What's New

  • 23 Aug 2024

    Foundation grant to support two pioneering WA Museum projects

    The Foundation for the WA Museum’s second strategic annual grant to the WA Museum will go towards two multi-year projects. The WA Museum has allocated the grant funding to a project addressing the demand for digital access to the WA Museum collections, and to a project focused on the Museum of the Great Southern.  

    Read more

    News
    Ella Winterbottom

  • 21 Aug 2024

    Calling all WA Maritime Museum lovers, we need your vote!

    Nominations are now open for the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, and we need your support to nominate the WA Maritime Museum for the Tourist Attraction category.  

    Nominations for the business awards are by public vote only. It is only through your support that we can get nominated! Nominations are quick and easy, and close on 12noon Wednesday 11 September – please vote here.

    Read more

    News
    Flora Perrella

  • Point Walter Barge wreck site map

    21 Aug 2024

    Earliest known wreck in Swan River

    The WA Museum has confirmed that a shipwreck found in the Swan River in September 2023, is that of a barge owned by Mr Dearden, lost in 1882 whilst carrying limestone from Fremantle to Perth. 

    Read more

    News
    Robyn Ambrosius

  • A boot print on the surface of the Moon.

    15 Aug 2024

    Houston, we’ve got a dust problem. Meet the WA scientist who took on NASA’s lunar dust dilemma

    Dust can be a nuisance on Earth, but beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes a real nightmare.

    As the world was eagerly awaiting the first landing by humans on the Moon, nobody could predict what those first astronauts would encounter. It turned out that one of their biggest challenges would come in the form of the fine grey dust coating the lunar surface.

    Extremely fine and razor sharp like glass, lunar dust clings to everything it touches and is now known to clog mechanisms, interfere with instruments, cause radiators to overheat and even tear up spacesuits.

    Read more

    News
    Ella Winterbottom

  • Young girl with an insect on her hand

    9 Aug 2024

    Saving the world at the WA Museum

    Visitors to the Western Australian Museum’s seven museums will be familiar with our collections: massive meteorites in Boola Bardip; the America’s Cup-winning winged keel in the WA Maritime Museum; sub-sea technology that revealed the subjects for the Shipwrecks Museum; the fish drawings of Robert Neill in the Museum of the Great Southern; extraordinary gold specimens in the Museum of the Goldfields; rare fossil sharks in the Museum of Geraldton; and beguiling burrowing bees in Carnarvon.

    Read more

    News
    Robyn Ambrosius

  • Hooded wishbone spider

    9 Aug 2024

    National Science Week. WA Museum’s hunt for new hooded wishbone spiders - part of a national campaign.

    Spiders are not everyone’s cup-of-tea, but this National Science Week the Western Australian Museum is celebrating the identification of 24 new species of hooded wishbone spiders from WA.

    What makes these identifications even more exciting is they are from our existing Museum collection and form part of a national research project that aims to discover 100 new species of Australian wishbone spiders.

    Read more

    News
    Flora Perrella

  • Explore the Night Sky

    9 Aug 2024

    From forensic science to the science behind making fairy floss. Science After Dark at the Museum of the Goldfields this National Science Week

    Prepare to be amazed this National Science Week as the Museum of the Goldfields bands together with other exciting organisations in the Goldfields region to ignite your curiosity with Science After Dark on Thursday 15 August from 5pm – 7.30pm.

    From learning how to dust for fingerprints from a real Crime Scene Investigator, to finding out how volcanoes erupt, and the science behind making fairy floss – there’s something for every age group in Science After Dark!

    Read more

    News
    Flora Perrella

  • Black dog, Rocket

    8 Aug 2024

    New land snail species named after beloved pet dog

    A newly described species of Pilbara land snail has been discovered by WA Museum scientists and named in memory of a beloved family dog.

    The new species of land snail, Bothriembryon rocketi, was published in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy following a 5-year project – between 2014 and 2019 – to explore the marine and terrestrial biodiversity of the Pilbara.

    WA Museum’s Aquatic Zoology scientists used a comprehensive DNA data set to confirm that at least one undescribed species of Bothriembryon land snail was present in the region.  

