to plan out how to construct a ship or determine its fitouts. They can also present vessels to investors, show voyagers the location of their cabins, or just help enthusiasts to appreciate the beauty of a seafaring vessel. But how do you build a model of a refugee boat?

On 21 November 1977, several ‘boat people’ vessels entered Darwin Harbour after a desperate voyage from Vietnam. The refugees on board would probably have found it hard to believe that one of their boats would later be turned into a model, to become a permanent addition to the collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum. To celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the arrival of T ∙ u� Do (Freedom), which is now in the museum’s collection, Curator Postwar Immigration Dr Roland Leikauf suggested that the museum commission the Sydney Heritage Fleet Model Workshop to create a model of the vessel.

When these boats arrived in the 1970s and 1980s, warnings of encroaching ‘junk armadas’ flooded the press.1 This was far from the truth. Like many other refugee boats, Tu� Do is an expertly built fishing boat, a fantastic representation of the combination of art and craftsmanship that is traditional wooden boatbuilding.

But just like shipbuilding, model building has also changed. It blends traditional techniques with cuttingedge technologies. Most features of the model of Tu� Do were meticulously handmade. Windows and lights, panelling and canvas coverings, planks and most other parts were created to look like the real item. To ensure detail, depth and authenticity, the four model builders – Stephen Black, Lex Wilson, Peter Hughes and Phil Hale – could not afford to take any shortcuts. Even if a window could not be opened on the model, it had to be built as a separate piece from the rest of the model and then installed – otherwise the viewer wouldn’t get the impression that it could open on the original boat. Reproducing the colours of the model was also less than straightforward. To get the correct colour scheme, colour had to be layered and adjusted to different surfaces and locations.

For the hull and propeller, the model builders used state-of-the-art technology. These parts were modelled in a design program, then 3D-printed in pieces and fused together. The plans for the vessel had been drawn by hand by David Payne when the boat arrived in the museum’s possession in the early 1990s. David would later join the museum as a permanent staff member. The main tools he had used to measure the boat were a piece of rope, a measuring stick and his skill. Today, vessels like Tu� Do are analysed using a professional photogrammetry scan that creates a 1:1 digital rendition of the boat by using camera and drone technology. The resulting data allows for real-life representation of surfaces and colours and also enables the precise measurements that a model builder needs.

The real vessel Tu� Do has been a part of the museum’s active fleet for years, participating in events like Refugee Week and the Classic & Wooden Boat Festival. Now that the boat is undergoing extensive conservation work, the model can take its place to symbolise and explain an essential part of Australia’s migration history.

1 Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, ‘Junk armada on way to Australia,’ 28 July 1977, page 6.

National Monument to Migration

Honouring Vietnamese migrants

The museum’s National Monument to Migration is planning an exciting event later this year that will focus on migrants from Australia’s Vietnamese community.

AUSTRALIA’S WAVES OF MIGRATION came from all corners of the globe. And while every individual’s story is unique, those from the same places share a connection that they bring with them. In November 2023, an Italian heritage panel was unveiled on the National Monument to Migration. The museum is now calling for registrations for a Vietnamese heritage panel, to be unveiled later this year. It will feature names of people who migrated from Vietnam and will celebrate individuals and families who, in doing so, made a significant contribution to Australia.

How to register

Registrations close on 31 August, and the unveiling ceremony will take place in November. If you or your family are of Vietnamese heritage, you can register at sea.museum/Vietnamese or by phoning (02) 9298 3777.

No two journeys to Australia are the same. Some are filled with joy and excitement, as well as trepidation. Others are desperate and perilous, like the many sea voyages undertaken by Vietnamese refugees since the 1970s. The museum is proud to be working with the Vietnamese community in honouring these families and recording their stories.

