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Nearly seventy years after the Western
Australian Museum was founded in 1871 as a natural science institution, the collection focus was greatly expanded to include archaeology, anthropology and history. In particular over the last few decades the Museum has undertaken significant expeditions to document shipwrecks and discover exploration relics of the early Dutch, French, English and Portuguese explorers. ‘Whoever considers the progress of science and of commerce, within a few centuries, must confess that mankind are much indebted to those heroes who went in quest of New Lands.’ Alexander Dalrymple, Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean, 1770: xvii, xxiv. |
