Signals Number 79 June–August 2007
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
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SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
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ABOVE RIGHT: The museum’s 1874 Cape Bowling Green lighthouse, erected originally near Townsville in north Queensland, took on a bright blush when Philips SSL and Lightsmart Solutions illuminated the ironon-hardwood tower on May Day. The companies had hired the museum as the venue for their product launch of a range of new energy-saving lighting systems.
Australian National Maritime Museum’s quarterly magazine Number 79 June–August 2007
Contents 2
Eora – First People Gallery of Indigenous art presents unique visions of river, lake and sea
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Carrying the light – the Halvorsen mission boats Pacific island missionaries and the Halvorsens forged bonds of friendship
14 Escape! Fremantle to Freedom Australia’s most famous prison escape, by Fenian convicts in 1876
ABOVE: The museum’s acclaimed replica of James Cook’s HM Bark Endeavour reopened for display to visitors and school groups at our wharves in May after her voyaging season that began in January with a visit to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. Photographs by J Mellefont/ANMM
COVER: One of the museum’s unique collection of Saltwater bark paintings depicting the Yolngu community’s links to freshwater, tidal and saltwater areas of their Arnhem Land country. The collection was purchased in 2002 with assistance from GRANTPIRRIE Gallery. The bark painting on the front cover is Gumatj Monuk by Gaymala Yunupingu, 1998, 119 x 92 cm. It will be on display again from 30 June in an exhibition at the museum entitled Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
19 Welcome to new Members Photographic roundup of our most recent soirée for new Members
20 Members message, events and activities Talks, tours, previews, music, a folk opera … Members’ winter calendar
26 What’s on at the museum Winter exhibitions, events and activities for visitors, schools programs
30 Overseas … and back in time Members tour of Tasmania – boats, history, wilderness and good food
34 The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar Shocking disaster on Sydney’s doorstep traumatised the colony 150 years ago
40 Tales from the Welcome Wall The Haddad family and the hatta wa’e-gal
42 Collections Rare 18th-century seamanship manual; a most unusual sculpture of Titanic
44 Currents & Sponsors Malta conference, Australian Maritime Series, USA Gallery fellowship
48 From the Director Farewell to chairman and assistant director, heritage pontoon
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The museum gallery devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and their connections to Australian seas and waterways, has been redeveloped. It highlights the growing strength of the museum’s collection of Indigenous art works and artefacts. Indigenous Curator and Liaison Officer John Waight and Senior Curator Lindsay Shaw contributed to this report.
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SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
LEFT TO RIGHT: The Indigenous gallery space, seen from above its main entrance. Showcase featuring Torres Strait Island dance masks. Silhouette of trimmed white feathers of the Dari headdress appears on the Torres Strait flag. Woven creatures (from top): Yawkyawk; stingray, turtle and prawn; Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent; crocodile with figure in its jaws.
THE AUSTRALIAN National Maritime Museum has always featured a gallery dedicated to this nation’s diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Like all of the museum’s major, themed exhibition spaces – we call them core exhibitions – the displays are far from static, with new stories being added from time to time and new collection items going
This year it was the turn of our Indigenous exhibition space to receive a complete makeover, and the result is a gallery that showcases the depth of the museum’s collection of Indigenous arts and crafts. The new gallery will be at the centre of the museum’s activities during NAIDOC week in July, the national event that celebrates Indigenous cultures.
One of the strongest common threads is a powerful connection to the land and to the sea – spiritual, ancestral and utilitarian onto display. Periodically, however, our core exhibitions undergo a complete redevelopment, allowing the museum to refresh its approach to the major themes of maritime history and heritage, and helping to ensure that the museum continually shows a new and changing face. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The redeveloped exhibition is called Eora – First People, a title that was chosen to pay respect to the people who first owned the land on which the museum is built. Sydney was occupied by a number of Aboriginal clans and Eora comes from the Darug language group. ‘Eora people’ was the name given to the coastal Aborigines
around Sydney. The word simply means ‘here’ or ‘from this place’. There are more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations in Australia – a large map in the exhibition details them all. These cultures are living and ever-changing, diverse and unique. One of the strongest common threads is a powerful connection to the land and to the sea – spiritual, ancestral and utilitarian. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders view the sea as an inseparable extension of the land. This redeveloped gallery highlights a number of communities in northern Australia and Tasmania and their connections with seas and waterways. The material on display represents these connections through ancestral stories and techniques. All are from the museum’s own collection and range in type from bark paintings and burial poles to carved and woven sculptures, baskets, containers and personal adornments. Page 3
Much of the material newly displayed in Eora – First People derives from northern Australian communities, reflecting the origins, research and acquisition interests of the Indigenous Curator and Liaison Officer. They are grouped by communities and types of art or craft work. Join us now in a tour of these vibrant and diverse stories and topics.
Water beings Greeting visitors at one of the exhibition’s three entrances is an eye-
Murdilnga and Billy Redford. These enigmatic female water spirits inhabit freshwater streams and rock pools. At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night. With a fish tail, and long tresses resembling strands of algae, they are similar to the European idea of a mermaid. Around the Yawkyawk, three-dimensional woven sculptures of stingray, prawn, turtle and mud crab, by Jill Yirrindili, represent the sea creatures typically found around Maningrida.
Artists are adapting innovative fibre techniques to create objects relating to ancestral events and everyday themes catching series of aquatic animals and beings of fibre and wood, displaying the dynamic weaving techniques of Maningrida in the Northern Territory. Woven works have distinct regional characteristics such as design, colour of dyes and the fibres used. Traditionally, most fibre production centred on making utilitarian and ceremonial objects. Today, artists are adapting innovative fibre techniques to create objects relating to ancestral events and everyday themes. The largest sculpture on display here is the Yawkyawk spirit figure by Marina Page 4
This type of art form is unique to the Maningrida region. Another important creature represented here is Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent, by Lena Yarinkura. Throughout Aboriginal Australia, the Rainbow Serpent is a powerful entity of both creation and destruction. Its representation varies from group to group but it is often closely associated with water. Below it is a woven crocodile with a figure in its mouth, by Bob Burruwal. The materials used in this work include different types of grass, flax, pandanus leaves and spun animal fur.
ABOVE: Carved wooden sea creatures from Maningrida in the Northern Territory, and Aurukun in Queensland. OPPOSITE LEFT: Yolngu hollow-log coffins and at left the bark painting Djarrwark ga Dhalwangu by Gawirrin Gumana, 1998. OPPOSITE RIGHT: Bark painting Mäna into Lutumba by Minyipa Mununggurr, 1998, 182 x 60 cm.
Dance Dance is one of the most important cultural expressions of the people of the Torres Strait. It forges and maintains links between the material and the spirit worlds and continues storytelling through the generations. Each island and each clan has its own special performances and sets of costumes which are used on occasions such as the Coming of the Light Festival (marking the arrival of Christianity in the islands), funerals and marriages. Headdresses are central elements in the art, theatre and dance of the Torres Strait. Many of the headdresses, body ornaments and dance machines on display are decorated with totemic beings and relate to ancestral events, as well as to specific historic events such as memories of World War II. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Older examples inspire the works of today’s artists, ensuring that their cultural traditions continue to develop and change. These works are all grounded in the artist’s own traditional expression of ancestral and cultural history and law. NOTE: The distinctive inverted Ushape and the clipped white feathers of the Dari headdress have become the symbol of the Torres Strait islands. Its silhouette appears in the centre of the Torres Strait flag.
These figures can also be an expression of the artist’s interpretation of his or her country, everyday occurrences and specific animals endemic to the area. Different types of wood are used according to the region. Ironwood is heavy and hard, limiting the amount of detail that can be carved; the required details may instead be painted. Soft woods allow extensive incising, cutting through solid sections of painted colour to contrast with the yellowish wood underneath.
These enigmatic female water spirits – Yawkyawk – inhabit freshwater streams and rock pools Carved figures
Woven and fibre works
Displayed in a central showcase are carved figurative sculptures of recognisable creatures of the sea, from Maningrida in northern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and Aurukun, western Cape York in Queensland. They are central elements in rituals and are associated with spirit and totemic beings connected to particular sites. Specific social groups or clans use these objects as a focal point in ceremonies which include both dance and song.
Fibre work provides important social and economic benefits to the artists who create them, employing many of the Aboriginal women of the region. Creation stories tell of the importance of woven works, and the proper way to make them. Objects on display come from Elcho Island and Maningrida in the Northern Territory. They represent many of the weaving techniques used by women of the Northern Territory in both traditional and contemporary styles.
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Armbands and headbands are important in ceremonial activities throughout Indigenous Australia. Utilitarian items such as baskets, dilly (carrying) bags and hats show the intricacy of even the most everyday article. Materials include pandanus leaves, tree bark, sedge tiny sea snail shells and parrot feathers. Ochres and clays provide colour and decoration, as do dyes from the roots and barks of plants and trees.
Burial rituals In 1995 the museum commissioned six painted burial poles from the Jilmara Arts and Crafts centre on Melville Island (off Darwin in the Northern Territory) to represent the culture, history, ceremony and art of the Tiwi islanders. Three of Page 5
these large, decorated poles now stand like landmarks at one of the gallery entry points, in a display about the burial rituals of the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands. Burial rituals called Pukumani are based on the teachings of ancestral spirits. The elaborately carved and painted poles, called tutini, are placed around a Tiwi grave in the fi nal stage of the Pukumani. The poles are commissioned by the dead person’s family along with new songs, dances and body paint designs, to placate the spirit of the dead and ensure safe travel
Pukumani burial ceremony. Some Tiwi now include Christian elements in their age-old ritual.
LEFT: Tiwi burial poles (tutini).
Saltwater Country bark paintings
RIGHT: Bark painting Living by the Sea by Marrnyula Mununggurr, 1998, 111 x 96 cm.
This section of the exhibition comprises four bark paintings drawn from a collection of 84 barks by Yolngu artists of north-eastern Arnhem Land. The Saltwater collection, purchased by the museum in 2002 with the assistance of Stephen Grant of GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, is one of the most important acquisitions to the National Maritime Collection in terms of its cultural
represent key themes of the Saltwater collection. Living by the Sea by Marrnyula Mununggurr depicts the variety of sea and coastal animals that the Yolngu catch for food. Milniyawuy by Naminapu Maymuru shows the Milky Way where the souls of the artist’s people reside. Mäna into Lutumba by Minyipa Mununggurr introduces the important ancestral shark Mäna.
The delicate and extremely beautiful shell necklaces are central to the identity of the Aboriginal women of Tasmania to the spirit world. Each pole is made from a single piece of bloodwood or ironwood, painted with natural ochres in abstract patterns that are unique to the Tiwi. Early in the 20th century the Tiwi were moved into towns under white administration, and the Pukumani ceremony was banned. In 1976 the Tiwi regained control of their land under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and this has led to a cultural revival of the Page 6
significance. The land and sea of the Yolngu people are marked by sacred places. The 84 bark paintings were produced to give a detailed explanation of the ownership and histories of the Yolngu people and their saltwater country. Together these works form a map and a claim to the part of northern Arnhem Land where the Yolngu live. The four barks selected for display in the exhibition Eora – First People
ABOVE: Showcasing Tasmanian Aboriginal culture.
Djarrwark ga Dhalwangu by Gawirrin Gumana expresses the artist’s inherited rights to his land by naming and depicting the mapped coastline. It is shows the flow of water and energy, from rain to river to saltwater to the storms that bring rain and life from the sea back to the land. It is an intricate work with a numbered explanation to assist viewers to understand its complexities.
Hollow-log coffins Representing the funerary rites of the maritime Yolngu people of northeastern Arnhem Land, these hollow-log coffi ns are decorated in the complex style introduced in the Saltwater bark SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
is used for softening and preserving leather. Feathers are sold to bedding manufacturers for pillows and quilts. Salted mutton bird meat is very oily and considered to be an acquired taste. Most of the catch is distributed in Tasmania and some exported to New Zealand.
Shell work and weaving French explorers and colonial artists depicted Tasmanian Aboriginal men and women wearing strings of tiny shells. Making such necklaces is one of the few Tasmanian Aboriginal traditions that have not been lost. It is continued by a handful of women, particularly on Cape Barren Island, and the delicate and extremely beautiful shell necklaces are keenly sought by collectors. The craft is central to the identity of the Aboriginal women of Tasmania. Necklaces retain their ritual and cultural significance as rite of passage gifts but can also be valued as adornments, heirlooms, trade goods and souvenirs.
paintings (previous section), with the story of Mäna the ancestral shark. The black cross-hatching represents fish traps, the coloured crosshatching is the freshwater mixed and muddied by Mäna when he destroyed the traps. Mäna himself appears on one of the coffi ns. Following the funeral ceremony the bones of the deceased person are placed in the top of the log coffin (the top is slightly wider to allow the bones to be placed inside the log). This ceremony is still practiced today.
Tasmania Indigenous Tasmanians still undertake traditional skills such as mutton bird gathering, shell working and basket weaving to maintain traditional knowledge through the generations, and to provide income.
Mutton birding Ricky Maynard is a leading Indigenous documentary photographer born in Tasmania. The museum acquired a series of photographs from him in 1993 that document the centuries-old practice of SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
mutton birding in Tasmania. Four are now displayed. The short-tailed shearwater, or mutton bird, is a migratory bird from the Arctic, breeding in large colonies in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, and New Zealand where Maoris have a similar tradition of hunting them. Commercial exploitation of mutton birds started with the arrival of European settlers and was once an important part of the Bass Strait islands economy. It is now confi ned mostly to Indigenous Tasmanians who earn an income from the annual harvest. Although the season is short, it is important to Aboriginal people as it forms a significant link to traditional social and cultural activities. Mutton bird chicks are removed by hand from their burrows, killed, spitted and processed in sheds to standards set by the Tasmanian Department of Health. After removal of feathers and draining of oil, the carcasses are gutted, cleaned and preserved in strong salt brine. Most of the oil is used by the racehorse industry as a food supplement for horses. Some
Traditional techniques of collecting, preparing, stringing and polishing have been handed down through generations of women of the Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) culture, although today they experiment with many new techniques. The tiny sea snails used include the iridescent maireener, the tiny white riceshell, the toothy, button and cat teeth. They are collected fresh from the sea following the seasons and tides of coastal Tasmania, harvested from the seaweed to which they cling. Palawa women also made baskets and fibre bags from Juncus reed (a wetland grass) for carrying personal items and for collecting food. Today the women use both traditional and modern methods to create intricate but utilitarian articles – flax, jute, raffia and cotton string with feathers and shells knotted into the fibre. The works have distinct regional and family designs, colour, weave and materials. The people of the Furneaux Islands group off north-east Tasmania and also the west coast of mainland Tasmania make containers or water carriers of bull kelp (a species of very large kelp). The container is fashioned by gathering strips of the fronds into a bulbous cup to hold water, fastened with skewers made of tea tree. A carrying handle is made of grass spun into bush string. Continuing to make these maintains Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural traditions. Page 7
CARRYING THE LIGHT
The Halvorsen boatbuilding family, subject of our recent special exhibition, designed and built a diverse range of both recreational and working vessels. Among them was a line of seaworthy workboats for Pacific island missionaries. Story by Halvorsen descendant and family historian Randi Svensen (with Jeffrey Mellefont). Her fresh white paint and new brasswork glistening in the sun, the auxiliary schooner, Le Phare, excited much comment yesterday as she lay alongside the slips at Halvorsen’s yards in Neutral Bay. Mr Halvorsen was commissioned to build her by the Seventh-day Adventists for use in their island missionary service, and he was given a free hand in her construction. As a result she is a masterpiece of the boatbuilder’s art. Unidentified Sydney newspaper, 1930; Lars Halvorsen’s scrapbook
the three-time winner Freya. Far less well-known are the many different kinds of working boat that they built, mostly to their own designs. My uncles Carl, Magnus and Trygve, now in their 80s and 90s, still love to talk about the timber workboats that they built with their father and their late brothers, Harold and Bjarne. Their eyes light up when someone mentions the big trawlers and lumber tugs with their heavy transoms. They built tenders for flying boats and work boats for the
Most of the mission boats were sturdy motorsailers with sensible sail plans and moderate draught, used to ferry people and supplies THE NAME HALVORSEN has meant different things to Australians since the Norwegian boatbuilder Lars Halvorsen – my grandfather – arrived in Sydney in 1924, bringing with him a passion for boatbuilding and an ambition to build a profitable business with his five sons. Most associate the Halvorsens with motor cruisers and sailing – elegant motor yachts, classic hire cruisers, or famous Sydney–Hobart racers such as Page 8
famous Australian shipping company Burns Philp & Co, which plied the South Pacific. And then there were the 250 Halvorsen boats produced for the more hazardous work of World War II, used by Australian, US and Dutch forces in the Western Pacific in many roles including air-sea rescue, supply and patrolling. All these boats were built to work hard and were known for their performance and seaworthiness. The Halvorsens took
great pride in them – and so do I, as a keen observer and defender of Sydney’s working harbour. A few of those old workhorses survive, though now they’re retired and in the hands of heritage boat enthusiasts. But there’s one type of Halvorsen workboat that has sailed completely into history, as far as I can tell. They’re never seen on the harbour or in a wooden boat festival, and it’s possible that none survive anywhere. They weren’t all that well-known at the time because they sailed away to far-off places as soon as they were launched. They were the mission boats. Between 1925 and 1948 Halvorsens built 24 of them for missionaries working in New Guinea and the western Pacific. They built one each for the Presbyterian, Methodist and Marist missions, two for the Anglicans and 19 for the Seventhday Adventists. (The number excludes associated tenders and dinghies.) These boats were mostly 35 to 45 feet in length (10.7–13.7 m), though two, built for the Adventists after the end of World War II, were 65 feet long (19.8 m). There were some orders for smaller launches or for whalers, open boats with sloop or cutter rigs that would have been more suitable for lagoons than the open sea. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The Halvorsen mission boats
But for the most part the mission boats were sturdy motor-sailers with sensible sail plans and moderate draught, used to ferry people and supplies between islands and communities served by little or no other transport. Religious organisations had used boats in New Guinea and the Pacific islands for many years before Lars Halvorsen arrived in Australia. As well as tending to the spiritual needs of the islanders the missions operated plantations, schools and clinics, and in those days transport by boat was their only choice. To navigate the passages and reefs the boats had to be small and strongly-built, with engines powerful enough to push through tide rips. By the time Lars began building mission boats in 1925,
photographs. Trygve, the youngest of the brothers, remembered the last, postWorld War II boats but was too young to recall the early ones. Eight years older than Trygve, Carl sailed as delivery crew on one of them (see panel page 13) but couldn’t say much about the designs, as they were the work of his father Lars and oldest brother Harold. So where to start? How did this line of business begin, and what influenced the designs? The answer lay with Lars’s scrapbook, the source of so much information when I researched the family history Wooden Boats, Iron Men – The Halvorsen Story (Halstead Press and the Australian National Maritime Museum, 2004), and I found much more than I expected.