Robert Heaney, National Monument to Migration Coordinator

Family members Lan Nguyen, Thi Kieu My (Maryanne) Nguyen, Oanh Nguyen, Thai Nguyen and Nguyet de Mello at an unveiling ceremony in November 2024. Image Marinco Kojdanovski

Foundation news

A new location for Tu’ . Do

T ∙ u� Do, a refugee vessel in the museum’s collection, represents many journeys undertaken by Vietnamese people seeking a safer life in Australia. Now that major works to conserve T ∙ u� Do are almost complete, the museum is launching a fundraising campaign to display the vessel.

THE VIETNAMESE FISHING BOAT TU � DO embodies a universal story of courage and hope, powerfully highlighting the refugee experience.

It was built for Tan Thanh Lu specifically to escape war-torn Vietnam and to find a better future for his family and community. With 39 other men, women and children, he set out in September 1977 and arrived two months later near Darwin. All the crew had to guide the journey was a map torn from a school textbook.

The refugees spent some time in the local quarantine station before being transported to migrant hostels in Adelaide and Brisbane. Like so many refugees before and since, the Lu family suffered multiple setbacks before opening a successful restaurant and establishing a permanent home in Lismore, New South Wales.

Arrivals from across the seas are a vital part of Australia’s story and the museum is dedicated to preserving this history. Tu� Do ’s legacy serves as a reminder of the enduring spirit of those who have sought a better life in Australia.

The 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, in 2025, offers a meaningful opportunity to honour the significant contributions that Vietnamese migrants have made to Australia. The vessel will be moved to a prominent location at the museum where it will be seen by over one million visitors a year. Tu� Do, and the experiences of the people who made the perilous journey on it, will be the centrepiece of a new exhibition that tells the stories not just of these refugees, but also of the many who have had similar experiences. As Tan Thanh Lu would later say about his own search for a new life in a distant land, ‘Making the decision to escape is like going to war. You do it because you think it’s necessary, but you never want to do it twice’.

Dr Kimberley Webber

Further information about the Tu� Do fundraising campaign can be found at sea.museum/en/support/donate/donation-form

Tu� Do under conservation in the museum’s carpark. Now that work on it is nearly complete, it will move to a new permanent location. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

Volunteer with us

Our volunteers are the beating heart of the museum. We’re always on the lookout for new members of our crew. Whether you’re a maritime buff or just looking to be part of your community, we have a wide range of roles for people of all interests and backgrounds.

For more information sea.museum/volunteer

Honour a Migrant’s Journey on the National Monument to Migration

The National Monument stands as a powerful tribute to Australia’s rich migration heritage. With a tax-deductible gift of $500, you can add a migrant’s name to this historic bronze monument, which already honours over 34,000 individuals who have shaped our nation.

Be part of this enduring legacy.

Commanding the seas and skies

An Australian architect of naval airpower

THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY (RAN) was among the first services to experiment with aviation as a force multiplier, a networked capability that it still boasts today. Like any new technology, however, the adoption of aircraft into naval operations was complex and far from assured. Its advances were sporadic, its setbacks were often political or financial, and its advocates were regularly diverted by other duties.

Among the figures who drove the embrace and integration of naval aviation into the Australian fleet was Victor Alfred Trumper Smith, known as ‘VAT’ to his contemporaries. Named for his uncle, the renowned cricketer Victor Trumper, Smith joined the RAN as a 14-year-old cadet in 1927. He retired in 1975 as a full Admiral and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee – effectively the head of a newly integrated Australian Defence Force. His career and personality are ably –and enjoyably – documented in this new biography by Graeme Lunn.

The author has admirably contextualised the service environment and something of the geopolitical world in which VAT prospered. It is no hagiography, either. Lunn frequently cites evaluations of Smith as he moved up the naval ranks. Many superiors affirmed that he was efficient, determined and stolid, if not outstanding in any arena. One consistent feature, however, is that Smith’s commanding officers all recognised his achievements and development potential, regularly recommending him for accelerated promotion.

