4 Nov 2013Museum to toast fashion’s finestTwo exhibitions celebrating the best of creativity and innovation in Australian fashion will open to the public at the Western Australian Museum – Perth tomorrow. Aurelio Costarella: A 30 year retrospective and Frock Stars: Inside Australian Fashion Week will run concurrently, free of charge, from 2 November to 2 February and 27 January 2014, respectively.Read more News Niki Comparti
29 Oct 2013De Vlamingh plate headed to Canberra The Western Australian Museum’s famous De Vlamingh Plate will travel to the Nation’s capital next month to take part in the National Library of Australia’s Mapping our World exhibition. The 30cm pewter plate, which dates back to 1697 when Dutchman Willem de Vlamingh landed at Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay, is one of Australia's oldest and most treasured historical artefacts left behind by our early explorers.Read more News Niki Comparti
18 Oct 2013Repaying a Debt of HonourThe incredible story of 270 Australians who defied all odds to hold down 10,000 Japanese troops during a critical point of World War II will be exhibited at the Western Australian Museum – Kalgoorlie-Boulder from October 26. Debt of Honour: Australia’s First Commandos and East Timor recounts little known details of one of Australia’s most defining Second World War campaigns and the enduring relationship between the Australian troops and the people of East Timor who risked their lives to help them.Read more News Niki Comparti
14 Oct 2013Making Science POP!Eight of Western Australia’s brightest innovative minds have been captured in a series of eye-popping artworks to go on display at the WA Museum – Geraldton from October 25. The SCI-POP portraits by Perth artist Miles Noel depict past and present Western Australians responsible for great scientific innovation and discovery such as engineer C Y O'Connor, early settler and botanist Georgiana Molloy, and geologist Phillip Playford.Read more News Niki Comparti
9 Oct 2013Geraldton's new gecko revealed!Scientists from the Western Australian Museum have discovered a rare new species of gecko in the State’s Mid-West and will reveal it to the public for the first time at the WA Museum – Geraldton on Tuesday, October 22. WA Museum reptile curator Dr Paul Doughty said the Cloudy Stone Gecko (Diplodactylus nebulosus) is a new species of gecko lizard endemic to the Geraldton region. “The species only occurs from Mt Lesueur in the south, in the hills to the east of Geraldton and up to the Hutt River,” Dr Doughty said.Read more News Niki Comparti
25 Sep 2013Celebrating 30 years of Australia II – see the famous America’s Cup-winning yachtRelive the day the Royal Perth Yacht Club sailed to victory in the America's Cup with gold coin entry to the country’s most complete Australia II collection this Thursday 26 September to Saturday 28 September at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle.Read more News Niki Comparti
20 Sep 2013Museum fundraiser to support Thai hill tribeThe Western Australian Museum - Albany will host a public fundraiser for Northern Thailand’s little-known Lahu hill tribe on Friday 27 September from 5.30pm. WA Museum regional manager Rachael Wilsher-Saa said the ‘Insight Lahu’ event aims to raise the profile of the Lahu and other hill tribe people and the contemporary issues faced by their people and traditional culture. “Originating from Tibet, the Lahu people moved to the hill regions of Thailand as refugees many years ago,” Ms Wilsher-Saa said. Read more News Niki Comparti
2 Sep 2013Award-winning Abrolhos exhibition arrives in FremantleThe award-winning exhibition capturing a decade of social and environmental change within the small fishing communities of the Abrolhos Islands will go on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, from September 7. WA Museum executive director Dr Ian MacLeod said the museum is thrilled to host Seeing Change: A photographic story from Abrolhos fishers, named Best Temporary Exhibition under $20,000 at the Museums and Galleries National Awards (MAGNAs) in May.Read more News Niki Comparti
27 Aug 2013Public to see more displays in new museum State Government commits $6.5million in 2013-14 for new museum project Museum to get advanced facilities to care for millions of exhibits Welshpool storage facility essential component of new museum project Read more News Niki Comparti
9 Aug 2013DNA confirms elusive Night Parrot found Work at the Western Australian Museum’s recently acquired DNA laboratory has proved conclusively the Night Parrot – often referred to as the Holy Grail of ornithology – is not extinct. Queensland bird enthusiast John Young, who has been searching for the Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) for nearly 15 years, sent five feathers from a roost site he found within the Lake Eyre Basin to the Museum’s Molecular Systematics Unit for testing, convinced the birds he had been watching were indeed the elusive parrot.Read more News Niki Comparti