Captain Radley wrote: ‘The little ship has been tested, and we are glad to say that she is all that we expected of her.’ skippers were professionals – usually westerners, often the missionaries themselves. The boats were crewed by islanders. Finding out more about the mission boats built by the Halvorsens, though, has been a challenge. ‘It’s a tough one,’ my uncle Magnus Halvorsen remarked when I asked after them, reminding me that there’s little in our family archives about the mission boats, other than the plans and SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The scrapbook is a rich resource, its pages recording not just clippings about Lars and his family but also articles on Lars’s many interests, from both English-language and Norwegian newspapers. Topics are as varied as polar exploration, the after-effects of World War I, shipwrecks and religion. To my surprise, the scrapbook contains a number of humorous stories as well. The serious articles gave me an insight
LEFT TO RIGHT: Adventist mission boats and native canoes on a festival day in the Solomon Islands, 1930s, including two Halvorsen ketches. Photographer unknown, reproduced courtesy Seventh-day Adventist archives Anglican mission boat Patteson on sail trials, Sydney Harbour 1934. Photographer unknown, Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM Arrangement plan of Lephare, for Seventh-day Adventist mission. Note forward engine room, centre hold. Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM A whaler – open, clinker-built sloop – built for the Adventists, at the Halvorsen yard at Neutral Bay, 1930s. Photographer unknown, Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM
into the grandfather I’d never met, but it was his choice of humour that brought him to life for me. The scrapbook is now in the care of the Australian National Maritime Museum, along with most of the family’s plans and photographic records, and we are very grateful to the staff of the museum for their efforts in preserving them. Lars’s first commission to build a mission boat came from the Presbyterian Church less than a year after his arrival in Sydney. The Dove was a modest 26 feet (7.9 m) measured from stem to stern (the Halvorsen’s standard measure of length, Page 9
used in all the vessel dimensions in this article). Overall, including bowsprit, she measured 30 feet (9.1 m). The Dove was a raised-deck, yacht-like design fitted with sails and a Kelvin engine. She was constructed of kauri pine at the new Halvorsen yard at Careening Cove where Lars had moved that year from his first premises in Drummoyne.
Lars had launched his most headlinegrabbing design to date, the 75-foot (22.9 m) luxury motor yacht Miramar II, the Adventists’ commission was invaluable. It came as the full effects of the Great Depression were being felt keenly by boatbuilders, hitting both commercial customers and the discretionary spending of pleasure-boat owners.
Built to replace the missionary vessel Robert Land lost in the New Hebrides, The Dove cost approximately £800 and her launching was attended by the moderatorgeneral of the Presbyterian Church and the convenor of its Foreign Missionary Committee. As often happened when a boat was launched in Sydney in those years, it was reported in the press and the article is preserved in Lars’s scrapbook.
Lephare, of 20 gross register tons and fitted with a 45-horsepower (33.6 kW) Kelvin diesel motor, had a handy ketch rig that would appear on other Halvorsen mission boats. It hoisted a jib and staysail, a gaff mainsail and a large triangular (Bermudan or Marconi) mizzen sail on a mast that was of a similar height to the main. This is probably why the newspaper report
Building boats that could deal with the demanding island conditions was a test for Lars Halvorsen and his sons In the following years, before Lars’s reputation for fine leisure craft was fully established, he built a variety of skiffs, punts and other workaday craft for various clients, including launches and small island sloops for Burns Philp & Co, with whom he began to do substantial business. Then in 1930, after building some dinghies for the Australian Board of Missions, came his first two orders for mission boats for the Seventh-day Adventists. One was for a 26-foot (7.9 m) ‘auxiliary’ and the other was a very substantial order for the 45-foot (13.7 m) ketch Lephare and a 14-foot (4.3 m) lifeboat to go with her. Although this was the year in which Page 10
cited at the beginning of this article mistakes her for a schooner. The plan (on page nine) shows berths for islander crew in the forepeak, more comfortable accommodation for skipper and missionaries aft, and a cargo hold and bulkheaded engine room amidships – a layout that would trim well when fully loaded. The hull drew a modest four feet (1.2 m) of water. Lephare was the smallest of the four mission boats then owned by the Adventists, but skipper Captain Jack Radley described her as the strongest-built and fastest of the fleet. She was noted for being an all-weather ship and won early acclaim when Radley took her out in
heavy weather in the New Hebrides, to save a French doctor who was dying of lockjaw. Radley would write: ‘The little ship has been tested, and we are glad to say that she is all that we expected of her … I have heard many a prayer asking God to bless the people who have been so kind as to give us this good boat.’ More orders followed from the Seventhday Adventists, creating a strong business relationship with the church whose extensive missionary activities in the Pacific Ocean had been established for nearly half a century. It was a relationship that would continue to help the boatbuilding business through lean times. The Seventh-day Adventist church was founded in the USA in the mid-19th century, and was still in its infancy when its first missionaries arrived in Sydney in 1885, keen to spread their message of the imminent return of Jesus Christ and their precepts for living. In 1886 John Tay, an Adventist ship’s carpenter, began his church’s long tradition of missionary work in the Pacific islands when he left his ship at Pitcairn Island, where according to Adventist history he converted the entire population of 86 in only five weeks. In 1890 the US church launched the schooner Pitcairn from San Francisco to carry more missionaries to the Pacific islands, to preach and establish schools and medical facilities. Over the years, Adventist missions were established in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, the Solomons, Lord Howe Island, the Cook Islands, the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), Ellice Island (now Tuvalu) and Norfolk Island. In some cases entire populations converted, as had happened on Pitcairn. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The Seventh-day Adventists’ strong sense of carrying the light to places they saw as ‘groping in darkness’ is reflected in the names they gave their mission boats. ‘Le phare’ is French for a beam of light, a name they used as well for one of their missions, and for a church newspaper. Many of the mission boats’ names were the words for light in various native languages – Malalangi and Diari mentioned below are two examples. Building boats that could deal with the demanding island conditions was a test for Lars Halvorsen and his sons, calling for the best materials and workmanship, but the business was lucrative in the long term because even the best-built boats wore out or came to grief and needed replacing. The churches weren’t Lars Halvorsen’s only
published family story Faith Takes the Helm, Lars’s elder daughter, Elnor, wrote: Lars Halvorsen had been commissioned by Burns Philp to build a boat for the islands, no mention being made in the specifications for sails and ropes. When the representative came to take delivery of the boat and found these items on board, he immediately suspected a ruse to get more money. The boatbuilder told the representative his quote had been for an island boat, which in his opinion would not be complete without sails and rope. There would be no extra charge, even though they were not specified. From that day, Burns Philp never asked Lars Halvorsen for a quote. He was given specifications without any query regarding price.
It’s possible that Lars’s deep Lutheran faith led the missionaries to favour his boatyard at a time when Sydney’s waterfront was in disrepute customers for island boats – businesses like Burns Philp & Co, British Petroleum and Guinea Airways needed island workboats too and later orders would include substantial ones from the New Guinea administration and customs. The island business grew because Lars combined good design with quality building, a very keen team – and personal qualities that inspired the confidence of both his church and secular customers. As a boatbuilder, Lars Halvorsen was a perfectionist but he was also a businessman. And he was a devout Lutheran, an intensely religious man and a lay-preacher, with a reputation for honesty and integrity. In her selfSIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
With such a solid reputation, Lars was trusted to produce what his customers needed and, as the quote at the beginning of this article notes, he was ‘given a free hand’ and left to design and build the boats. One such customer was the Anglican Church organisation Australian Board of Missions, formed in 1850 with the aim of converting the indigenous peoples of the islands around Australia to the Anglican faith. Their order in 1934 was for a typical island-boat, the 45-foot (13.7 m) ketch Patteson. She was named after Anglican Bishop and martyr John Coleridge Patteson (1827–1871) who founded the Melanesian mission and became the Bishop of Melanesia, but was murdered by the natives of Nukapu in the
OPPOSITE PAGE: Photo and hull lines of auxiliary motor sloop Na Cina, 1931, designed by Lars Halvorsen for Adventists. The boat is rigged for sail trials at the Halvorsen yard, Neutral Bay. Photographer unknown, Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM LEFT: Flagship of the postwar Adventist fleet, 65-foot Batuna. Photographer unknown, reproduced courtesy Seventhday Adventist archives ABOVE: Arrangement plan for a standardised 45-footer, the workhorse of the postwar Adventist fleet. Both postwar boats designed by Harold Halvorsen. Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM
Solomon Islands in revenge for recent abductions by white ‘blackbirders’. The boat is described in the company’s buildlist as follows. Mission boat for Melanesia. 30 hp Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine allowing 8 knot average, with top speed 12 knots. Main cabin in the centre of the boat 10 feet long and 13 feet wide. Crew quarters forward. Hold aft for passengers’ luggage and stores. Engine room fitted with fuel and air tanks and a dynamo and accessory engine in addition to the main equipment. Electric lighting will be fitted. Painted light green. Keel and timbers of Australian hardwood, bottom planks of spotted gum. Main portion of planking NZ kauri. Sheathed in munz metal. Minimal sail area for safety in rough weather and rig simple for easy handling. Only a stay-sail forward, no jib-boom. Mainsail amidships and Marconi mizzen. As the note makes clear, the sail plan for island conditions was evolving. There was no longer a bowsprit, most likely Page 11
because they were prone to damage in rough seas or docking. All sails could be safely handled from the deck. I have no doubt that, regardless of how entrepreneurial my grandfather was, his deep Lutheran faith made the mission boat business attractive to him. It’s even possible that his faith led the missionaries to favour his boatyard at a time when Sydney’s waterfront was in disrepute, rife with corruption, smuggling, drug running and insurance fraud. One of Lars’s competitors was implicated in the notorious ‘shark arm’ case of 1935, when a recently caught shark in Coogee Aquarium disgorged the tatooed arm of a murdered underworld figure who’d been dumped in the ocean! With his boats in Adventist missions in Fiji, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands,
great interest in ports and plantations, detailing the dock and mooring facilities and the cost of slippings. There’s evidence that what he learned resulted in some alterations to his mission boat designs. In one of his entries he noted that the native boats in Gizo in the Solomon Islands looked like Viking ships – these would have been the large, black-painted, planked canoes with dramatically upsweeping prow and stern shown on page 8. In 1936, Lars was diagnosed with osteomyelitis of the spine, a painful and debilitating infection that was incurable at the time. Lars’s illness came only two years before the advent of penicillin, which could have saved his life. He died in the Sydney Adventist Hospital at Wahroonga on 5 October 1936, having received the very best medical treatment available from his old friends, the
They were utilitarian, tough and useful like the island boats, and much-praised by those who served in them the Admiralty Islands, Papua and New Guinea, Lars became great friends with his Adventist colleagues and particularly with Captain Radley, who often visited the Halvorsen home in Ben Boyd Road, Neutral Bay. On one visit he brought along his native crew, who sang hymns for the family. When Captain Radley retired from his mission duties, the Halvorsens visited him at the Adventist headquarters on the central coast of New South Wales. In 1934, Lars and his wife Bergithe travelled to New Guinea, visiting Adventist missions to see their boats working first-hand. A great discovery for me, just after I began researching the mission boats, was an almanac containing the notes Lars made on that trip. Still writing in his native Norwegian, he took Page 12
Seventh-day Adventists. An obituary in the Adventist journal Australasian Record (19/10/1936) paid tribute to him: It is not usual to note in the columns of the Record the passing of men of other churches; but in the death of Mr Lars Halvorsen … the Advent movement in Australasia has lost not only a friend, but also one who for years has built the sturdy boats that our missionaries use in the South Seas … At the graveside Pastor A G Stewart paid tribute to the sterling Christian character of our late friend, and our appreciation of his skilled and faithful workmanship. The business continued as Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd. My grandfather would have been happy to see not only all his sons in
the business, but also his two daughters. Elnor worked until her marriage and my mother, Margit, the youngest, joined the firm as a young secretary and stayed until her own marriage four years later. Lars had established his boatbuilding dynasty. Building mission boats stopped suddenly with the beginning of World War II. Lars Halvorsen Sons’ wartime staff of 350 were busy building boats for the war effort, utilitarian, tough and useful like the island boats, and muchpraised by those who served in them. The war, however, was catastrophic for the Adventist mission boats. Some were destroyed by the Japanese – the fate of the Halvorsen-built 40-foot (12.2 m) launch Malalangi of the New Guinea Mission, which escaped one attack in 1941 but was subsequently destroyed by enemy action. Others were commandeered by the Allies, including Lephare which was taken over by US forces in the New Hebrides. One Halvorsen-built Adventist mission boat, the 41-foot (12.5 m) ketch Diari, evacuated missionaries in the face of Japanese invasion. Diari was launched in 1933, purchased with funds raised by Adventist Sabbath schools in Australia to be their first mission boat for Papua. In February 1942 Diari boarded five white missionaries in Port Moresby, which was under bombing attacks, to sail 1000 miles to Cairns. Diari continued south to the Adventists’ Pacific headquarters near Lake Macquarie, NSW, where they fitted her out as a small hospital ship capable of carrying a number of stretcher cases, and offered her to the Army. She returned to New Guinea in this capacity, commanded by Adventist captain Jack Radley. After the war, the replacements that were needed revived the mission boat business briefly. The postwar boats were larger, trawler-hulled vessels. Engines were the primary propulsion and sail was reduced SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Sea trials and tribulations
OPPOSITE: Halvorsen-built launch Malalangi loading onto cargo ship in Sydney, 1935, and moored with the Adventist mission ketch Veilomani at the New Guinea mission. Both were sunk by the Japanese in WWII. Lars and Harold Halvorsen Collection, ANMM; Seventh-day Adventist archives ABOVE: Lars and Bergithe Halvorsen in New Guinea, 1934. Reproduced courtesy Randi Svensen RIGHT: Patteson under jury-rigged steering. Carl Halvorsen third from left. Lars and Harold Halvorsen collection, ANMM
to a tiny auxiliary for steadying the ship in a rolling seaway, or perhaps providing a push in a favouring trade wind. Again the Adventists lodged valuable orders, including eight 45-footers built back-toback. Many of the vessels carried the names of boats that had been lost. But with changes to conditions in the islands, including improved transportation, and changes in the Halvorsen business itself, their last mission boat was built in 1948. As a man of faith, Lars took great pride in his mission boats. I’ve reflected on his close connection with the Adventists and admired how a man of steadfast Lutheran convictions not only dealt with people of such different religious beliefs on a business level, but also formed close personal friendships with them. I’m proud that my grandfather was this sort of man. After the publication of Wooden Boats, Iron Men, I was contacted by a lady who had visited my grandfather at his boatyard in the 1930s. Asked by the little girl that day why he was painstakingly making perfect a piece of timberwork that would ultimately be out of sight, Lars replied, ‘Because if I didn’t, I would know, God would know and now you would know.’ No wonder the Halvorsen mission boats were special! SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
While many of the mission boats were shipped to their island destinations as deck cargo, some were sailed from Sydney by mission crews. The Anglican mission boat Patteson’s eventful maiden voyage to the New Hebrides via Noumea in January 1934 was followed by the press, adding to clippings in Lars Halvorsen’s scrapbook. Lars had given his 23year-old son, Carl, permission to join the crew, but all did not go as planned. For a start the skipper hadn’t checked the compass so instead of heading north-east, the vessel headed east. Bad weather and huge seas set in, calling for a sea-anchor and oil to be poured on the water. Days later, the western sky cleared enough for a glimpse of the setting sun and the skipper announced, ‘If we steer [that way] we can’t miss Australia.’ The engine broke down so they hoisted sails and made Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, after nine days at sea.
