Welcome

Welcome to the Western Australian Maritime Museum

The WA Maritime Museum is built on a unique and significant site, both culturally and historically. 

 

Aboriginal people call this place ‘Mangaree’, meaning ‘gathering place’, where locals and visitors engaged in trade and cultural exchange long before Europeans arrived.

 

In January 1697 Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh explored and named the Swan River. The Swan River was first depicted in a coastal landscape during de Vlamingh’s 1696-97 Dutch explorations of the west coast.

 

In 1829 Captain Charles Fremantle raised the British flag on the promontory at Arthur Head to claim the Swan River Colony, later Western Australia, for Britain. 

 

Vast numbers of migrants have since come to Western Australia by sailing ship, steamship, naval vessel and ocean liner either in transit to other Australian ports or as immigrants intending to make Western Australia their home.