If his rise was not meteoric, VAT’s career demonstrated the care with which naval officers were shepherded through numerous postings designed to broaden their technical, operational, bureaucratic and command experience.

As was typical for the interwar years and into World War II, this progression included lengthy stints with the Royal Navy (RN). It was on British warships that Smith came to understand the capabilities and logistics behind naval airpower.

He also comprehended its combat environment through harrowing personal experience. Such incidents, VAT would laconically mark, were ‘interesting’. Among the most dramatic were leading an almost suicidal attack on the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in a Fairey Swordfish biplane on 21 June 1940. A year later, Smith and his pilot, Nigel Hallett, ditched their Fairey Fulmar into the Mediterranean Sea after flying off HMS Ark Royal while en route to Malta. Smith also received a ‘friendly fire’ wound to the face from tackle employed to recover his Supermarine Walrus seaplane aboard HMAS Canberra (I). More profoundly, he also survived the sinking of Canberra during the Battle of Savo Island in 1942.

These combined wartime experiences were part of a larger naval experiment with launching aircraft from ships. By the middle of World War II, the advent of radar and the steady Allied build-up of aircraft carriers rendered shipborne aeroplanes like the Walrus redundant. Although they could extend the visual range and improve the gunnery of warships, combat soon proved that aviation fuel and bombs created pronounced vulnerabilities on deck.

Moreover, VAT’s wartime observations affirmed the critical roles that aircraft carriers played in strike, fleet protection and anti-submarine roles. These were fundamental considerations as he moved into administrative positions, especially when tasked in 1944 with drafting a plan for the RAN’s post-war adoption of carrier-based fleet units.

In addition to numerous RN and RAN staff postings, Smith commanded the naval shore station HMAS Albatross and, subsequently, Australia’s most capable carrier, HMAS Melbourne. Despite a lifelong insistence on sailors applying plenty of fresh paint and polish to their vessels, he was respected by all who served under him and recognised as eminently suitable for flag rank. Although he was far from the only driver behind Australia’s commitment to naval airpower, Admiral Smith was certainly one of its key architects.

This very readable biography is thoroughly edited and produced to a high standard, including excellent reproductions of the many images and aircraft profiles. Although endnotes and picture credits would have completed the package, this is an impressive work and – I hope – the sign of more to come from Graeme Lunn.

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

Admiral VAT Smith: The Extraordinary Life of the Father of Australia’s Fleet Air Arm

By Graeme Lunn.

Published by Avonmore Books, Kent Town, 2024. Hardcover, 248 pages, illustrations, index, ISBN 9780645700480.

RRP $49.95. Vaughan Evans Library 940.544941 LUN

01 A relieved VAT Smith and Gunner Harold Hardiman, wearing surplus US uniforms, arrive in Sydney on 20 August 1942, after surviving the sinking of HMAS Canberra (I).

VAT proudly wearing the insignia of a Companion of the Order of Australia, awarded to him in 1977.

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 new magazines and 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

Jerry Brotton

Four points of the compass: the unexpected history of direction

910.9 BRO

Harrison Christian

Terra Nova

919.8904 CHR

Patricia Collins

Rock and tempest: surviving Cyclone Tracy and its aftermath 994.295 COL

Helen Czerski

Blue machine: how the ocean shapes our world

VEL 551.46 CZE

Tom Devitt (ed)

Ordinary lives, extraordinary conversations: ordinary lives at sea and in the services 1950s–1990s with volunteer guides of the Maritime Museum: oral history transcripts of volunteer guides

910.45 ORD

Tonia Eckfeld

No one knows their destiny: the Eckfeld records: inside the Dunera story

VEL 325.21 DUN

James Goldrick and Alastair Cooper (eds)