Lord Howe Island – only to be hit by another storm close to Middleton Reef, when their rudder broke. It was subsequently found to have had a faulty casting. With the wind from the south it was possible to steer a perfect course back to Australia by adjusting the jib and mizzen. Near the coast, the crew spotted a steamer. They hoisted an upsidedown ensign, the international sign of distress, and waved furiously. Carl relates that the crew of the steamer just waved back!
Repairs were effected, the compass was swung by a new skipper, and their next attempt took them past
When they were off Port Stephens the wind moved to the north-east. Patteson drifted with the current and wind until they were abreast of Newcastle, north of Sydney, when they manoeuvred into port under engine and sail. Carl phoned his father and said, ‘We did better this time – we’re in Newcastle.’ Lars would have enjoyed the humour of Carl’s report but, nevertheless, told him he’d had enough time off and ordered him back to work. Patteson was delivered to Vanuatu on the third attempt.
(With thanks to the staff of the Seventhday Adventist South Pacific Division [Rose-lee Power, Heritage Room, Cooranbong NSW, and Les Relihan, Archives & Statistics, Wahroonga] for help with Adventist history, and to Signals editor Jeffrey Mellefont for encouraging me to pursue this field of research, and ably assisting in its interpretation.)
Randi Svensen, grandaughter of Lars Halvorsen, is the author of Wooden Boats, Iron Men – the Halvorsen Story, the history of her boatbuilding family. First published in 2004 by Halstead Press and the Australian National Maritime Museum, this popular volume is now in its third reprint. Ms Svensen is currently researching a history of tugboats in Australia. Page 13
Escape! Fremantle to Freedom
A touring exhibition from Fremantle Prison tells the story of the Irish Fenian convicts and their bold escape from Western Australia to America on the US whaler Catalpa in 1876. Fremantle Prison curator Sandra Murray relates the tale. THE EXHIBITION Escape! Fremantle to Freedom is based on the dramatic escape of six Irish Fenian prisoners from the Convict Establishment (Fremantle Prison) in Western Australia in 1876. Fenians were members of an association of Irishmen, the Fenian Brotherhood, founded in the late 1850s with the aim of
1869. With fellow members of Clan na Gael, America’s Irish Republican Brotherhood, he plotted to free the Fenians still incarcerated at Fremantle Prison. The group purchased a ship for the rescue with funds raised from supporters and disguised it as a fully operational whaler. The Catalpa departed New
While the garrison was watching the annual Perth Regatta, the six Fenian prisoners slipped quietly away from prison work parties overthrowing the British Government in Ireland. The name comes from Fianna, legendary warriors of Irish mythology. The Fenians were involved in the only two successful escapes in the history of Fremantle Prison. In 1868 a group of Fenian prisoners were transported to Fremantle on the last convict ship to Western Australia, the Hougoumont. One of the men, John Boyle O’Reilly, escaped and fled on a whaling ship to Boston in Page 14
Bedford for the Atlantic whaling grounds on 29 April 1875. The only ones on board who knew its ultimate mission were the captain, American George Smith Anthony, and a representative of the conspirators, Dennis Duggan, who was posing as the ship’s carpenter. Two Fenian agents travelled from America to initiate the Fremantle rescue operation in late 1875. John Breslin and Thomas Desmond arrived
in Albany, WA, and then took the coastal steamer Georgette to Fremantle. Breslin successfully posed as a wealthy businessman in Fremantle, so as to gain people’s confidence and establish lines of communication, while Desmond went undercover as a carriage builder in Perth. As an international visitor, Breslin was even given a full tour of the prison by its unsuspecting assistant superintendent Joseph Doonan! Breslin secretly met on several occasions with the Fenian convicts – James Wilson, Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Robert Cranston and Thomas Hassett – and local Irish conspirators to plot the getaway. The Catalpa arrived at Bunbury, 105 miles (170 kilometres) south of Fremantle, on 29 March 1876, allowing Breslin to rendezvous with Captain Anthony. They sailed to Fremantle together on the Georgette. On Easter Monday, 17 April 1876, while the garrison was watching the annaul Perth Regatta, the six Fenian prisoners slipped SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
quietly away from prison work parties. They fled in two horse-drawn buggies, racing to Rockingham 19 miles (32 kilometres) south and boarding a whaleboat while the Catalpa waited in international waters. The water police and the coastal steamer Georgette failed in their attempts to recapture the escapees. Out at sea in the gathering darkness a fierce squall struck the whaleboat and they lost contact with Catalpa, spending an uncomfortable, unscheduled night in the open boat.
fire on this ship you fire on the American flag,’ said the captain, according to John Breslin’s report written in 1876. Britain had just lost a £3 million case involving a similar situation with an American ship and Stone, not wanting to spark an international incident, felt he had no choice. He reluctantly let the Catalpa, with the felons on board, sail away to freedom. In August 1876 the Fenians arrived triumphantly in New York on board the Catalpa.
Out at sea in the gathering darkness a fierce squall struck the whaleboat and they lost contact with Catalpa Next morning the Georgette, armed with a 12-pound howitzer and bristling with soldiers, approached the Catalpa once more. Superintendent Stone of the water police called on the ship to stop, and fired a shot across its bow. The Catalpa stopped, but Captain Anthony claimed they were in international waters and dared the British to fire again. ‘That’s the American flag. I am on the high seas; my flag protects me. If you SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
This escape is an important part of both Western Australian and the wider nation’s history but is little recognised in Australia. To rectify this the exhibition has embarked on a national tour after being shown at Fremantle Prison in late 2006 with funding from the WA State Government and Visions of Australia. It is the culmination of four years’ extensive research by the prison’s curator and her staff. This is the first time the prison has curated a major touring exhibition, and an exhibition space
OPPOSITE: Fremantle Prison Gatehouse, about 1911–20. Fremantle Prison Collection ABOVE: Bark Catalpa of New Bedford, Massachusetts, E N Russell, lithograph 1876. Australian National Maritime Museum Collection
was completely upgraded to international museum standards to present it. This was certainly not on the original design plans for the prison in 1850! Fremantle Prison is one of Western Australia’s premier cultural heritage sites. It is the last convict prison built in Australia and remains the most intact. It was constructed by convict labour in the 1850s from local limestone quarried on the site. Originally called the Imperial Convict Establishment, it was known as The Convict Establishment until renamed Fremantle Prison in 1867. Its control was transferred to the Western Australian colonial government in 1886, and it operated as the state’s maximumsecurity prison until 1991. Opened in 1992 as a public heritage site, the prison was listed on the National Heritage Site list in 2005 and is being submitted for World Heritage listing. Page 15
Bunbury. They are all historic coastal ports associated with whaling and maritime exploration.
In addition to four large dormitories the prison had more than 500 cells, which measured just 1.2 x 2.1 metres with a hammock, small desk, stool and basin. Severe rules and regulations were strictly enforced by flogging or birching, and punishment or refractory cells were used for solitary confinement. A large Protestant chapel was built in front of the main cell block. There were both Protestant and Roman Catholic convicts from the
There is an increasing interest in tracing family genealogy, especially from convict origins, which this exhibition taps into with its convict themes and setting in Australia’s last convict prison. Over 160,000 convicts were transported from England, Ireland and the British colonies to Australia between 1788 and 1868. About 80,000 convicts were sent to New South Wales while Van Diemen’s Land received 69,000. The last convicts to land in eastern Australia arrived in Tasmania in 1852, yet Western Australia only started receiving convicts in 1850. It became the last penal colony in the British Empire. Between 1845 and 1847, settlers in
‘That’s the American flag. I am on the high seas; my flag protects me. If you fire on this ship you fire on the American flag’ first arrival onwards, but the Protestant conventions of British sectarianism continued in the new prison and a smaller Catholic chapel was added only in 1861. The Fenians’ arrival signalled the end of convict transportation to this country. This touring exhibition shows the national relevance of Australia’s convict and maritime heritage as common links between the states where it is being shown. Regional venues in Western Australia were included for their links to the story – Albany, Bunbury and Geraldton all had convict depots or gaols, and O’Reilly escaped from near Page 16
Western Australia desperately lobbied the British Government to send convicts. They saw this as a solution to save the ailing colony, arguing that the convicts would provide much needed cheap labour to build roads, bridges and other necessary infrastructure. Their request was successful and timely; Britain was searching for a new dumping ground for its prisoners. Some 9,720 British male convicts were sent to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868. No female convicts were transported there. Last year signified 130 years since the Catalpa escape and the exhibition
leads audiences on a narrative journey through the following themes: the origins of the Fenians in Ireland and their transportation to the Swan River Colony; life as a convict in Australia; the escape of O’Reilly from Bunbury to Boston; the rescue plan for the remaining Fenians by the American Clan na Gael; the successful escape of the Fenians and their arrival in America; the aftermath of the escape in Western Australia and Britain. Significant loans from key public and private collections in Australia, Ireland and America help to bring to life this dramatic episode. Many have not been on display before. Loan highlights include rare convict artefacts and prison correspondence from the Fremantle Prison Collection; maps, photographs and historic newspaper articles from the time; replica Western Australian convict and enrolled pensioner guard uniforms; artworks from the Australian National Maritime Museum; whaling implements; a specially commissioned gold pocket watch presented to the Catalpa’s captain after his rescue mission; Fenian material from Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin and the National Museum of Ireland. The exhibition is of international significance as the story reaches over four countries with contrasting legal systems. In Ireland the Fenians were seen as rebels and patriots, in England and Australia they were considered dangerous criminals while in America they were praised as heroes. The issues surrounding the incarceration and escape of the Fenians remain current. In 1999 the then Western Australian opposition leader, Geoff SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The Catalpa in popular song and story Sung to the tune of ‘The Boys of Kilmichael’: A noble whale ship and commander called the Catalpa they say, Came out to Western Australia and stole six bold Fenians away. Chorus: Come all you screw warders and jailers, remember the Perth Regatta Day, Take care of the rest of your Fenians or the Yankees will steal ’em away. Seven long years penal servitude, and for seven long more had to stay, For defendin’ their country old Ireland, for that they were banished away. You kept ’em in Western Australia ’til their hair had begun to turn grey, Then a Yank from the States of Americay, comes out here to steal ’em away. Now all the boats were a’racin’ and makin’ short tacks for the spot, But the Yankee tacks into Freemantle and takes the best prize of the lot. The Georgette armed with her warriors went out the brave Yank to arrest But she hoisted her star spangled banner, sayin’: ‘You’ll not be raidin’ my chest.’ Now they’ve landed all safe in Americay, and there they’ll be able to cry: ‘Hoist up the green flag and shamrock, Hurrah for old Ireland we’ll die.’ LEFT: The well-known modern Western Australian scrimshaw artist Gary Tonkin engraved these scenes from the escape on sperm whale teeth in 1998–99. They are titled The Escape of John Boyle O’Reilly and Fire on Me and You Fire on the American Flag. Private collection, photographer Andrew Cross ABOVE: John Boyle O’Reilly mugshot. Black and white photograph, courtesy Kevin Cusack, USA
Gallop, made an unsuccessful request to the English Government for a conditional pardon for John Boyle O’Reilly. A dynamic approach to exhibition interpretation ensures participatory learning opportunities for children, including a treasure chest filled with convict costumes and leg irons for dressups (adults enjoy these too!), and a giant freestanding globe with the sea voyages marked on it. A free education program is available on the prison website for upper primary and secondary students. Two innovative interactive touch screens allow visitors to look at documents that are otherwise inaccessible to the public. Many of the fascinating paper records of the story are too fragile to tour and this will be the first time the public has seen items such as the Fenian diaries from the National Library of Ireland and the shipboard newspaper Wild Goose written on board the Hougoumont, which are held by the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW. Historic newspaper articles that are on microfilm only are also reproduced here, such as the Irish World with its subversive cartoons. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
This song, ‘The Catalpa’, was performed as a street ballad soon after the dramatic events of 17 April 1876, which are so fi nely detailed in this contemporary account. Indeed, the rescue was the talk of the west coast for decades. It provides us with a fitting, metaphorical yardstick to measure the progress towards nationhood, and the enduring hold of maritime traditions across the fi rst century of settlement in Australia. The song’s words were collected by Russell Ward from V Courtney of Perth, and published in Three Street Ballads in the 1950s. John Manifold included the song in The Penguin Book of Australian Folk Song (1960), and recalled having heard the chorus being sung with different, satirical words tacked on, by the troops of the Eighteenth Brigade in World War II. Further light is thrown on the song’s history in The Big Book of Australian Folk Song, Edwards (1976). Tunes attributed to the Catalpa include: ‘Judges and Juries’, ‘The Tarpaulin Jacket’ and James Belasco Jones’ ‘Botany Bay’. The traditional Irish song ‘The Boys of Kilmichael’ closely echoes the Catalpa’s structure and sentiment, and is the setting I favour in my own singing. The song was popularised by Alex Hood on the recording The First Hundred Years (Music for Pleasure 1970). It continues to be recorded, most recently by HM Bark Endeavour replica crew member, Penny Kealy, for her album of sea songs Neptune’s Daughter (2007). Notes on the Catalpa song by John Broomhall who has compiled Australian Songs of the Sea (2007). John is a regular performer on the museum’s Endeavour replica.
Escape! Fremantle to Freedom is funded by the Government of Western Australia through the Fremantle Prison, Department of Housing and Works. The exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program providing funding assistance for touring exhibitions to take cultural material across Australia. Visit www.fremantleprison.com.au for more information. 12 Jan–25 Mar 2007 14 April–20 May 2007 1 June–22 July 2007 10 Aug–25 Nov 2007 15 Dec 2007–28 Feb 2008 March–June 2008
Western Australian Museum, Geraldton Bunbury Regional Art Galleries, WA Western Australian Museum, Albany Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania South Australian Maritime Museum, Adelaide
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The Fenian who escaped from Sydney JOHN MITCHEL is famous in Irish history as a nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist, and the author of 10 books. Yet few Australians know of his life as a convict in Van Diemen’s Land, and his daring bid for freedom in Sydney in 1854. Mitchel was born in County Derry in 1815, the son of a Nonconformist Minister. Instead of following his father into the ministry, he studied law and was politicised through his work defending Catholics. At 30 he gave up law and joined the nationalist newspaper, The Nation and, when his politics became too radical for them, published his own newspaper, United Irishmen. It was strongly critical of the British Government and called for resistance to British rule through non-payment of rents and prevention of exports. Mitchel was arrested and charged under the new Treason Felony Act, and sentenced to be transported to Bermuda for 14 years. He wrote in his journal ‘May 27, 1848. On this day, about four o’clock in the afternoon, I, John Mitchel, was kidnapped, and
Page 18
arrived off from Dublin, in chains, as a convicted “Felon”.’ After a year in Bermuda he was sent to the Cape of Good Hope. However, local resistance to accepting convicts prevented his contingent from landing and they were ordered on to Van Diemen’s Land. The British Government announced that in compensation for their hardship and detention on the prolonged voyage, all prisoners were to receive a conditional pardon – all except the radical activist John Mitchel. It was on this voyage that Mitchel wrote Jail Journal, now one of Irish nationalism’s most famous texts. The story of his life in Van Diemen’s Land, where he was joined by his wife and children, and their subsequent escape to America, via Sydney, is a little-known part of Australian history. The escape was planned and executed by the radical Irish MP, Pat Smyth, who had been commissioned by the Irish Directory in New York to help Irish convicts exiled as a result
of their patriotism. Supported by a network of sympathisers in Australia, Mitchel made his way to Sydney, where with the help of an American captain, Benjamin Franklin Pond and his ship Julia Ann, Mitchel, his family and Pat Smyth all safely left Australia. The escape involved the subterfuge of Mitchel swapping over to a British vessel, Orkney Lass, and sailing off while the authorities searched Julia Ann for him. Captain Pond then rendezvoused with Orkney Lass in Tahiti, and carried Mitchel to freedom in San Francisco. Paul Hundley ANMM Senior Curator, USA Gallery THERE WERE MANY other surprising turns in the remarkable life of John Mitchel. To learn more about him, and all those other Fenians, don’t miss our afternoon presentation Escape! Fremantle to Freedom at 1.00 pm on Saturday 11 August here at the museum when Paul Hundley joins Fremantle Prison curator Sandra Murray and Brad Manera, curator Hyde Park Barracks.
