Story: WA Shipwreck Museum
Episode: 12
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Air Date: 20 April 2025

Trevor dives into the fascinating history of Australia’s oldest shipwrecks at the WA Shipwrecks Museum, which is internationally recognised for its contributions to maritime archaeology and shipwreck conservation.

• The WA Shipwreck Museum is located on Whadjuk Nyoongar land, the buildings themselves are historic.
• The Museum is housed inside Fremantle’s Commissariat buildings – these were among the first buildings in WA to be built using convict labour.
• The Entrance Gallery contains artefacts from Australia’s first known shipwreck, the Trial, as well as the Rapid, James Matthews and stories from the shipwrecks off the Ningaloo Coast.
• With the creation of the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976, the Western Australian Museum became the delegated authority for the management of Commonwealth historic shipwrecks and relics in WA.
• The Batavia Gallery is the centrepiece of the Shipwrecks Museum. The gallery houses the reconstructed remains of the VOC ship Batavia, excavated by archaeologists in the 1970s.
• After an extensive treatment and restoration process, the remains of the Batavia ship’s stern were rebuilt in this gallery.
• The gallery also features a skeleton of one of the people murdered on the Abrolhos Islands, a replica of the impressive portico façade – carried as cargo to be used as a grand entrance to the city of Batavia – a reconstruction of the captain’s cabin, and numerous other artefacts recovered from the wreck.
• The Museum is open daily from 9:30am – 17:00pm.

For more information, head to:
visit.museum.wa.gov.au/shipwrecks