Transcript: International Museum Day - Museum of the Great Southern

Hello, I’m Malcom Traill.

I’m the public program officer for the Museum of the Great Southern in Albany.

We are in the residency building of our museum.

This is the oldest building on our site, it has been here since about 1850 and it was once the home of the resident magistrate.

Since 1975 it has been our main building for our permanent exhibition which tells the history of Albany and the Great Southern.

On our site we have also got many other buildings and highlights, we’ve got the eclipse building which houses an original light house optic, the replica of the Brig Amity, which is a replica of the ship that brought the first Europeans to this part of the world.

We’ve got the Torbay one teacher school, which is an original one teacher school, so we’ve got many different things for visitors to see and do but today to celebrate International Museum Day, we talking about some of our whaling objects.

Whaling was the first industry in Western Australia.

It actually started around 1800 when the first whaling ship arrived on these shores, and they harvested whales from all around the southern coast of Western Australia.

It became a big industry and mainly emanated from North America and Europe, whaling voyages could take up to about four years and they harvested whales all along this coastline, mainly for oil and it was in the days of the open boat whaling and sailing ships.

These items we have on display here are some of the early implements that the whalers used for bay whaling.

They are mainly knives, harpoons and lances and it was in the early days of small boat whaling and sailing ships, it was a very hazardous experience.

And these items were used for bay whaling, they were used to dissect the whales which were caught and then dragged on shore, normally into bays and flat rocked areas and they would be dissected and boiled up for their oil, and that was the main product that the whalers were after.

There were whaling voyagers throughout the 19 century, sailing ships which developed mainly from North America, as I said.

There’s many tales of lively whaling crews rampaging through Albany and some of the whalers actually even married Albany women while they were here.

These implements actually developed over the years and were replaced when whaling became more automated and factories and whaling stations were developed on shore.

When new inventions were developed and discovered, like kerosene and synthetics, whale oil was no longer needed for its original purpose, for lubricants, for candles, for lighting and so the whale oil industry really dropped out in the early 20th century.

While the whalers were here, they actually employed many local people and they actually were the first employers of the Menang, the Aboriginal people in this area.

The Menang were highly regarded as whalers.

They seemed to have a sixth sense to actually know where the whales were and they worked hard, they were well rewarded and it gave them a certain status in the community.

So through whaling traditions developed amongst the Menang people and one of the original Menang whalers a man named Nebinyan, the oldest of the whalers, his songs about whaling have actually being recorded over the years and they are still part of the Menang culture today.

Whaling as I said developed into a more modern industry, thankfully these days we don’t have whaling in Australia, but we do have a whaling industry as such.

We are still go out in small boats to look at whales, so it’s fascinating for me to discover and to I guess experience how these implements have developed into an industry today of whale watching which brings tourists to our region.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little talk, we'd love to find out where you see this video and do leave a comment on our website or on the YouTube channel where you have been watching it and if you are in our part of the world, in Albany, in Western Australia, we love to see you at the Museum Of The Great Southern.

Do enjoy International Museum Day for 2018.