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
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Cordial welcome to new Members On a balmy autumn evening we welcomed new museum Members of all ages in our glittering Terrace function room.
Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ANMM director MaryLouise Williams and Members manager Adrian Adam with door prize winners Clare Slattery and Finn Corbett; Madilina Tresca with Vampire; actor Matt Young (who plays Captain Cook in an upcoming TV series) with Members services manager Claire Palmer; the Godwins, Alice, Anthony, Deaglan and Dylan; Gary and Natasha Knight and family; retiring ANMM chairman Mark Bethwaite (left) with Dale and Neil Bird and Carolyne Bethwaite; Simon and Marie Ringer with Mal from Mode (centre).
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SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Message to Members From Members manager Adrian Adam
The port is passed, traditional Navy style, at an exclusive dinner for Members held in the wardroom of the museum’s Daring class destroyer Vampire (in commission 1959– 1986), presided over by Rear Admiral Tony Horton and former Executive Officer Vivian Littlewood (pictured at far end of table). Photographer A Adam/ANMM
THERE ARE plenty of reasons to visit the museum this winter, with some fascinating new exhibitions due to open. Saltwater: Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country opens at the end of June for a return season. (See page 28 for exhibition dates.) This unique series of bark paintings is an extraordinary excursion into the Yolngu community’s intense spiritual and ecological connection to the land and sea of their north-east Arnhem Land country. One of the gems of the museum’s collection, they are really worth a close look.
10 June. Our eminent speakers include Professor Fred Watson, Emeritus Professor Greg Denning, Dr Nigel Erskine and Martin Terry from the National Library. This one is not to be missed. Check out more details on the Members event pages overleaf where you will find more lectures, whale watching and – back by popular demand – a Navy Mess Dinner in the wardroom of our Daring class destroyer Vampire. And more! Don’t miss our biennial food festival which this time round has a Pacific flavour. Pacific on a Plate Food Festival over the first weekend of September will celebrate the culinary and cultural diversity of countries on the Pacific Rim, offering the flavours of places as diverse as Chile and China, Malaysia and Mexico, Vladivostok and Vietnam ... plus lots more! It all takes place the weekend prior to the APEC Conference in Sydney.
Pacific on a Plate celebrates the culinary and cultural diversity of countries on the Pacific Rim The USA Gallery gets a makeover as its current attraction Clipper Ships sails away in late June, and we open Escape! Fremantle to freedom in early August. It’s billed as the greatest prison break in Australian history, and you can learn more about the exhibition in a major feature in this edition of Signals. Also opening at that time is Jellyfi sh – nature inspires art which will surprise the whole family. Jellyfish are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring creatures of the marine environment, and our exhibition looks at them through the perspective of art, science and natural history. There are plenty of Members events to keep you entertained and stimulated over winter, beginning with a one-day seminar on Cook and Endeavour on Sunday SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Don’t forget to check out the museum website, especially the exclusive Members site which has lots of information of interest to you. You need a personal log in and password – contact the Members office for help with this. If you don’t receive our monthly email newsletter, simply email us with your current email address and we will add you to our list. Finally, a fond farewell to Mark Bethwaite whose term as Chairman of the museum has expired after more than six years at the helm. Mark has been a great supporter of the Members program, and many of you will have met him at our regular soirees for new Members. We wish him and his wife Carolyn well for the future – and look forward to many return visits. Page 21
Specially for Members
Held this autumn, our first-ever outdoors cinema screening on the helicopter deck of our Daring class destroyer ex HMAS Vampire, with a screen rigged on the aft or X gun turret. Look out for more film screenings in spring. Photography this page A Adam/ANMM
Joining us on the harbour to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was Anne Atkinson, who walked across it on the day it opened in 1932. Anne was with her family, including museum Members, on the annual Ferry and Workboat Challenge race on historic ferry MV Proclaim.
How to book It’s easy to book for the Members events on the next pages … it only takes a phone call and if you have a credit card ready we can take care of payments on the spot.
Members Events Calendar June
• To reserve tickets for events call the Members Office on (02) 9298 3644 (business hours) or email members@anmm.gov.au. Bookings strictly in order of receipt.
Sun 10
Seminar: Cook and Endeavour
Sun 17
Tour: Esmeralda
• If paying by phone, have credit card details at hand.
Sat 30
Cruise: Whale watching
• If paying by mail after making a reservation, please include a completed booking form with a cheque made out to the Australian National Maritime Museum.
July Wed 4
Tour: Eryldene historic house & garden
• The booking form is on reverse of the address sheet with your Signals mailout.
Sun 8
Cruise: Whale watching
Thu 19
Special: Night of Irish music
• If payment for an event is not received seven (7) days before the function your booking may be cancelled.
Sun 22
Special: Endeavour breakfast
Booked out?
August
We always try to repeat the event in another program.
Wed 8
Tour: Malt Shovel Brewery
Sat 11
Lectures: The Fenians
Sat 11
Special: Film preview, The Catalpa Rescue
Mon 13
Special: Vampire wardroom dinner
Fri 17
Special: Dunbar shipwreck anniversary
Sun 26
Lecture: Double-bill Navy lectures
Cancellations If you can’t attend a booked event, please notify us at least five (5) days before the function for a refund. Otherwise, we regret a refund cannot be made. Events and dates are correct at the time of printing but these may vary … if so, we’ll be sure to inform you.
Parking near museum Wilson Parking offers Members discount parking at nearby Harbourside Carpark, Murray Street, Darling Harbour. To obtain a discount, you must have your ticket stamped at the museum ticket desk. Page 22
September Sun 2
Special: Cruise: Pacific on a Plate Food Festival
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Lectures and Talks Special one-day seminar Cook and Endeavour: journeys through time 10 am–4 pm Sunday 10 June 2007 at the museum
Special Film preview The Catalpa Rescue – introduced by author Tom Keneally AO 3–5.30 pm Saturday 11 August at the museum
Bark Catalpa, E N Russell lithograph 1876. ANMM collection
From Sydney Parkinson’s A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty’s ship, the Endeavour, 1773. ANMM collection
Cook’s Pacific expeditions are often likened to a space mission – over 10 years he sailed into uncharted waters from the Arctic to the Antarctic, further than any ship had previously gone. Join us for a major one-day seminar with four eminent speakers, Emeritus Professor Greg Denning of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research ANU; Professor Fred Watson, astronomer-in-charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory; Martin Terry, curator of exhibitions at the National Library of Australia and Dr Nigel Erskine, curator of exploration at the museum. Members $50, guests $60. Includes morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and reception with James Squire beer and Ensign wine. Escape! Fremantle to Freedom 1–2.30 pm Saturday 11 August at the museum In 1868, the Hougoumont, the last ship to bring convicts to Australia, sailed into Fremantle with 79 Irish Fenian political prisoners. Some were pardoned to serve their sentences in the community, while the more militant rebels served their sentences in Fremantle Prison. Seven years later, supported by the American Irish Republican Brotherhood, six of them escaped in Australia’s greatest prison break. This exciting story and the history of the Fenian movement in Australia will be explored by our speakers, Sandra Murray, curator Fremantle Prison; Brad Manera, curator Hyde Park Barracks; and Paul Hundley, senior curator USA gallery at the museum. Members $15, guests $20. Includes afternoon tea. BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Phone (02) 9298 3644 or fax (02) 9298 3660, unless otherwise indicated. All details are correct at publication but subject to change.
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
This dramatised documentary tells the story of the planning and rescue, by the American Irish Republican Brotherhood, of six Fenian convicts from Fremantle prison in 1876. The escape was an international sensation and the rebels arrived in America to wild public celebrations. The Catalpa Rescue will be introduced by the author Thomas Keneally AO. Members $15, guests $20. Followed by Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer. NOTE go to this film preview AND lecture series (previous item) for $20 Members, $25 guests. Special Navy lecture double-bill 1.30–4.30 pm Sunday 26 August at the museum Lecture 1: Dr Tom Lewis RAN OAM Sandbox Sailor Lieutenant Lewis is a serving Naval officer and the author of the best-seller A War at Home. Recently returned from a sixmonth deployment in Iraq, Lieutenant Lewis will look at the social and working conditions of members of the Australian Defence Force living in Iraq. Please note that this lecture will not entertain discussion concerning strategic policy or operational considerations relating to the Iraq war. Lecture 2: Lieutenant Desmond Woods RAN The Ministry of Defence & the Royal Navy 1966–2007: a case study in miscommunication In 1981 an announcement was made by the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, John Nott, that major cuts were to be made to the surface fleet, and that the Royal Navy was to become an anti-submarine warfare navy only. Today the RN is once again faced with major cuts which will render it incapable of projecting power outside European waters. Lieutenant Desmond Woods will explore the impact of these decisions on the Falkland’s campaign of 1982 and speculate on the likely consequences on the UK’s maritime capability. Members $20 guests $25. Includes afternoon tea, Ensign wine and James Squire beer. Page 23
Specially for Members Tours and Walks
Photographer A Adam/ANMM
Photographer unknown/www.webshots.com
Special: tour the Esmeralda 10–11.30 am Sunday 17 June at Garden Island
Special: James Squire beer lovers’ tour & tasting 5–7 pm Wednesday 8 August at the Malt Shovel Brewery
Launched in 1953, Esmeralda is a steel-hulled four-masted barquentine of the Chilean Navy. She is capable of 12 knots under engine power and since commissioning has been a training ship for the Chilean Navy, visiting more than 300 ports worldwide. The Chilean Navy has kindly offered an exclusive tour outside normal visiting hours for museum Members. Members only $10. Meet at main entry to Garden Island, Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo. Photo identification is required to enter Garden Island. Tour: Eryldene historic property 11 am–1.30 pm Wednesday 4 July at Eryldene
Discover how the museum’s beer sponsor Malt Shovel Brewery, brewers of James Squire, produce their unique range of handcrafted beers, based on the traditional methods of Australia’s first brewer, James Squire. Beer lovers will enjoy sampling a range of outstanding brews with brew-master Chuck Hahn. Book early as the brews are popular and tickets limited. Members $15 guests $20. Includes beer and food tasting. Meet at Malt Shovel Brewery, 99 Pyrmont Bridge Rd, Camperdown.
On the Water Whale watch cruise 9 am–12.30 pm Saturday 30 June off the coast of Sydney 9 am–12.30 pm Sunday 8 July off the coast of Sydney
Photographer A Adam/ANMM
Eryldene is a heritage listed house and garden located at Ku-ring-gai in Sydney. It was completed in 1914 as a family home for Eben Gowrie Waterhouse and his wife Janet. Their love of gardening and interest in the arts made Eryldene a small but lively cultural centre and the garden is regarded as the spiritual home of the camellia in Australia. Enjoy a guided tour of the house and property followed by a gourmet picnic lunch on the tennis court lawns. Members $30 guests $40. Meet outside property at 17 McIntosh Street, Gordon, a few minutes walk from Gordon station. HM Bark Endeavour guided tour & breakfast 8–10 am Sunday 22 July on the Endeavour replica Enjoy a barbecue breakfast on the north wharf followed by champagne on the quarterdeck, before embarking on a detailed guided tour of the ship. With a small group you’ll see modern areas not normally open to the public and hear what life was like sailing with Cook and his men in the 18th century. Members only. Adults $20 children $15. Includes breakfast. Meet in the museum foyer. EMAIL BULLETINS Have you subscribed to our email bulletins yet? Email your address to members@anmm.gov.au to ensure that you’ll always be advised of activities organised at short notice in reponse to special opportunities.
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It is unforgettable to see whales migrating north along the coast of Sydney. Get up-close and personal from the comfort of our luxury vessels, NTW Allen and True Blue. An expert will be on board to provide commentary and answer questions. Last year there were record sightings, so don’t miss another chance to see these magnificent creatures – and don’t forget to bring your camera! Members: adults $60, child $40, family (2 adults+2 children) $170. Guests: adults $70, child $45, family $195. Meet at Pyrmont Bay wharf next to the museum. BYO picnic; tea and coffee provided on board. Cruise may be subject to change depending on conditions off-shore. Guaranteed sightings or receive a replacement cruise free.
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Afternoon tea cruise – Pacific on a Plate 1–2.30 pm and 3–4.30 pm Sunday 2 September Treat your palette to a selection of exotic sweets, teas and coffees from around the Asia-Pacific rim on board a leisurely afternoon cruise on Sydney Harbour. Infuse your senses with brews from Chile to China, and indulge your sweet tooth with a range of desserts from Malaysia to Mexico. Arrive early and check out the cultural and culinary events at the museum’s Pacific-themed food festival before joining the cruise. Members $30, guests $40. Includes a glass of Ensign wine and afternoon tea.
Special Events Special: A night of Irish music 7–9 pm Thursday 19 July at the museum To coincide with our exhibition Currach Folk - Photographs by Bill Doyle, a five piece Celtic band, The Ceilidh Collective, will entertain with music that encompasses both traditional and contemporary. Hear about the importance of music to Irish culture and join in a song or two. Includes viewing of the exhibition and talk by Irish personality Paddy Macdonald. Members $25, guests $30. Includes a light supper, Ensign wines, cheese and James Squire beer.
Vampire wardroom, photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Vampire wardroom dinner 6–9.45 pm Monday 13 August on HMAS Vampire
On 13 August 1986 HMAS Vampire was officially decommissioned by the Royal Australian Navy after 27 years service during which she had steamed 808,026 nautical miles. Why not join us, 21 years to the day, for a navy dinner in the Vampire’s wardroom? Includes pre-dinner cocktails, traditional three-course meal, passing of the port and the loyal toast. Hosted by former CO CDRE JWL Merson RAN (Rtd). Members $110, guests $120. Strictly limited places due to the size of the wardroom. Black tie or navy uniform. BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Phone (02) 9298 3644 or fax (02) 9298 3660, unless otherwise indicated. All details are correct at publication but subject to change.
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The sailor rescued, engraving, ANMM collection
Special: 150th anniversary of the wreck of the Dunbar 6.15–8.00 pm Friday 17 August at the museum
Just before midnight on 20 August 1857 the clipper ship Dunbar was wrecked off Sydney Heads with the loss of 121 lives – only one crew member survived. Join us for an evening of commemoration beginning with a lecture and short film by Keiran Hosty from the museum’s maritime archaeology branch, followed by the gala performance of Dunbar – A Folk Opera by the New England Regional Art Museum. Members $15, guests $20. Includes reception with James Squire beer and Ensign wine.