The navy chiefs: Australia’s naval leaders, 1911–1997 359.3 GOL

Peter Greenfield and David Prest

The Skyhawk Years: The A- 4 Skyhawk in Australian Service 1968–1984 623.7463 GRE

J Laughton Johnston

To the end of the days of sail 387.50941135 JOH

Grantlee Kieza Banks 994.02 BAN

Tom Lewis

By Derwent divided: the story of the Lake Illawarra, the Tasman Bridge and the 1975 disaster 994.6063 LEW

Tom Lewis

Cyclone warriors: The Australian Defence Force and Cyclone Tracy December 1974–June 1975 994.29506 LEW

Rebecca Lim

Two sparrowhawks in a lonely sky 823.4 LIM

Colin Milner, Stephen Henningham and Matthew Jordan (eds) Documents on Australian foreign policy: Australia and Nauru: phosphate, trusteeship and the resettlement issue, 1945–1962

327.9409685 AUS

Darren Rix and Craig Cormick Warra Warra Wai: how Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People 994.01 RIX

Peter Stanley

Beyond the broken years: Australian military history in 1000 books 355.00994 STA

State Library of NSW Dunera: stories of internment VEL 325.21 DUN

Judy Washington

Paradise Interrupted: Tomaree Headland Port Stephens in World War II VEL 994.09442 WAS

Prestigious awards for former curator Lindsey

Shaw

Recognition from the Historic Naval Ships Association

The Historic Naval Ships Association links the public with historic naval ships around the world

WHEN I JOINED THE MARITIME MUSEUM from the old Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in May 1986, I could never have imagined just how varied and rewarding my museum career would be. I’m privileged to have worked on myriad exhibitions, represented the museum at national and international conferences and, from 2014 through my role as an Honorary Research Associate, spread the word about the museum in the USA and Kuwait.

A highlight of my career has been my involvement with the Historic Naval Ships Association (HNSA), a US-based, non-profit organisation. The HNSA links the public with historic naval ships around the world. These ships are storytellers, and the deeds of those who served aboard them are inspirational. The men and women who now care for these ageing vessels are a dedicated bunch.

The HNSA’s annual symposium is hosted by a member vessel. Organisations and individuals discuss ship maintenance, educational and program experiences, marketing, public support strategies, collection management and a variety of other ship-museum related subjects. I have attended 13 conferences in person since 2000 and was a member of the Board of Directors for more than 10 years.

At each annual conference, award-giving is an integral part of the banquet dinner. And I’ve been lucky to receive two of them!

The first was the International Leadership Award presented to me in 2013 aboard the Iowa class battleship USS New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey. It is presented to an individual who has been instrumental in promoting and strengthening HNSA’s role as an international organisation dedicated to the preservation, restoration and display of historic ships as museums. The wording of my award reads:

Presented in recognition of your enthusiasm, dedication and steadfast loyalty to the Historic Naval Ships Association in your representation of Australia’s maritime museums at our annual conferences.

Then, last year in San Diego, out of the blue on board the aircraft carrier USS Midway, I was called to the stage on the flight deck to receive the Casper J Knight Jr Award, named in honour of one of the founders of the association and a former director of the cruiser USS Olympia. It is the highest award the association can bestow. It is given to individuals or organisations who have contributed in a major way, usually over a considerable length of time, to the preservation and exhibition of historic naval ships, and to the goals and work of the association. My award reads:

In recognition of the significant contributions you have made to maritime museums. The pride and professionalism you have shown during your storied career is a credit not only to Australia, but to the historic ship community around the globe. You have proven yourself to be an outstanding museum professional.

Was I floored at receiving this award? Oh yes! And humbled at having the recognition of my peers. It is something I shall always cherish.

Lindsey Shaw is a former senior curator of the Australian National Maritime Museum who worked in the fields of maritime technology, exploration and navy. Since her retirement, she has been one of our Honorary Research Associates.

