Exmouth anniversary

Article | Updated 6 years ago

We were delighted to help celebrate the town of Exmouth’s 50 year anniversary with the 'Memory Room' project.

For three days of anniversary celebrations (15-17 September) we turned part of the new Ningaloo Centre into the ‘Memory Room’ - a space for sharing photographs and stories about the history of the town.

The Memory Room

Exterior of Memory Room shows room full of people through glass front and welcome sign and entry
WAM staff members shows woman how to listen to oral history recordings on an ipad
Two men inspect wall display of images of Exmouth's early days
Woman writes on wall display her thoughts on Exmouth
Older man sits and looks through memory book created by Exmouth residents
Woman browses online exhibition created by Exmouth school students
young child wearing headphones looks at school students work on an ipad
young man and woman look at photographs and comments on the wall left by visitors to the Memory Room
A wall display filled with people's comments about their first impressions of Exmouth, in the distance to young women look at the photographs next to the comments
A woman with a walking stick reads the comments left by Memory Room visitors
A man holds up a memorabilia he has brought to share at the Memory Room, depicting a photograph of himself in his 20s
A page of the Memory Room book created by Exmouth residents, showing newspaper clippings
A woman kneels to look more closely at photographs on display on the wall of the Memory Room
Four people huddle around the Memory Book looking at photographs and discussing
Room filled with people inspecting photographs laid out on a table in the middle of the Memory Room




It was the culmination of a year's worth of working with the community of Exmouth to gather stories and memories about their town.

This wonderful community-led project was developed in partnership with the Shire of Exmouth and involved long-term and former residents of Exmouth, as well as students from the local school.

The 'Memory Room' was a place for people to reconnect – often after many years apart – and a place where residents and visitors to Exmouth could reflect on and share their own memories of Exmouth.

This project has helped shaped the way the story of Exmouth will be shared in the New Museum.

The Young Curators

classroom group of students and teacher
The Young Curators from Exmouth District High School
Image copyright WA Museum


In June, we worked with Exmouth District High School Year 5, 6 and 7 students who became curators for a week . They curated an online exhibition, Exmouth: Our Town, using the same methods WA Museum curators use to develop the content for New Museum exhibitions.

This involved reviewing and sorting through the vast collection of photographs and memories that had been shared by the older residents of Exmouth to decide on common themes and ways of grouping together ideas. The students then chose images, wrote text, recorded interviews and created videos to explain their ideas. They then designed the layout of these elements for their online exhibition which showed the early years of the town and revealed how it has changed over the last 50 years.

The young curator’s exhibition was displayed alongside the photographs and oral histories of the early residents in the 'Memory Room' as part of the opening of the Ningaloo Centre. 

See the young curator's work here.

TV screen in the Memory Room displays the young curators online exhibition

Image copyright WA Museum