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What’s on at the museum Special Events
WINTER SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM 1–15 July 2007
2007 Cruise Forum No. 1 Fisher folk: an industry transformed 10 am–2 pm Wednesday 13 June
Still from film Yolngu Boy director Stephen Johnson
Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country Children’s activity area Hourly sessions 10 am–4 pm daily
It’s the 50th anniversary of NAIDOC, a week that celebrates Indigenous communities, their cultures and achievements. To mark the event children can join special arts and craft workshops and listen to stories and music, all with vibrant Indigenous cultural themes. The program complements our current exhibition Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country. $7 per child or free with any ticket to see the museum’s vessels. Member families and adults FREE DURING TERM TIME Kids Deck 11 am–3 pm Sundays Ships and boats abound – covering 200 years of history. Fantastic fun and creative activities, nautical dress-ups and lots more to keep them all busy. For children 3–10 years. $7 per child or free with any ticket to see the museum’s vessels. Member families and adults FREE SPECIAL RATES For groups of 10 children or more, bookings essential. $7 per child for a fully organised program of activities that includes: All museum exhibitions All children’s activities Entry to the destroyer Vampire and the submarine Onslow FREE entry for two adults per 10 children NB $2 extra per child for the HMB Endeavour replica or the 1874 tall ship James Craig Book early to ensure your space! Phone (02) 9298 3777 fax (02) 9298 3660 email: callen@anmm.gov.au Free films in our theatrette Term time: Sundays 1.30 pm School holidays: weekdays 2 pm, weekends 11 am & 1.30 pm
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Sydney Harbour trawler St Antonio, Randi Svensen
For families and children
Cruise the former recreational and commercial fishing sites on Sydney Harbour, and view our photographic exhibition Currach Folk which portrays vanished traditions of Irish fishing communities in the Aran Isles. Change has overtaken all these fisheries. Fishing is no longer permitted in our harbour due to pollution, and trawlers now over-fish the Irish Sea. Darragh Lane from Sydney University will describe Irish lifestyles that have now disappeared, and Dr Dave Pollard, former principal research scientist with NSW Fisheries, will consider the toxic harbour environment. Plus we’ll view a documentary Aran Islands: a Journey through Changing Times. Cost $50, Concession/Members $45, includes morning tea and lunch. Museum entry FREE. Bookings (02) 9264 2781
Make your own music, have your own stage Thursday 21 June MusicFest is the Australian edition of Fête de la Musique, an international festival celebrating the summer/winter solstice. Amateur and professional musicians will be taking to Sydney’s streets and public buildings to share their music. This year, the festival coincides with Refugee Week, so the museum will feature music from around the world. NAIDOC Family Day 10 am–4 pm Sunday 15 July Celebrate Indigenous cultures during NAIDOC week with a fun-filled day for the whole family. There will be musical performances and hip-hop workshops, didgeridoo demonstrations and workshops, and a range of enjoyable art and craft activities for kids and adults. The Aboriginal training vessel Tribal Warrior will be operating short trips, and there will be time to see our new Saltwater exhibition and get upclose and personal with some baby saltwater crocodiles! SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Winter 2007 Program Pacific on a Plate Food Festival 11 am–5 pm Saturday 1–Sunday 2 September 2007
Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
The Aran Islands, J M Synge and Irish world theatre 10 am–12.30 pm Thursday 2 August
Aran islanders and currach at Inisher, 1964. Photographer Bill Doyle
Poet John Millington Synge was so inspired by the remote Aran Islands of Ireland 100 years ago that he wrote a series of classic plays capturing the nature of its peasant people – their wildness, spiritual beauty, humour, pathos and tragedy – in what he called ‘the strange simplicity’ of their lives, at one with the elements, land and sea. His plays, in particular The Playboy of the Western World, generated riots along with world fame. Irish author and speaker Claire Dunne OAM will give a talk and readings from Synge’s personal account of his Aran sojourn, with its far-reaching creative legacy. In association with our exhibition Currach Folk. Cost $35, Members $30. Bookings (02) 9264 2781 2007 Cruise Forum No. 2 Defence sites on Sydney Harbour 10 am–2 pm Thursday 9 August An illustrated talk in the ANZ theatre and a viewing of our photographic display celebrating 150 years since Fort Denison was named, will be followed by a cruise to the relevant defence sites on the harbour. Senior curator Lindsey Shaw will talk about the historical background of these sites and harbour historian John McClymont will guide our viewing of these sites aboard a heritage ferry. We disembark for a guided tour of Fort Denison and then enjoy a picnic lunch on Cockatoo Island, where our big-gun destroyer Vampire was built. On our return there’s a guided tour of Vampire and submarine Onslow. Cost $60, Concession/Members $55, includes all tours, morning tea and lunch. Museum entry FREE. Bookings (02) 9264 2781 Currach Céilí 2 pm Sunday 12 August In association with our exhibition Currach Folk, performers from the Sydney Irish Céilí Dancers will hold a céilí – the traditional Gaelic social gathering. Entitled Man of Aran, this lively piece incorporates traditional Irish music and dance exploring the lives of Aran Island fishermen and their families. The performance revolves around a replica currach, the fishing vessel unique to this area. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Our fourth biennial food festival celebrates the culinary and cultural diversity of countries on the Pacific Rim. Be tempted by stalls spotlighting the varied and exotic flavours of places as diverse as Chile and China, Malaysia and Mexico, Vietnam and Vladivostok! The weekend’s gastronomic delights will be matched by a vibrant entertainment program of live music, traditional cooking demonstrations and guided vessel tours. Celebrated food critic and journalist Joanna Savill will be your host interviewing guest chefs and providing commentary throughout the weekend. This is a cultural feast for the whole family … so grab a plate and join us on a culinary voyage where east meets west around the Pacific Rim. FREE entry. Dunbar anniversary Friday 17–Sunday 19 August It is 150 years since the clipper ship Dunbar, carrying substantial cargo and 122 passengers and crew, was wrecked off Sydney Heads. Just one man survived, making it one of Australia’s most horrific maritime disasters. A full program of events will commemorate this tragedy. Dunbar – A Folk Opera 6.15–9 pm Friday 17 August Just before midnight on 20 August 1857 the Dunbar was wrecked off Sydney Heads. Able Seaman James Johnson was the only survivor. Join us for the gala performance of Dunbar – A Folk Opera, a short verse drama presented by the New England Regional Art Museum. Cost $20, Members $15. Bookings (02) 9298 3644 Program times and venues are correct at time of going to press. To check programs before your museum visit call (02) 9298 3777.
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Winter 2007 exhibitions In our galleries
Discomedusæ by Timothy Horn 2004
Jellyfish – nature inspires art 8 August 2007–17 February 2008 North Gallery Jellyfish are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring creatures of the marine environment, found all over the world and in all the seas, even in some freshwater locations. Australia is home to many different species, including the world’s deadliest, the box jellyfish and the Irukandji. Jellyfish examines the art, science and natural history of these fascinating creatures. Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country 30 June–October Nortel Networks Gallery Gumatj Monuk by Gaymala Yunupinu 1998
This unique collection of bark paintings explains the spiritual and legal basis of the Yolngu community’s claim to land and sea rights in their north-east Arnhem Land country. The paintings represent sacred knowledge about fresh, tidal and saltwater areas, with images of mystical snakes, crocodiles, fish, turtles and birds, and ancestral beings. Currach Folk – Photographs by Bill Doyle Until 30 September South Gallery
Inismaan slipway by Bill Doyle 1964
These mid-1960s images of Gaelic fishing and farming folk off Ireland’s isolated west coast capture a lost world celebrated by Joyce, Yeats and Synge. The award-winning photographer’s studies of the Aran Islanders’ lives, landscape and their boats, reveal the dignity, humanity and hardship of lives shaped by the sea.
Fort Denison by Mike Meyer 2007
Fort Denison 4 July–11 November 2007 Tasman Light In October it’s 150 years since Fort Denison was named after Sir William Thomas Denison, then governor of NSW. It was built to protect the harbour against perceived threats including the Russian navy and American privateers. Photographs and artworks show the island from its beginnings as a prison to the present day.
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Sydney Harbour Bridge Until 24 June Tasman Light This year marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the dominant feature of Sydney Harbour that’s been a symbol of the city ever since it was built. We’re marking the occasion with an exhibition of memorabilia from the bridge’s opening on 19 March 1932, a festive landmark in Sydney’s memory. Clipper ships – greyhounds of the sea Until 24 June 2007 USA Gallery During the 1840s and 1850s, American shipbuilders developed a new breed of sailing ships that were the admiration and envy of the world. Hundreds of Yankee clippers roamed the globe carrying passengers and freight. This exhibition brings to life the experiences of the crew and passengers of these great ships. Escape! Fremantle to Freedom 9 August–25 November USA Gallery Billed as the greatest prison break in Australian history, this exhibition from Fremantle Prison, WA, tells the story of the daring, dangerous escape by a group of Irish Fenian prisoners from the prison in 1876.
On the water Replica of James Cook’s Endeavour Open at museum wharves 10 am–4 pm Visit the magnificent Australian-built replica of the vessel on which James Cook made his fi rst circumnavigation (1768–71), charting Australia’s east coast for the fi rst time and paving the way for British settlement. Hailed as one of the world’s best, the globe-girdling replica has been managed by the museum since 2005. Members FREE. Adults $15, child/concession $8, family $30. Other ticket combinations available. Enquiries (02) 9298 3777 Barque James Craig (1874) Daily Wharf 7 (except when sailing) Sydney Heritage Fleet’s magnificent iron-hulled ship is the result of an award-winning 30-year restoration. Tour the ship with various museum ticket packages (special discount price for Members). The ship sails alternate Saturdays and Sundays – check www.sydneyheritagefleet.com.au for details.
ANMM travelling exhibitions The River – Life on the Murray-Darling 23 June–2 September Peppin Heritage Centre, Deniliquin NSW Australian Fishes – Illustrations by Walter Stackpool 31 May–1 July Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree NSW Patriotism Persuasion Propaganda – American War Posters 1 May–22 July Redcliffe Museum, QLD Antarctic Views by Hurley and Ponting 23 June–26 August Parkes Shire Library, NSW SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
For schools Over 30 programs for students K–12, across a range of syllabus areas. Options include extension workshops, hands-on sessions, theatre, tours with museum teacherguides and harbour cruises. Programs link to both core museum and special temporary exhibitions. Bookings essential: telephone (02) 9298 3655 fax (02) 9298 3660 email callen@anmm.gov.au or visit our website: www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=29
Transport Years K–2 HSIE, Science Students tour the museum, identifying various forms of transport connected with water. They see sailing ships, rowboats, ferries, tugs, a Navy destroyer, water traffic and even a helicopter! A transport cruise is also available, where students board a heritage ferry and look at industrial, commercial and passenger transport systems on the harbour. $6 per student (cruise $7 extra per student) Shipwrecks, corrosion & conservation Year 12 – HSC Chemistry
What is history? Years 7–8 History This workshop relates to the Stage 4 Introducing History topic with particular reference to the Inquiry Questions. Students examine objects from three ships, looking at conservation, how curators investigate the past and ways in which museums represent history. $10 per student
This program relates to the NSW Stage 6 Chemistry syllabus Shipwrecks, Corrosion & Conservation option. The program includes a talk on metals conservation, an experiment based workshop and a tour of related shipwreck material in the museum’s galleries. Students may also visit our Navy destroyer Vampire and submarine Onslow and view the tall ship James Craig from the wharf. $20 per student (minimum numbers apply)
Navigators Years 3–6 HSIE
This program investigates early contact with the Australian continent. Students encounter non-European traders, traditional navigation techniques and early European explorers. Items on display include artefacts from ships such as Endeavour and Batavia, and material from Dutch, English, French, Torres Strait Islander and Makassan explorers. Ideal to combine with a visit to HMB Endeavour replica. $8 per student Endeavour only. $12 per student Navigators + Endeavour package Pyrmont walk Years 9–12 History & Geography Explore this inner-city suburb from the perspective of changing demographics, construction, planning and development. Led by a teacher-guide, students walk the streets of Pyrmont and examine changes. The program is suitable as a site study for History and Geography. A harbour cruise examining change and development along the waterfront is also available. $12 per student. Cruise extra, call (02) 9298 3655 for details
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Photographer J Carter/ANMM
Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Refugee Week 18–22 June Primary and Secondary HSIE
Many refugees who have made Australia their home arrived as children. An exploration of their stories forms the focus of an innovative co-program between the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Australian National Maritime Museum. At the SJM the program will focus on two exhibits – Butterflies of Hope and Long Journey to Freedom. At the ANMM the program will focus on the museum’s restored Vietnamese refugee vessel Tu Do (Freedom) and the Passengers exhibition. At each site, the students will view the exhibits and also hear from a ‘living historian’ who will reflect on their experiences. $12 per student. Bookings through Sydney Jewish Museum on (02) 9360 7999.
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Overseas …
Combine a wooden boat show, architecture, history, World Heritage wilderness scenery, comfortable accommodation, good food and cheerful company – and that was our Members tour of Tasmania. Tour leader Dr Nigel Erskine, ANMM curator of exploration, elucidates. WALK DOWN ANY street in Hobart and you will quickly find yourself immersed in the architecture of Australia’s colonial past. From lavishlydecorated stone mansions to humble timber cottages, Hobart retains an extraordinary concentration of heritage buildings – testimony to Tasmania’s
celebrations of maritime heritage – and you begin to understand why the Members tour of Tasmania, last February, quickly booked out! Tasmania is hard to beat for history with a maritime flavour. Archaeological evidence suggests that Aborigines arrived in Tasmania about 25,000 years
From lavishly-decorated stone mansions to humble timber cottages, Hobart retains an extraordinary concentration of heritage buildings significant role in the European settlement of Australia. And then there is the natural setting. Contoured to the foothills of Mount Wellington, and with spectacular views over the Derwent estuary, Hobart is certainly a beautiful city. Add to this the 2007 Australian Wooden Boat Festival – one of the nation’s largest and most popular Page 30
ago, and became isolated from mainland Australia when Bass Strait was flooded some 14,000 years later. The fi rst European knowledge of the island dates to Abel Tasman’s 1642 voyage, during which he charted part of the coast and named the new discovery Van Diemen’s Land – the name that the island retained until 1856. The French navigator SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
& back in time
Marc-Joseph Marion Du Fresne charted more of the east coast in 1772. A year later, during James Cook’s second voyage, Tobias Furneaux made further discoveries and set a precedent when he watered his ship Adventure at the place thereafter called Adventure Bay (Bruny Island). His example was followed by Cook (1777) and William Bligh (1788, 1792) and by Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni D’Entrecasteaux (1792–3) during his detailed surveys of southern Tasmania. The modern map is scattered with several of their names. It was not until the 1797–98 voyages of George Bass and Matthew Flinders, however, that Tasmania was found to be
Cove. A year later the settlement was reinforced by the arrival of Lt-Governor David Collins, and a large party of settlers from the failed settlement at Sorrento on the eastern peninsula of Port Phillip Bay. Collins deplored Bowen’s choice of site and ordered that the settlement be moved across the river, where it came to be called Hobart Town. In the same year the Tamar River was settled and Launceston was founded in 1806. The early European settlement of Tasmania is synonymous with convict transportation. Of more than 160,000 convicts transported to Australia, some 65,000 were sent to Tasmania where they built much of the infrastructure of the island. The island’s
Our tour boat braved the narrow Hells Gate to provide us with a spectacular sunset view of Cape Sorrel lighthouse an island. Bass Strait represented a new gateway to the colony of New South Wales and plans were soon afoot to establish settlements at strategic points close to the new sea route. In 1803, Governor King sent a small group of settlers under Lieutenant Bowen to the Derwent, where they established a settlement on the eastern shore at Risdon SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
economy also benefited greatly from Britain’s financial support of the penal bureaucracy. Whaling, wheat, wool and timber provided further significant revenue. In the 1820s, a surge of free settlers brought fresh capital, and new towns and farms developed in the interior of the island along the main route linking Hobart and Launceston. By 1850 the
LEFT TO RIGHT: Members on tour at Cradle Mountain; Dove Lake in the background, tour leader Nigel Erskine at front left. All other photographs by Nigel Erskine/ANMM
The waterfront at Strahan on Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania’s windswept west coast. Back to the age of steam, boarding the West Coast Wilderness Railway. Seen from the bus en route to Queenstown, the Mount Lyell copper mine is a graphic reminder of the tension between environment and industry – a recurring theme in Tasmania.
island’s future looked prosperous, but slumped dramatically as the impact of the Victorian gold rush reached Tasmania. Within a short time, large numbers of settlers had crossed Bass Strait and the Tasmanian economy had stalled. In the course of the following century, Tasmania developed its own mineral industry as gold, copper, tin and zinc were discovered in the north and west of the island. However, economic growth continued to lag behind that of the mainland states and by the 1970s the population of Tasmania was just over 400,000. Ironically, the slow pace of change in Tasmania has helped Page 31
preserve much of the island’s superb natural environment and colonial infrastructure, which now supports a flourishing tourist industry. The first two days of our own tour were focused on the 2007 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. A common link among the group was an interest in maritime heritage and boats, and within a short time of arriving at the festival they had disappeared into the crowds thronging the waterfront. As well as the tall ships Endeavour, Windeward Bound, Enterprize, Lady Nelson, One and All
Sullivans Cove. Surrounded by water, colonial Battery Point was a busy community of shipwrights, merchants and ship-owners and although now fashionably gentrified, the area retains a strong maritime character. We were also privileged to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Overlooking Sullivans Cove, the museum building incorporates part of the original commissariat store, through which we threaded our way to reach the roof for a superb view of the activities taking place in Constitution Dock.