7 Aug 2013Palaeontological detective work unravels evolution of megatooth sharksNew discoveries of fossil material from the North West of Western Australia, France, USA and Sweden have revolutionised the early history of megatooth sharks. Skeletal remains and teeth between 95-80 million years old, described this week in the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, indicate the megatooth group - which ruled the oceans for 60 million years until the extinction of Otodus megalodon, the mother of all beasts, two million years ago - was far more diverse than previously thought.Read more News Niki Comparti
5 Aug 2013High fashion heats up at WA Museum!- Museum set to host stunning season of fashion - Two exhibitions salute renowned WA designer and Australian Fashion Week - Your backstage pass to the exclusive world of high fashion - free The Western Australian Museum is set to host a season of fashion with two exhibitions saluting the best that Australian fashion has to offer. Aurelio Costarella: A 30 year retrospective and Frock Stars: Inside Australian Fashion Week will run concurrently from November 2 through until February 2014.Read more News Niki Comparti
1 Aug 2013Geraldton’s last World War II CommandoWith the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, the Second World War suddenly struck Australian shores. On the same night, Japanese troops landed in East Timor, and for the 270 Australian soldiers of the 2/2nd Independent Company a remarkable ten-month guerrilla campaign began. Although vastly outnumbered, the 2/2nd commandos held down 10,000 crack Japanese troops. Corporal Tom Foster WX13202 from Geraldton was one of those men.Read more News Niki Comparti
19 Jul 2013Unseen Aboriginal artwork headed to AlbanyPreviously unseen artwork of one of Australia’s most respected Aboriginal artists, Jimmy Pike, will be on display at the Western Australian Museum – Albany from July 24. Jimmy Pike’s Artlines: You call it desert, we used to live there is a selection of vibrant felt-tip pen drawings depicting the spirit beings, flowers, stars and earthscapes of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia.Read more News Niki Comparti
3 Jul 2013WA spider scientist wins international award The Western Australian Museum’s Head of Terrestrial Zoology, Dr Mark Harvey, has been recognised for his outstanding service to the international arachnological community with the prestigious Pierre Bonnet Award, presented at the International Society of Arachnology’s (ISA) general meeting in Taiwan last week.Read more News Niki Comparti
1 Jul 2013Shipwreck month sets sailThis month, the Western Australian Museum is celebrating the impressive work of its Maritime Archaeology department during the Month of Shipwrecks. At 9:30am every weekday throughout July, a new video, map, mini-site, photo gallery, interview or database will be available exclusively via the Western Australian Museum website.Read more News Niki Comparti
27 Jun 2013Enduring Debt of Honour exploredThe incredible story of 270 Australian commandos who defied all odds to hold down more than 10,000 Japanese troops in East Timor during a critical point of World War II will be told at the Western Australian Museum – Geraldton from July 5. Debt of Honour: Australia’s First Commandos and East Timor recounts the little-known story of one of Australia’s most defining campaigns of the Second World War.Read more News Niki Comparti
21 Jun 2013800 schools to get new WA Frog Watch teaching kit A brand new educational resource that teaches WA children about WA frogs and their precious ecosystems – to be provided free to more than 800 WA schools – was launched at the Western Australian Museum today. The Frog Watch Schools Kit is a teacher’s resource containing four big, colourful books and a poster, aimed at encouraging students to become ambassadors for frogs, biodiversity and the environment. Looking at frog species found in the South West of WA, including Perth, it is the latest initiative from the Frog Watch program developed jointly by the WA Museum and Alcoa.Read more News Niki Comparti
17 Jun 2013Western Australian Museum – Kalgoorlie-Boulder takes out top prizeOn Saturday 15 June, the Western Australian Museum – Kalgoorlie-Boulder took out the Australia’s Gold Outback Tourism Award at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Awards. The Museum is extremely proud to be recognised in this category, and will happily welcome anyone to our Museum in Kalgoorlie to see our award-winning exhibitions and displays.Read more News Western Australian Museum
11 Jun 2013Albany to welcome award-winning Abrolhos exhibition An award-winning exhibition capturing a decade of social and environmental change within the small fishing community of the Abrolhos Islands will go on display at the Western Australian Museum – Albany from June 26. WA Museum – Albany regional manager Rachael Wilsher-Saa said the Museum is thrilled to host the Seeing Change: A photographic story from Abrolhos fishers exhibition, named the Best Temporary Exhibition under $20,000 at the Museums and Galleries National Awards (MAGNAs) in May.Read more News Niki Comparti