Lindsey Shaw with her award. Image Stirling Smith/ANMM

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

Peter Dexter AM

Daniel Janes

David Mathlin

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

Janette Parkinson

RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RAN

Peter Whitsed

Geoff and Beryl Winter

Honorary Life Members

Yvonne Abadee

Dr Kathy Abbass

Bob Allan

Vivian Balmer

VADM Tim Barrett AO CSC RAN

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

Kevin Byrne

Sue Calwell

RADM David Campbell AM

Marion Carter

Victor Chiang

Robert Clifford AO

Hon Peter Collins AM QC

Kay Cottee AO

VADM Russell Crane AO CSM RAN

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

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 RAN

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 RAN

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

RADM Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ RAN

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

Erratum

In issue 147, page 62, a departure date for Duyfken from Indonesia was listed as 26 November 1605. As there are no written sources to confirm this specific date, we apologise for this error.

Exhibition on now Tickets at sea.museum/ocean-photographer

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ANMM Council

Mr John Mullen AM, Chair

Ms Daryl Karp AM

Councillors

Mr Padraig (Paddy) Crumlin

Hon Hieu Van Le AC

Mr John Longley AM CitWA

Hon Leo McLeay

Ms Alison Page

RADM Christopher Smith AM CSM RAN

Australian National Maritime Museum

Foundation Board

Mr Daniel Janes, Chair

Mr John Barbouttis

Mr Simon Chan AM

Mr James Emmett SC

Ms Daryl Karp AM, ex officio

Mr David Mathlin

Mr John Mullen AM, ex officio

Dr Jeanne-Claude Strong

Ms Arlene Tansey

Ms Grazyna Van Egmond

Mr Nick Wappett

American Friends of the Australian National Maritime Museum

Mr Robert Moore II

Mr John Mullen AM

Ms Daryl Karp AM

What’s in the shop?

Whatever the weather this autumn, we’ve got you covered with gear for the outdoors and on the go, and puzzles for indoor days too.

Ultimate Depth t-shirt

Designed alongside our newest exhibition Ultimate Depth, this t-shirt is made from 180gsm 100% combed cotton. Lightweight and comfortable for summer.

$50.00 / Members $45.00

Ultimate Depth baseball cap

Made from 100% recycled nylon, this cap is lightweight and quick to dry for all your nautical sports and pastimes. One size fits all.

$45.00 / Members $40.50

Sea flora jigsaw puzzle

Test your brain with this intricate 1000-piece puzzle depicting a beautiful scene of underwater flora.

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Bearings

From the Director

Contents

Autumn 2025

Acknowledgment of Country

Classic craft converge on Hobart

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025

A Pacific focus

The Wooden Boat Symposium

Traditional skills

A wide reach

A vibrant achievement

Celebrating 150 issues of our flagship publication

A navigator’s last journey

Bringing Matthew Flinders home

Royals by sea

Regal voyages to the ends of the Empire

Meet Bikpela Binatang

A hydrothermal chimney dredged from the deep

A view from a window

Oh! What a lovely war

Prisoners in Arcady

The remarkable tale of the Estramina

A South American vessel wrecked in Australian waters

Adventure Bay

The safe haven on Hobart’s doorstep

A longer visit

Shore whaling at Adventure Bay

One free woman

The true story of convict Hannah Rigby

Charting a sustainable future

The 2024 NSW Sustainability Awards

Transforming narratives of sustainability

Award categories and notable winners

The role of partnerships

Message to members

What’s on this autumn

Book launch

Talk

Speakers talk

Evening editions

Special author talk

Author talk

James Fairfax

Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

Now showing

Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024

Until 27 April

Secret Strike: War on our shores

Touring exhibitions

Mission X

Voyage to the Deep

Cats & Dogs All at Sea

A miniature of hope

National Monument to Migration

Honouring Vietnamese migrants

Foundation news

A new location for Tu’ . Do

Volunteer with us

Honour a Migrant’s Journey on the National Monument to Migration

Commanding the seas and skies

An Australian architect of naval airpower

Recent additions to the Vaughan Evans Library

Prestigious awards for former curator Lindsey

What’s in the shop?