Of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia, some 65,000 were sent to Tasmania where they built much of the infrastructure of the island and Duyfken, the festival boasted over 500 entries. From tugs and fishing vessels, lifeboats, yachts, rowing boats and kayaks to model boats, the festival had something of interest for everyone. Among the highlights were a tour by skipper Gary Wilson of Duyfken (a replica of the Dutch ship that made the first known Australian landfall, in 1606) and a walking tour of nearby Battery Point. The suburb was named for the battery of guns mounted on the point at the entrance to Page 32
Early the following day, we left Hobart and travelled north to Launceston to cruise the river Tamar and visit Low Head pilot station. Later that afternoon we arrived at the charming town of Longley, where our accommodation was the historic Archer family estates of Woolmers and Brickendon. Woolmers was settled in 1817 by Thomas Archer, who wrote such glowing reports of the area that his brothers Joseph, William and Edward
LEFT: Members Lena and Tony Cansdale admire the scenery at Cradle Mountain National Park. ABOVE: Neil and Therese Mitchell enjoy Nelson Falls.
soon joined him. William built Brickendon and Joseph and Edward also established large estates. The last Archer to live at Woolmers died in 1994 and the estate became a museum. Woolmers and Brickendon provide many fascinating insights into the life of an influential Tasmanian dynasty and both are listed on the Register of the National Estate. In keeping with the nature of the estates, accommodation is in old, refurbished worker’s cottages scattered throughout the grounds. While in the north, we toured the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and the Australian Maritime College, before continuing on our way to the west coast. Our goal was the township of Strahan at Macquarie Harbour, but we fi rst stopped at Cradle Mountain National Park to see one of Tasmania’s great natural landscapes. As well as the stunning sights of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, the park provides a rich habitat for wildlife including Tasmanian devils, wombats, wallabies and echidnas. The ancient SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
LEFT: Members inspect the most recent archaeological investigations at the Port Arthur site. CENTRE: Auxiliary-sail fishing boat in the lower Derwent River; in distance is French Antarctic ship Astrolabe. BOTTOM: Heritage craft on display at the 2007 Australian Wooden Boat Festival at Hobart’s Constitution Dock.
stands of King Billy pines, prized as a superior boat-building timber, were a unique attraction. Our next port of call was Strahan, on Macquarie Harbour, founded in 1880 as the shipping port for mining activities at Queenstown some 50 kilometres inland. In the early 19th century Macquarie Harbour was better known for the isolated convict site of Sarah Island, the first in a series of brutal Tasmanian establishments built as places of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. Today, Strahan is home to a thriving tourist industry and is a centre for aquaculture, with salmon raised in pens in Macquarie Harbour’s pristine waters. During our stay we visited Sarah Island and the Gordon River World Heritage wilderness area. In unusually calm conditions our tour boat also braved Hells Gate, the narrow harbour entrance whose name reflects the grim experiences of 19th-century convicts. This provided us with a spectacular sunset view of Cape Sorrel lighthouse. The next day we took the very scenic West Coast Wilderness Railway to Queenstown and toured the Mount Lyell copper mine, before finally returning to Hobart late in the evening. During the last days of our tour we took in the sights of the beautiful D’Entrecasteaux Channel and paid a visit to Port Arthur, haunted by the tragedies of its convict and more recent past. Here we were shown over the convict site by the senior archaeologist. Later that afternoon the group flew home, all agreeing that it had been a very special tour. Special thanks to staff at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority for their assistance in making the tour a success. As always our thanks go to Adrian Adam and Claire Palmer in the ANMM Members section, for all their hard work in organising yet another enjoyable tour exploring scenes and themes from our maritime heritage. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
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SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar Terror and pathos – an episode in Australian shipping and social history unrivalled in tragic sweep and Gothic representation. Kieran Hosty, curator of ship technology and maritime archaeology, writes about the wreck and its unprecedented impact on Victorian Sydney, 150 years ago this August. Warning not heard or seen – no help at hand The wide dark bosom of the angry deep With irresistible and cruel force Received them all. One only cast alive Fainting and breathless on the fatal rocks To weeping friends and strangers afterwards Thus told his melancholy tale From A narrative of the melancholy wreck of the Dunbar, James Fryer, Sydney 1857 THE 1850s WERE years of great social and economic growth in Australia, spurred on by the Australian gold rushes and corresponding increase in population, agriculture, industry and commerce. As the demand for goods and services grew, so did the demand for passenger and cargo ships. This persuaded Scottish shipowner and merchant Duncan Dunbar to order a series of hardwood clipper ships from the English shipbuilder James Laing and Sons of Sunderland, England, to cater for the new Australian trade. Credited with introducing the Americanstyle clipper ship to the Australian run, Duncan Dunbar named the various clippers after his family including Phoebe Dunbar, Dunbar Castle, Duncan Dunbar and the Dunbar.
its first visit to Port Jackson – where the Sydney Morning Herald reported ‘The Dunbar is a splendid vessel.’ On 31 May 1857 the ship departed Plymouth for its second voyage to Australia, carrying 63 passengers, 59 crew and a substantial cargo, including dyes for the colony’s first postage stamps, machinery, furniture, trade tokens (coins privately issued by traders and manufacturers as change and to promote
The impact brought down the topmasts, mounting seas stove in the lifeboats and the Dunbar heaved broadside to the swells Built in 1852, the 1,321 register ton, copper-sheathed, three-masted sailing ship Dunbar cost over £30,000. Constructed of British oak and East Indian teak and held together by iron knees, iron riders and iron and copper fastenings, the 201.9-foot (61.53 m) vessel, with a breadth of 35 feet (10.66 m) and depth of 22.7 feet (6.91 m), was designed to carry passengers and cargo quickly between England and Australia. However, the Dunbar was first requisitioned by the Royal Navy for use as a troop carrier during the Crimean War, so it was not until 1856 that it made SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
their business), cutlery, manufactured and fine goods, food and alcohol. Many of the first-class passengers were prominent Sydneysiders, local ‘currency’ that had made it in the colonies and who, after a visit ‘home’ to England, were returning to Australia. Dunbar’s master Captain Green was a veteran of eight visits to Sydney, as fi rst mate aboard the Agincourt and Waterloo, then as commander of Waterloo, and again commanding Vimeira and Dunbar. After a relatively fast voyage of 81 days Dunbar arrived off Port Jackson on the night of
OPPOSITE: Poignantly personal items such as jewellery and gold denture plates are among the material retrieved from the rocky sea-bed where Dunbar disintegrated. Photographer J Carter ANMM ABOVE: Hand-coloured engraving of Duncan Dunbar’s clipper for the Australian run. ANMM collection
Thursday 20 August 1857, with a rising gale and bad visibility. The Macquarie Light on the cliff top a mile south of South Head was seen between squalls, although the night was dark and the land was invisible. Shortly before midnight Captain Green estimated the ship’s position off the entrance to the Heads and changed course to enter, keeping the Macquarie Light on the port bow. Captain Green then ordered a blue light to be burnt to summon the Sydney Harbour pilot. According to the only survivor – a sailor on watch at the time who became the sole source of information about events on board – the urgent cry of ‘Breakers ahead!’ was heard from the second mate on the forepeak. Captain Green gave the order ‘Port your helm!’ to swing the ship to starboard while the watch braced the sails. It was already too late. Captain Green’s orders instead drove the vessel broadside Page 35
onto the 50-metre-high cliffs just south of the signal station at South Head, midway between the Macquarie Lighthouse and The Gap. The impact brought down the topmasts, mounting seas stove in the lifeboats and the Dunbar heaved broadside to the swells. Lying on its side, the ship began to break up almost immediately. The mizzen and main masts crashed over the side but the foremast remained standing. One crewman, James Johnson, found himself in the poop clinging to the mizzen chains. Unable to cross the deck, which was being swept by each successive wave,
wreckage and dead bodies. From here he climbed up out of the reach of the waves and remained on the cliff face until being rescued on 22 August by either the Icelander Antonia Wollier or the diver Joseph Palmer, depending upon sources. (After recovering from the wreck Johnson became a lighthouse keeper near Newcastle, where by a remarkable coincidence he helped to rescue the sole survivor from the 1866 wreck of the PS Cawarra.) One of the first on the scene was the small coastal steamer Grafton, whose master Charles Wiseman had prudently decided
He realised that a large vessel had been wrecked when he sailed through masses of bodies, large quantities of timber, bedding and bales he went below and made his way forward before climbing out of a cabin skylight and onto the chain plates of the surviving foremast. When the foremast finally gave way Johnson was hurled onto the cliffs where he managed to gain a finger hold. Scrambling higher, he became the sole survivor amid a sea of bodies. All 63 passengers and the remaining 58 crew perished in the disaster. When dawn came, Johnson found himself on a rocky ledge some 10 feet above the wreck, surrounded by Page 36
to stand off the coast during the heavy weather of the previous night. Now as he approached the Heads of Sydney Harbour he realised that a large vessel had been wrecked when he sailed through masses of bodies, large quantities of timber, bedding and bales floating between the Heads. By now more reports were filtering in to Sydney town from Watsons Bay and Manly about mangled bodies being washed ashore. Dawn had unveiled the enormity of the event to the community of Sydney.
Mailbags and other items washed ashore indicated that the vessel was the Dunbar. Thousands were drawn to the scene of the wreck over the ensuing days to watch the rescue of Johnson, the recovery of the bodies and the salvage of some of the cargo. For days afterwards the newspapers, journals and local guides were filled with graphic descriptions of the wreck – and of the public’s interest in the horrible ‘spectacle’. ‘The rumours as to the fact of a dreadful shipwreck having just occurred soon assumed distinct shape and certainty. At length it generally became known in Sydney that numerous dead and mutilated bodies of men, women and children were to be seen floating in the heavy surf at the Gap thrown by immense waves at a great height; and dashed pitilessly against the rugged cliffs, the returning water sweeping them from the agonised sight of the horrified spectators …’ (A narrative of the melancholy wreck of the Dunbar, James Fryer, Sydney 1857). To some this spectacle would have been one of morbid curiosity, something to record in a diary or in a letter home to relatives in Europe, but to many, many others, once the wreck had been identified as the Dunbar, it would have been the need to identify or possibly recover the body of a father or mother, sister or brother or friend, that drew SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
them to the scene of the disaster. As the narrative of James Fryer (cited in the previous paragraph) put it: ‘The scene is described by parties present to have exercised a sort of hideous fascination, that seemed to bind them to the spot … each determination to leave the fatal locality became overpowered by a desire for further knowledge, many dreading lest they should have to recognise the familiar face of a friend or relative.’ For the Dunbar was not just another ship carrying unknown immigrants starting a new life in Australia. On board were many local residents returning to the colonies after a visit
Seventeen bodies, including some mutilated by sharks, were recovered on the north shore of Sydney Harbour from the Mosman Spit around to Taylors Bay. Some were identified immediately by names on their clothing or by personal appearance but other were so badly mutilated they could not be recognised. The Sydney Morning Herald reported: ‘Mr P Cohen, of Manly Beach Hotel, saw two bodies floating and tried to recover them, but in consequence of the number of sharks, and the ferocity with which they fought for their prey, he was unable to do so.’ (22 August 1857). At Middle Harbour the majority of the wreckage of the Dunbar appeared to have
Thousands were drawn to the scene to watch the rescue of Johnson, the recovery of the bodies and the salvage of some of the cargo to the old country, including eight members of the Waller family; Mr and Mrs Peek; Mrs Egan, the wife of the Sydney MP Daniel Egan; and Mr and Mrs Cahuac, son and daughter-in-law of the former Sheriff of Sydney. Also on board were family members migrating from Europe to join family members in Australia such as the two Miss Hunts, the only sisters of Robert Hunt the First Clerk of the Sydney Branch of The Royal Mint, who was a well-known colonial scientist and photographer. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
drifted ashore, along with several bodies. ‘The shore is literally white with candles, and the rocks covered or so deep with articles of every kind – boots, panama hats and bonnets are here in abundance. Drums of figs, hams, pork, raisins, drapery, boots and pieces of timber are piled in heaps along with the keel of the Dunbar,’ said the Sydney Morning Herald on 23 August 1857. Never before, and probably never since, had a shipwreck off the coast of New South
OPPOSITE: One of many pamphlets published in Sydney shortly after the shipwreck. ANMM collection ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Gravestone of a Dunbar victim, Newtown cemetery; ballast pigs at the Dunbar wreck site; Hornby Light built at South Head the year after the disaster, marking a safer entry. Photographs NSW Heritage Office, K Hosty/ANMM
Wales had such a traumatic and long-term effect on the people of the Colony.
The aftermath The victims of Dunbar were buried at Camperdown Cemetery in O’Connell Town (now Newtown). The bodies of some unidentified victims were placed in a mass grave funded by the colonial government. Some 20,000 people lined George Street for the funeral procession that consisted of the band of the artillery companies playing Handel’s ‘Dead March from Saul’, a company of artillery, seven hearses, four mourning coaches and a long procession of carriages surrounded by a guard of honour provided by the Mounted Police Force. The last hearse contained the body of Captain Steane, a Royal Navy officer who had sailed out on the Dunbar to take up his post on the Australia Station. The coffin was wrapped in the Union Jack and accompanied by a company of sailors and officers from HMS Herald and HMS Iris. Sydney’s banks and offices closed for Page 37
The Dunbar memorial at The Gap, Watsons Bay. It’s 500 metres north of the wreck site where the anchor was raised in 1907, 50 years after the catastrophe. The plaque was unveiled in 1930. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
the funeral. One of the most detailed and accurate accounts of the wreck published was extensively promoted:
the service, church bells tolled, every ship in the harbour flew their ensigns at half mast and minute guns were fired as the seven hearses and over 100 carriages went past. Additional church services were also held throughout Sydney including the Congregational Church, Pitt Street; Wesleyan Chapel, York Street; Presbyterian Church, Palmer Street; The Free Church, Macquarie Street; The Centenary Chapel, York Street; and in The Sydney Synagogue. While the victims were being buried conjecture was rife regarding the wrecking. The great loss of life led immediately to letters to the editor
of judgement in the vessel being so close to the shore at night in such bad weather, [we] do not attach any blame to Captain Green or his officers for the loss of the Dunbar …’ (reported by James Fryer, 1857, cited above). The calamitous shipwreck not only generated much speculation about the causes but also a minor industry in memorialising the event. The wreck event formed the focus for several contemporary artists, including S F Gregory, Samuel Thomas Gill and Robert Hunt who captured the terrifying scene through notable lithographs, paintings and photographs.
Never before, and probably never since, had a shipwreck had such a traumatic and long-term effect on the people of the Colony of The Empire (28–29/08/1857) and Sydney Morning Herald (27–30/08/1857) demanding the upgrading of the lighthouses at the Heads. The issues of lighthouses and pilotage were also raised during question time in Parliament, and were the matter of recommendations by the jury at the Dunbar inquest. ‘The verdict of the jury meets with pretty general concurrence. We may observe that the attention of the authorities is now directed to the subject of improving the arrangements for lighting the entrance to the harbour ...’ (reported in Brennan, I: ‘The Dunbar – A Melancholy Wreck’, unpublished paper 1993.) The jury also stated that although ‘there may have been an error Page 38
Numerous poems, narratives and accounts were written, some published just days after the event. These publications, which sold in their thousands, included The Illustrated Narrative of the wreck of the Dunbar and Narrative of the wreck (W G Mason, published by James Fryer 29/08/1857); The wreck of the Dunbar (J R Clarke, 1857); The Dunbar letter paper (J R Clarke, 08/09/1857); Narrative of the wreck of the ill fated ship Dunbar (George Bradshaw, 25/08/1857) and the Sermon occasioned by the wreck of the ship Dunbar (Rev. Salmon, J W Waugh, 30/08/1857). All provided sketches of the scene of the wreck, the survivor’s account, passenger and crew lists and accounts of
‘BANCROFT’S EDITION – The Authentic Narrative of the loss of the Dunbar ... Printed for transmission by post, containing sixteen pages of closely printed matter and illustrations, the whole weighing only half-anounce. Price sixpence. This is the most complete narrative yet published. The public is informed that this edition is comprised into the form of a narrative; that it contains all information up to the present time, and is not a mere copy of newspaper reports; and has also a correct list of names of Passengers and Crew, as far as ascertained.’ (Sydney Morning Herald 7 September 1857). The Narrative was sold out in a few days prompting at least six other editions – no doubt helped by the illustrations of the wreck and its graphic description of the dead: ‘Corpses of men, women, and children, some of then fearfully mutilated, were dashed against the beating crags, and as rapidly borne back again by the relentless surge, while here and there heads or limbs which had been torn off by repeated concussions against the rocks, were thrown up as if in jeering mockery by the very element that had caused their destructions.’ Another popular publication was A Narrative of the Melancholy wreck of the Dunbar by James Fryer, introduced above, which like Bancroft’s Narrative provided vivid and graphic descriptions of the wreck and its aftermath: ‘… now the trunk of a female, from the waist upwards – then the legs of a male, the body of an infant, the right arm, shoulder, and head of a female, the bleached arm and extended hand, with the wash of the receding waters almost as ’twere in life, beckoning for help! ... one figure, a female, tightly clasping an infant to the breast, both locked in the firm embrace of death, was for a moment seen …’ But Fryer himself comments on the quality of reporting of the great tragedy: ‘Nothing is perhaps a more faithful reflex of the anxiety and consternation of the public mind than the vague, hurried, and contradictory manner in which our journals have SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
given the details of this melancholy shipwreck …’ Many of the narratives were sent back to relatives and friends in England, no doubt reinforcing the impression that sea travel and immigration were hazardous and serious undertakings. Yet the demand for these accounts was huge, and the advertisements for them stressed how readily they could be sent – the following one placed by Fryer himself: ‘For England – the postage by the overland mail to England for printed books is eight pence per half pound. For one postage eight copies of Fryer’s Illustrated Narrative of the Wreck of the Dunbar can be forwarded. A work possessing the greatest possible interest to home readers on receiving news of this awful catastrophe. James Fryer, 323 George Street.’ (Sydney Morning Herald 7 September 1857) Besides the pamphlets and brochures other items began to appear as part of the memorabilia industry associated with the tragedy. Salvors had acquired bits of the vessel and were manufacturing all manner of items including a set of chairs marked ‘Made from the wreck of the Dunbar’ by Andrew Lenehan of Sydney. ‘Church, House and Garden Furniture manufactured to any design from the wreck of the Dunbar in teak and oak’ were advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald, 27 June 1859. More official and in most cases longerlasting memorials were also built including the one marking the mass
government as a permanent memorial of the horrendous loss. This memorial was refurbished in 1907 at the 50th anniversary of the wreck, when an anchor was raised and installed, and again in 1930 and 1992 – indicating a long-lasting memory of the events of 1857. Two initiatives should also be considered memorials to the tragedy. One was the erection in 1858 of the red-and-white striped Hornby Lighthouse and the accompanying lighthouse-keepers’ houses on South Head, immediately adjacent the entrance to Port Jackson and Sydney Harbour, which no doubt prevented other vessels from being cast ashore against the cliffs of South Head. And the wreck site itself became a memorial in October 1991 when it was protected under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 due to it historical, archaeological and symbolic significance.