    Read more

    News
    Robyn Ambrosius

  • A portrait of Leanne smiling at the camera.

    26 Jul 2024

    Meet our new Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisor

    We are delighted to welcome Leanne Woods as our new Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisor.

    Leanne is a proud Whadjuk and Wongi woman with connections to the Ballardong people. She brings extensive experience in education, strategy, and partnerships, along with a strong rapport with the local Aboriginal community.

    Previously, Leanne worked at Water Corporation as the Lead – Cultural Educator. In this role, she led Nyoongar Language Workshops, gave talks for staff, and co-hosted the National Reconciliation Week breakfast.

    Read more

    News
    Ella Winterbottom

  • Image of gallery showing the Australia II yacht on the right and the Parry Endeavour yacht on the left

    23 Jul 2024

    Three WA Museum sites receive 2024 Trip Advisor Traveller’s Choice Award

    The Western Australian Museum is celebrating three 2024 Trip Advisor Traveller’s Choice Awards for museums in Fremantle and Kalgoorlie. Reviews from Trip Advisor travellers have placed the Museum of the Goldfields, WA Maritime Museum and WA Shipwrecks Museum in the top ten per cent of attractions worldwide in 2024.

    WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said: “Our sincere thanks go to all the visitors and supporters who gave such positive feedback,” Mr Coles said.

    Read more

    News
    Robyn Ambrosius

  • Helicoprion fossil from Gascoyne Junction

    8 Jul 2024

    A fossil so weird it stumped scientists for decades. This is HUGE….

    Every now and again palaeontologists come across a fossil so weird it takes decades of detective work to finally understand its relationship to other organisms. The 275-million-year-old Helicoprion is one of these enigmas.

    The first glimpses of this shark-like animal came from the Gascoyne Region in Western Australia; a partial tooth whorl with 14 preserved teeth.

    Read more

    News
    Flora Perrella

  • Bernies from afar at night time with its lights on, surrounded by festoon lights

    2 Jul 2024

    Plating up Perth’s culinary history: Bernies burger plate in WA Museum’s collection

    When late-night eatery Bernies opened in 1939, it quickly became a popular Perth nightspot.
     
    Owner Bernard Hardwick began by serving ‘finger meals’, including crayfish rolls, from caravans parked along Mounts Bay Road. Later, he built a more permanent structure where the Mount Hospital now stands.
     
    US servicemen are credited with introducing the hamburger to Bernies during WWII.

    Read more

    News
    Ella Winterbottom

  • 27 Jun 2024

    Criminologist and artist brings unique exhibition to Albany

    The Museum of the Great Southern welcomes Western Australian interdisciplinary artist Tineke Van der Eeckens and her Tributaries exhibition.

    The exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday, 5 July, includes jewellery, small fine metal sculptures, and objects formed by corrosion casting, a process by which resin is injected into animal organs and other biological systems to form moulds of internal spaces.

    Read more

    News
    Robyn Ambrosius

  • A group photo at the WA Day events at the Museum of Geraldton

    17 Jun 2024

    WA Day 2024 Celebrated with flair at WA Museum

    Blue skies, big crowds, smiling faces and people from diverse places thronged together at the WA Day 2024 celebrations on the June 3 2024 at the Museum of Geraldton, Museum of the Great Southern, Museum of the Goldfields and Gwoonwardu Mia.

    WA Museum's regional team brought together regional celebrations that reflected their communities and saw over 12,000 people attend.

    Read more

    News
    Kasper Johansen

  • ‘Angels in orbit’ fashion parade, Sydney, 1969. June Dally-Watkins, organised a charity fashion parade to celebrate the Moon landing. Courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive.

    13 Jun 2024

    Museum of the Great Southern heading out of this world for new space focused exhibition

    A brand-new free exhibition that explores Australia’s role in the space race is set to touch down at the Museum of the Great Southern this Saturday 8 June 2024.

    A touring exhibition from the National Archives of Australia, Out of This World: Australia in the Space Age looks at exciting times, from the 1950s to the 1970s. Visitors will experience the nation’s enthusiastic response to space exploration, from cutting-edge scientific research to space-inspired design, television and much more.

    Read more

    News
    Kasper Johansen

X