The wreck today Due to the exposed nature of the site near South Head, its shallow depth and the constant southerly swells that crash into the cliffs for most of the year, the Dunbar has been greatly reduced by the elements since August 1857 when the magnificent vessel, the pride of Duncan Dunbar’s fleet, slewed into the cliffs. Nineteenthcentury salvors, of course, tried to recover anything of value that they could reach. The archaeological remains have also been severely reduced due to the actions of salvage and recreational divers at the site since its rediscovery in the early 1950s, when scuba diving equipment became
Coins and belt buckles, pipes and pocket watches and even gold dentures settled in crevices on the rocky seashore grave in Camperdown Cemetery along with the final resting places of Captain Steine and the Waller family. A memorial tablet in St James Church, Macquarie Street, commemorates Captain James Green. The ‘Dunbar Windows’ commemorating the deaths of Mrs Green and her two children were originally located in the first St Mary’s Cathedral but are now at the St Benedict’s Monastery in Arcadia. A contemporary rock engraving was cut five days after the tragedy by C P (identity unknown) above the site of the Dunbar, possibly by one of the thousands of spectators who lined the cliffs in August 1857. A Dunbar memorial on the cliff top near The Gap was also established by the local SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
more readily available and affordable both to professional and recreational divers. Without heritage legislation in force and with a lack of understanding of conservation science and heritage protection, the Dunbar and other wrecks in Australian waters were severely damaged by divers using many means, including explosives, to obtain materials from the wreck. In good weather and fairly shallow water, scuba divers were able to pick over the Dunbar site for trinkets – the many small imperishable items such as coins and belt buckles, pipes and pocket watches and even gold dentures that spilled from smashed trunks and cabins and settled in crevices on the rocky seashore.
This was often accompanied by a misguided belief that they were preserving relics from the ravages of the sea, when in fact being brought up from the sea bed accelerated the deterioration of items that did not receive the appropriate conservation treatments. The divers’ efforts also destabilised what was already a fragile site – the protective concretions that covered parts of the wreck were removed and the site was exposed further to the actions of the waves, sand and rock. Today, the main elements of the Dunbar wreck site consist of one Admiralty and one Porters iron anchor, concreted anchor chain, pig iron ballast blocks scattered through the sandstone rock gullies, and many fragmentary remains of copper sheathing, cargo items, ships fittings and fastenings. In 1991 the Dunbar and its associated relics were declared a historic shipwreck under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act. This meant that the site was to be protected from any future unauthorised interference and subsequent damage. Two years later, in 1993, the Commonwealth Department of the Arts and Administrative Services declared an amnesty from prosecution to encourage people who had material from protected shipwrecks to come forward and declare that material. As a result of this amnesty, John Gillies, an active sports diver in the 1950s and 60s, declared a collection of over 5,000 objects from the Dunbar wreck to the New South Wales Department of Planning. In August 1994 the department granted Mr Gillies a permit to dispose of his collection at auction under the condition that the collection be registered, photographed, remain in Australia and the new owner inform the department within 30 days of purchase. Shortly afterwards, the Australian National Maritime Museum negotiated an out-of-auction settlement with Mr Gillies to prevent this important collection from falling into private hands and possible being broken up. Parts of this collection went on display in the Age of Sail exhibition at the museum. Over a period of years thousands of Dunbar artefacts have undergone conservation, registration and curatorial research, and can now provide the focus for activities at the museum that will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the wrecking of the Dunbar. Page 39
Mr Haddad’s hatta A simple item of traditional attire, through its very familiarity, provides continuity between the old world and the new. Dr Wendy Wilkins introduces the Haddad family and the hatta wa’e-gal – and the museum’s intention to create a catalogue of the memorabilia that migrants carry from old homelands to new. MEMORIES AND memorabilia, precious pieces and possessions, treasures and trinkets, tokens, talismans: a common and universal aspect of migration stories is the cherishing of some item from the homeland that captures the essence of the culture, values and traditions of home. These objects migrate to Australia along with the people themselves and are tokens of high cultural value that can endow strange new surroundings with a sense of familiarity, and assist in comprehending the migration experience. Whether the object is a family heirloom, a souvenir of the voyage out, or a special item acquired soon after arrival, it has often been kept for many years and sometimes even generations because of the story it helps to tell, the narrative of migration. Welcome Wall registrants have been asked to come forward with just such treasures and trinkets, and tell us about the memories they trigger. We want to photograph these pieces and possessions, and record the experiences and emotions they symbolise. The aim of this Welcome Wall storytelling project is to accumulate – through a catalogue of cherished personal possessions – a collective record of the experience of migration to Australia. It’s a record that we will present through modern media such as the internet, in online publica tions or catalogues to share with our wider audiences. Suad Haddad, who migrated from Jordan in 1974, was one of the first to respond to the museum’s call for contributions to its storytelling project.
British command, and which maintained its identity well after Jordan’s independence in 1946. Towfiq devoted the next 20 years to serving Jordan’s army, in communications and also nursing. He retired as a sergeant-major in 1970, and established the first bar in Zarka, in Jordan. That was a bold move in a mostly Muslim country where alcohol is frowned upon by many. On occasions opponents smashed the windows of his premises, which was a factor in the decision to come to Australia where there would be – at the report of his sons who were already here – freedom and safety. In Sydney, after working for a short time in a paint factory, Mr Haddad opened a milkbar in Granville.
Tokens of high cultural value can endow strange new surroundings with a sense of familiarity Suad Haddad put her mother’s and father’s names on the Welcome Wall in 2003. Her father Towfiq Haddad came to Australia in 1974 with his wife Tares and six of their 11 children. One child had died as an infant, and a married daughter remained in Jordan, but followed the family shortly after. The Haddads’ three eldest sons were already here, and successfully employed. Their bulletins back home went some of the way to persuading Towfiq and Tares to migrate with the rest of the family. Towfiq Haddad was born in 1922 in what was then the British mandate of Transjordan and was raised by his older sister and grandmother after his mother’s death when he was two. In his twenties he joined the famous Arab Legion which had been raised by the British Army as an elite force of Bedouin under Page 40
Suad Haddad’s most prized family possession is her father’s hatta wa’e-gal. It’s Arabic for ‘head scarf’ – the traditional head covering for Arab men that’s also known as keffiyeh. It’s a square of cloth, usually striped cotton embroidered with traditional patterns, folded and wrapped in various styles round the head. It’s kept in place by weighted coils. Hatta refers to the scarf, e-gal (or agal) to the weight. It might be red and white, black and white, or all white. Its use is as old as Arab history. Towfiq Haddad’s hatta wa’e-gal is part of the family’s history. Suad recalls that he wore it during their memorable journey (on Pan American Airlines) from Jordan to Australia. He still has the original scarf, though its fabric is now very thin indeed; he SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The museum’s tribute to migrants, The Welcome Wall, encourages people to recall and record their stories of coming to live in Australia.
has since purchased many others. Suad tells us that Towfiq has an endearing habit of covering his head with the headdress at night, particularly in cooler weather. Suad said: ‘The hatta is significant to me personally because I have grown up seeing it and at times I too wear it – like many women I wear it as a scarf. Politically it is important to me because it represents a rich Arab history. It is worn by royalty and Bedouins alike and crosses all boundaries in that regard.’
and antiquity of the landscape, especially the Roman ruins near Jaresh. The other children concur. Their clearest joint memory of the experience of migration – the fondest and funniest first impressions of Australia – are of seeing the endless expanses of tiled roofs of suburban Sydney as the family flew over the city in 1974. ‘We thought they were tents,’ his son Sammy Haddad told me. ‘We were expecting skyscrapers, but instead saw what we thought were tents.’
This particular hatta is freighted with particular significance because Towfiq wore it when he met the late King Hussein of Jordan in 1976, during the king’s visit to Sydney. Mr Hadda was at the time president of the Australian Jordanian Society. The photograph was taken at Taronga Park Zoo.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Towfiq Haddad, wearing his hatta wa’e-gal, with King Hussein of Jordan during the 1976 royal visit to Sydney.
I met Towfiq Haddad when he brought a hatta (though not that historic one) to the museum to be photographed. He is a very charming 85-year old, gently humorous, quietly spoken and
Towfiq’s beloved wife Tares passed away in 2001 and sadly Towfiq himself has suffered a stroke. We thank Suad and the family for helping us with our project and wish them well.
LEFT: Towfiq and his wife Tares before her death in 2002. ABOVE: Suad today.
The hatta wa’e-gal is worn by royalty and Bedouins alike and crosses all boundaries in that regard too modest to be formally interviewed. He seems quite proud, flattered and perhaps slightly bemused over his daughter’s interest in this ordinary though very characteristic item of attire. His achievements have been considerable: his dedication to the Arab Legion of the British Army; the courage involved in bringing a large family to a new land; his influence in the Australian Jordanian Society; the successful groundbreaking bar in Zarka and its almost-equivalent, the milkbar in Granville. In the light of the last two enterprises, when asked if he had an interest in food, Mr Haddad chuckled: ‘I like meat, a lot of meat, I love meat; and whiskey.’ He’s a man who relishes life. His favourite memories of Jordan, he says, are of the beauty SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
A number of websites describe the history and significance of the hatta wa’e-gal and its place in both the Arab world and Western society. Wikipedia is a good place to start. Dr Wendy Wilkins is a former editor at ANMM and is now corporate relations manager here.
It costs just $105 to register a name and honour your family’s arrival in this great country! We’d love to add your family’s name to the Welcome Wall, cast in bronze, and your story to the online database at www.anmm.gov.au/ww. So please don’t hesitate to call Helen Jones during business hours with any enquiries regarding the project on 02 9298 3777.
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COLLECTIONS
Rare seamanship manual A donor has given the museum an extremely rare firstedition copy of an 18th-century manual that is now considered Britain’s first practical guide to seamanship. MARIE DALE, who lives in Nowra, found the book while cleaning out bookshelves in her study. She says her husband received the volume, The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship, about 15 years ago from a friend who had bought it unknowingly in a collection of old legal books. ‘This fascinating book was too good to pack away in a box,’ said Mrs Dale. ‘I could see it was an original and in unbelievable condition for its age. I knew the best place for it was in the National Maritime Museum.’ The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship was written and published by naval writer David Steel in 1794. It was the first work in the English language designed as a compendium of the knowledge required by a seaman. The first edition was published in two parts, volumes I and II. ‘We were delighted to be offered it,’ says museum curator of maritime technology Kieran Hosty. ‘It’s a wonderful discovery. Steel’s book is justly famous for its plates illustrating the fi ner points of sail making, rigging, ship building and naval tactics. ‘Very few copies of this landmark work remain anywhere in the world. The donor has given the museum volume II, a work that on its own is extremely valuable. We have a real incentive now to find a copy of volume I … although this will be extremely difficult given the scarcity of this publication.’ The 147-page book is in good condition considering that it has obviously been heavily used – a characteristic that gives this copy much appeal, as our curator observes. ‘There are two types of maritime book – most of those in the museum’s collection are the reference type once owned by rich Page 42
gentlemen, books that would never have left a library,’ he says. ‘Then there are working books like this one. It’s water stained, the cover is quite worn and there is an intriguing piece of copper wire attached to the spine that we can imagine was used to hang the book on a shipwright’s shelf.’ The original full leather binding is intact along with many fold-out pages and two volvelles – or rotating plates. The volvelles are very unusual surviving examples. Originally they would both have been attached to the pages with linen thread, but after more than 200 years of use the thread on one of them has given way. The volvelles were designed to help the reader understand the movement of the ship. One rotates to illustrate different tacks, or courses, a ship may take depending on the direction of the wind. The other includes a miniature ship and shows how the direction of the tide, current or swell, combined with that of the wind, affects the action of the ship. Other subjects covered by the volume include how to make all the sails, the masts, ropes, anchors and blocks, how to tie knots and rig the ship, load the ship, sail it, and how to fight the ship. ‘It was aimed at those aspiring to succeed in shipping and ship building, the largest single industry at that time in Britain. This book was the bible for many midshipmen who joined the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812,’ says Mr Hosty. Steel was prompted to write and publish the The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship upon realising the paucity of British writers on naval matters, compared to a wealth of French writers at that time. This was a state of affairs that Steel attributed to the French ‘consciousness of practical superiority’. In his preface Steel writes: ‘In Great Britain the naval arts are indigenous, and flourish with a superiority, which is the result of a vast demand for their various labours. But, singular though it is, the British Nation cannot boast of having taught or considerably improved them by the efforts of her press.’ SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
OPPOSITE: David Steel’s The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship and one of its volvelles, showing the points of sail a ship could make, relative to the wind. LEFT: Museum curator Lindl Lawton with Christian Den Besten’s model of RMS Titanic. Photographs A Frolows/ANMM
Prominent art collector, dealer and supporter of Arts Project Australia, Peter Fay, bought the sculpture and included it in Home Sweet Home, an exhibition of 240 works from his personal collection that the National Gallery of Australia showed in 2004. Home Sweet Home challenged the distinctions between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ artists. Side by side, it included works by well-established artists along with others by talents – like Christian – from outside the mainstream. Supporting emerging artists who are on the fringes of the art world, or who may otherwise be entirely overlooked by it, has been a major theme of Fay’s work and interests. He has now donated Den Besten’s Titanic to the National Maritime Museum.
Matchless Titanic model An extraordinary model of the great ocean liner RMS Titanic, sculpted by Geelong artist Christian Den Besten from a variety of humble materials including matchsticks, has taken its place in the National Maritime Collection. THE SINKING of what was then the world’s largest (and reputedly safest) passenger ship on 15 April 1912, after it was ripped open in a collision with an iceberg during its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic between England and New York, is of course one of the most famous maritime tragedies. It took the lives of over 1500 passengers and crew. Christian Den Besten has portrayed the ill-fated Titanic leaving the Southampton dock guided by two tugs, with eight icebergs looming ahead. He painstakingly constructed the pieces from matchsticks, cardboard, wire mesh and pressed paper pulp. ‘The artist’s decision to create the liner from the flimsiest of materials – matchsticks – seems to comment on the robustness of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic,’ says the museum’s curator Lindl Lawton. ‘The detail is delightful – tiny cardboard lifeboats nestle against the side of the ship, while blue mesh smoke puffs from the Titanic’s four funnels.’ ‘It is a playful interpretation of one of the biggest disasters in maritime history,’ said Lindl, whose work as curator of 20thcentury immigration incorporates the era of the great passenger liners. ‘This model could be featured in an exhibition exploring the plight of the Titanic and the public’s enduring interest in its story, or it could be displayed on its own as a sculptural piece enticing visitors through the galleries.’ Christian Den Besten, who is autistic, created the sculpture in 2001 for his own exhibition on the subject of the Titanic. This exhibition, which included a number of the artist’s models of the Titanic, was facilitated by Arts Project Australia, a Melbourne organisation supporting artists with intellectual disabilities. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
‘My show Home Sweet Home was all about breaking down barriers. “Outsider” artists like Christian Den Besten have as much to give as established or “insider” artists,’ says Peter Fay. ‘Art can be fine art whether it’s been made by someone who’s gone to art school or not and often it’s works by society’s dispossessed that give me a greater deal of satisfaction. What I loved about Christian’s Titanic was its sense of fun and risk taking. What comes shiningly through is the huge degree of labour that’s gone into it and yet it retains an ‘uncooked’ nature,’ he says of the work that he donated to the museum. This is not the fi rst time that the work of Fay’s proteges has entered the collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum. In 2003 the museum acquired two fanciful, mixedmedia ship models in cardboard and bric-a-brac by sculptor and country musician from rural Victoria, Slim Barry. Two years later we commissioned a series of paintings on the theme of immigration to Australia by sea by the emerging artist Gina Sinozich, who took up painting in her retirement. It is the first time one of Den Besten’s works has been accepted into the permanent collection of a national arts institution. The 35 year old has been working at Geelong’s Art Unlimited Studio for more than 12 years, exhibits regularly, and many of his works have been acquired by private collectors. Den Besten works across a number of media including drawing, painting and short films, but his central passion remains sculpture. The Titanic is another passion. Not only did he produce a number of models of the ill-fated ship for his 2001 exhibition, but he has seen the James Cameron movie seven times and has an extensive collection of Titanic memorabilia. ‘Popular culture is often seminal to Christian’s work and boats have been a popular subject of his over many years, so the film Titanic brought together two of his favourite themes,’ says Sally Miller, Manager of Art Unlimited. ‘I am very happy that my work has gone to the National Maritime Museum and I hope that lots of people will get to see it,’ says Christian. Stories by Gaynor Stanley Page 43
CURRENTS Maritime museums meet in Malta The International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM – the world’s umbrella grouping of maritime museums and maritime heritage organisations) is holding its biennial congress in Malta over the period 8–12 October 2007. Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, Mary-Louise Williams, is both vice-president of ICMM and convenor of the program for the biennial congress. As its title Maritime Museums – Reaching New Audiences suggests, the gathering will focus on the place of maritime heritage in a rapidly changing world. The maritime museums of the world will be asking themselves questions like: • How can they reinvent themselves and keep up with the challenge of globalisation? • How can they reach out to new audiences? • How does innovative media help maritime museums to market themselves to different publics?
These discussions – and much more – will bring together museum professionals, maritime enthusiasts and others with an interest in our maritime past in the remarkable surroundings of Malta a ‘pearl in the Mediterranean’ with thousands of years of chequered maritime history. For the congress ICMM is working in partnership with Heritage Malta, the island’s national agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage, and the Naval Dockyards Society. The schedule, from Monday 7 to Thursday 11 October 2007, includes ample opportunities for cultural tourism. Sessions will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta with workshops at the Inquisitor’s Palace and the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.
• Monday October 7 – Harbour cruise and opening session plus welcome reception • Tuesday October 8 – Full day proceedings • Wednesday October 9 – Half Day proceedings plus afternoon tour • Thursday October 10 – Workshops and concluding session • Friday – Full Day optional tour to Gozo The official hotel will be the Fortina Spa Resort in Sliema www.hotelfortina.com, with 4 and 5-star rooms and special rates for bookings through Heritage Malta. For further information go to www.heritagemalta.org or send an e-mail to icmm2007@heritagemalta.org. Don’t delay – places will be limited.
• Sunday October 6 – Arrival of delegates
USA Gallery Fellowship
The USA Gallery is the result of a major gift to Australia for its 1988 Bicentenary of European settlement, recognising the close political and cultural ties between the two countries. Largely through the personal support of a previous US Ambassador to Australia, Bill Lane AO, the United States Congress under President Ronald Reagan voted $US5 million to develop and maintain a permanent gallery in Australia’s proposed national maritime museum, then in the planning stage. The gallery commemorates over 200 years of American–Australian maritime contact, co-operation and competition in the areas of exploration, commerce, migration, war, peace and sport. Since its inception the USA Gallery has been a means of furthering relations between Australia and the United States. It hosts diplomatic delegations, business networks and organisations such as the American Australian Association. The Senior Curator of the USA Gallery is active in the Council Page 44
of American Maritime Museums (CAMM) which granted the museum full membership in 2005. The USA Gallery Bicentennial Gift Fund provides ongoing fi nance for the gallery’s operational expenses, acquisitions, exhibitions and related projects. It is overseen by a Consultative Committee which is co-chaired by the serving United States Consul General in Sydney and the director of ANMM.
Mystic Seaport whale boat in the USA Gallery. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
THE MUSEUM has announced the creation of a new research fellowship, the Australian National Maritime Museum USA Gallery Fellowship. Its aim is to foster professional relationships with key American cultural institutions, and to develop synergies between the National Maritime Collection and maritime collections in the United States.
The new USA Gallery Fellowship is open to scholars and museum professionals with a proven record of high achievement. The museum invites proposals that develop greater understanding of the shared maritime heritage of Australia and the USA. The fellowship will be awarded for up to three months and provide up to A$30,000 for airfares, a stipend and assistance with accommodation costs. Announcing the fellowship, the museum’s director Mary-Louise Williams said: ‘This initiative allows us to more fully and creatively use the USA Bicentennial Gift to support the sort of innovative collaborations that are critical to our effective operation. Applications will be assessed on their potential to reflect the common development of the two nations and their maritime connections, and to develop special public programs relating to them. These might
include travelling and temporary exhibitions, education programs, lectures, seminars and publications. The fellowship will provide for the continuing evolution of the USA Gallery and will further strengthen the relationships between the ANMM and American institutions.’ Applicants should contact the office of the assistant director, collections and exhibitions, at the museum for further details about how to apply for a USA Gallery Fellowship SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Photographers A Frolows, S Andrew, B Richards/ANMM
The National Museum of Australia’s exhibition Between the Flags – 100 years of surf lifesaving was opened here in March by Sir William Deane, national ambassador for 2007 the Year of the Surf Lifesaver. The former Governor of NSW is pictured (above left) with Lady Deane and ANMM director Mary-Louise Williams. Volunteers from Surf Life Saving NSW lent a splash of colour for the opening (above) and for a family fun day in April. Activities included a mechanical surfboard (ridden below by museum staff member Liz Tomkinson) and a simulated rescue (left). Below left, Dee Why Surf Life Saving Club chief instructor Adrienne Low shows Tristan Acord, 3, of Rose Hill, how to ride a surfboard.
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
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CURRENTS
Celebrations of St Patrick’s day last March coincided with the opening of the exhibition Curragh Folk – Photographs by Bill Doyle, which capture the vanished lifestyle of Gaelic fishing and farming folk off Ireland’s isolated west coast. L to R: ANMM curator Penny Cuthbert, Irish Consul-General Patrick Scullion, and Monica Nerney, Manager Australia New Zealand Tourism Ireland. Photographer B Richards/ANMM
Cook, The Discoverer
As well as an exact facsimile of the 106-page original German typeset pages, and the 116-page translation, the handsome new edition contains a foreword by Martin Lutz, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Australia. It features a scholarly essay by the Australian National Maritime Museum’s curator of discovery, Dr Nigel Erskine, and an annotated bibliography of the works of Georg Forster. The edition is printed on Supreme Laid paper and is limited to 1050 copies. It is bound in quarter tan kangaroo with speckled papered sides. The volume was launched by Ambassador Lutz before an appreciative audience in the museum’s ANZ theatre, where our visitors also heard the director of Hordern House, Derek McDonnell, speak about The Australian Maritime Series, and curator Dr Nigel Erskine speaking about Georg Forster.
VOLUME 6 of the Australian Maritime Series, published by the museum in association with Hordern House – a specialist in rare books and manuscripts – was launched in early May. This luxury facsimile edition, Cook, The Discoverer, was first published in Berlin in 1787, in the German language as Cook, Der Entdecker. It is reappearing now for the first time since then, and contains the first ever English translation, with notes on the text. It was written by the Scottish-descended German naturalist Georg Forster, who at the Page 46
age of 18 had sailed with Cook on Resolution on his second world voyage of discovery. Georg was accompanying his father, the expedition naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. The Forsters knew Cook when the great navigator was at the height of his powers. Years later Georg Forster wrote Cook, The Discoverer as the long introduction to his German translation of the account of Cook’s third and final voyage. It was a tribute and memorial to Cook, describing him as an inspirational leader of great vision and determination.
The Australian Maritime Series makes available facsimile printings of important rare books which are either unobtainable or prohibitively expensive today – books that relate to some aspect of Australia’s unfolding history during the great era of European voyaging, discovery and colonisation. The series was first launched on 30 November 1991 during the official opening weekend of the museum, by both Federal Ministers for the Arts, David Simmons and Ros Kelly. The inaugural title was A Voyage Around The World by Mary-Anne Parker, first published in 1795. It told of this adventurous woman’s voyage on HMS Gorgon, commanded by her husband Captain John Parker, sailing out to relieve the struggling colony at Port Jackson. SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
SPONSORS Museum Sponsors Princial Sponsor ANZ Australian Customs Service State Forest of NSW
Major Sponsors Akzo Nobel Blackmores Ltd Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd Spotless Tenix Pty Ltd
Sponsors Australian Maritime Safety Authority Abloy Security Bill and Jean Lane BT Australasia Centenary of Federation Institution of Engineers Australia Louis Vuitton Speedo Australia Spotless Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics
Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Project Sponsors
Restoration of Ben Lexcen’s revolutionary 1959 18-foot skiff Taipan reached a milestone recently with the hull ready for decking. Generous donations from supporters have funded research, documentation and restoration of this important museum collection vessel by the project’s heritage shipwright, Simon Sadubin, left, and shipwright Bob Macleod.
Corporate Members of the museum Admiral Memberships Abloy Security Pty Ltd CHAMP Pty Ltd Leighton Holdings
Commodore Memberships Hapag Lloyd (Australia) P/L
Captain Memberships Adsteam Marine Art Exhibitions Australia Ltd Asiaworld Shipping Services Pty Ltd Australia Japan Cable Ltd Braemar Seascope P/L DSTO-Aeronautical & Research Laboratory HMAS Albatross Welfare Fund HMAS Harman Welfare fund HMAS Kuttabul HMAS Newcastle
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
HMAS Vampire Association HMAS Waterhen HMAS Watson Welfare Fund LOPAC Pty Limited Maritime Workers of Australia Credit Union Middle Harbour Yacht Club Naval Association of Australia Canterbury-Bankstown Sub Section Officers Mess Randwick Barracks Penrith Returned Services League Pivod Technologies Pty Ltd Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruises SME Regimental Trust Fund Submarine Association Aust Sydney Pilot Service Pty Ltd Thales Underwater Systems P/L Trace Personnel Zim Shipping Australasia
3M ABLOY Australia ANL Container Line Pty Ltd Cathay Pacific Cargo CGEA Transport Sydney Crawford Partners Architects CSIRO Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade Forrest Training Harbourside Darling Harbour Lloyd’s Register Asia Maritime Union of Australia Maxwell Optical Industries Mercantile Mutual Holdings Penrith Lakes Development Corp Philips Electronics Australia SBS Scandinavian Airlines SDV (Australia) Pty Ltd Shell Companies in Australia Sydney by Sail Visions of Australia – Commonwealth Govt Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation
Founding Patrons Alcatel Australia ANL Limited Ansett Airfreight Bovis Lend Lease BP Australia Bruce & Joy Reid Foundation Doyle’s Seafood Restaurant Howard Smith Limited James Hardie Industries PG, TG & MG Kailis National Australia Bank P&O Nedlloyd Telstra Westpac Banking Corporation Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Zim Shipping Australasia
Donors Grant Pirrie Gallery State Street Australia
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From the Director
Mary-Louise Williams
Museum chairman Mark Bethwaite (second from left) at one of his final official functions, the launch of our latest rare book facsimile in the Australian Maritime Series (see story page 46). Director Mary-Louise Williams chats to Martin Lutz, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany (right), who launched the book. At left is Derek McDonnell, a director of our co-publisher Hordern House. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
IT’S TIME to farewell our museum chairman of the last six years, Mark Bethwaite, as his tenure as head of the governing council of the Australian National Maritime Museum comes to an end in June, shortly after you receive this issue of Signals. Many of our Members reading this have had the opportunity to meet Mark in person, due to his great commitment to our programs and events. Among the many, many museum functions he’s attended, he’s been an enthusiastic participant in our regular welcome cocktail evenings for new Members – often with his wife Carolyn who through her support for the museum has also become a familiar, friendly face at our events. Mark has brought many qualities to the museum, and we have been fortunate indeed to have him as chairman. His influence and friendships in business and political circles are assets
ON A FAR more sorrowful note, we have farewelled a long-time friend and colleague, Quentin Howarth, assistant director of this museum for many years and one of its truly big, memorable characters. We were devastated by his sudden death in March, less than two years after the all-staff barbeque that we held in his honour when he retired. Quentin gave a huge amount of himself to this museum over 18 years, most of that time as head of corporate operations. He and I started working here at about the same time, in the period of this museum’s early development before it was opened to the public, so we shared the pleasure of helping guide this great project to fruition. Quentin worked on all our major infrastructure, including the completion and fitout of the main museum building and a number of temporary staff and collection facilities, before the planning and construction of the Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Centre. He was a career public servant and knew how to work with the Canberra bureaucracy – essential skills since this museum operates as an agency of the Australian Government. More than that, though, Quentin believed in the old-fashioned virtues of public service. Perhaps that’s why he took such a keen interest in our volunteer organisation, which he fostered from the museum’s opening. He’s survived by his boys Austen and Vaughan and their mother Sheridan, to all of whom we extend our sincere condolences. SOME OF YOU may have seen the piles going into Darling Harbour between the museum’s ex-RAN submarine Onslow and our Festival Pontoon, where the charter company Sydney By Sail operates. We are in the process of constructing another floating finger wharf, which will be known as the Heritage Pontoon, and we expect it to be operational quite soon. With the addition of the Endeavour replica to our fleet in 2005, berthing space at our wharves for visiting vessels has been at a premium. The new pontoon will allow more access for visiting vessels and it will provide invaluable additional berthing during regular events such our biennial Classic & Wooden Boat Festival. In the past we’ve had to install temporary pontoons for the festival, or for visiting fleets of round-the-world racing yachts that have made their Sydney stopover at the museum. As a permanent fi xture the Heritage Pontoon will enliven our site, while enabling us to get the maximum value from assets we already own – in this case, the floating pontoons themselves, which we are pleased to say are being recycled from a previous project. Heritage Pontoon is just one component of an ambitious long-term program of major capital works on our site that we have planned to maximise the use of our very high-profile harbourside location.
Mark embraced his role at the museum with a passion that’s unsurprising, given his stature as a very distinguished yachtsman that any organisation such as ours would welcome. He was, for many of his years as museum chairman, the managing director and CEO of the leading industry organisation Australian Business Limited incorporating the State Chamber of Commerce. With an engineering background, Mark was CEO of major mining and manufacturing companies and has sat on the boards of many bodies, and he’s now the treasurer of a major Australian political party. Mark embraced his role at the museum with a passion that’s unsurprising, given his stature as a very distinguished yachtsman – indeed he’s from a whole family of them. He was a member of Australian yachting teams in the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games, was a world champion in a number of classes and was 1982 Australian Yachtsman of the Year. And he remains absolutely formidable at a world level in Laser Seniors. It’s been a pleasure having Mark on board here at the museum, where he’ll be remembered for his warmth and humour on a personal level. Page 48
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
Our range of stock is always increasing … visit now! As well as these fabulous nautical gifts we’ve got hundreds of books … Something for everyone … from key rings to shipmodels and boating clothes ... Friendly service … Mail Order … Members discounts! We’re open 9.30 am to 5.00 pm seven days a week. To contact our helpful staff phone (02) 9298 3698 or fax orders to (02) 9298 3675 or email mlee@anmm.gov.au
Nautical naughts and crosses in brass-inlaid box $25 Members $22.50
Aussie-made Endeavour ship models for the Cook enthusiast 55 cm $1,200 Members $1,080
Russian Matryoshka dolls within dolls, sailor with wheel $59.95 Members $53.95
Dunoon English fine stoneware/bone china mugs, very nautical $49.95 Members $44.95
Boatswain’s call in brass-inlaid wooden box – call your crew to order. $29.95 Members $29.95
Real sailor style – Captain Cook teddy bear. $29.95 Members $26.95
Tie land – signal flags, map of discovery and Bayeux tapestry. $79.95 Members $71.95
Keep your weather eye on this thermometer/hygrometer in brass shipwheel $150 Members $135
Esquisite enamelled lighthouse pill box $69.95 Members $62.95
Queen Mary 2 official products. Keyring $20 Members $18 Badge $15 Members $13.50 Spoon $20 Members $18
Replicas of RAN ships’ badges mounted on wall plaques Vampire or Onslow $69.95 Members $62.95
Ensign Wines Cabernet Rose, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon each $19.95 Members $17.95
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007
The Museum Open daily except Christmas Day 9.30 am to 5.00 pm (January to 6.00 pm) Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW Australia Phone 02 9298 3777 Facsimile 02 9298 3780
ANMM Council Chairman Mr Mark Bethwaite
Director Ms Mary-Louise Williams
Councillors CDRE P Jones DSC AM RAN Hon Brian Gibson AM Ms Gaye Hart AM Emeritus Professor John Penrose Mrs Eda Ritchie Mr John Rothwell AO Dr Andrew Sutherland Mrs Nerolie Withnall
Signals
ISSN1033-4688
Editorial production Editor Jeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647 Assistant Editor Antonia Macarthur
Photography Staff photographer Andrew Frolows
DTP production Aad van der Stap, Vanda Graphics
Printer Printed in Australia by Pirion
Advertising enquiries Jeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647 Deadline end of January, April, July, October for issues March, June, September, December
Signals back issues The museum sells a selection of back issues of Signals. Back issues $4.00, 10 back issues $30.00. Extra copies of current issue $4.95. Call Matt Lee at The Store 02 9298 3698 Material from Signals may be reproduced only with the editor’s permission 02 9298 3647. The Australian National Maritime Museum is a Statutory Authority of the Commonwealth Government. For more information contact us at: GPO Box 5131 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
ANMM on the web www.anmm.gov.au
SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007