10 Feb 2017The tale of the Gemma Constantiniana The Gemma Constantiniana Image copyright WA Museum Read more Article Emily Carroll
7 Feb 2017New Manager at the Museum of GeraldtonWestern Australian Museum CEO Alec Coles today announced Museum of Geraldton Senior Project Officer Leigh O’Brien is the Museum’s new Regional Manager. Ms O’Brien takes over from Catherine Belcher who has moved to a new role with the WA Museum based in Perth. “I congratulate Leigh on her appointment and I know that she will put her heart and soul into the Museum of Geraldton and the vibrant region it serves,” Mr Coles said.Read more News Sharna Craig
1 Feb 2017Celebrating colonial gold and silverAn exhibition showcasing rare 19th and 20th Century Australian silver and gold works will be on display at the Museum of the Goldfields from this weekend. Silver and gold: Unique Australian objects 1830-1910 is a travelling exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia that tells stories of personal, community and professional achievements through both ornate and functional objects.Read more News Sharna Craig
10 Jan 2017It’s a science wonderland at the Museum of Geraldton!Families can experience some fascinating principles of science and technology through a mix of interactive exhibits and hands-on experiments when the Museum of Geraldton hosts Scitech’s Science Wonderland from 17-21 January. Museum of Geraldton Regional Manager Catherine Belcher said Science Wonderland is a fantastic family program. “The younger ones will be able to play with light cubes, explore X-rays and discover how colours mix,” Ms Belcher said.Read more News Sharna Craig
16 Dec 2016New Director for Western Australian Museum Foundation The Western Australian Museum Foundation is today pleased to announce it has appointed Ms Jenny Allen as its new Director.Read more News Flora Perrella
15 Dec 2016RTRFM and the Western Australian Museum’s free live music series Harbour Sundays returns to the WA Maritime Museum in 2017After a stellar opening season that saw more than 1,500 local music lovers take in live bands, sunshine and panoramic views at the WA Maritime Museum, Harbour Sundays is back for another five weeks of free, live music in January and February 2017. Taking place on the balcony of the WA Maritime Museum at Victoria Quay in Fremantle, the second series will see five weeks of Perth’s premier musicians, running the gamut from folk, funk blues and reggae to bluegrass, Congolese dance, soul-funk and dub.Read more News Flora Perrella
9 Dec 2016Chinese New Year at the WA Museum Gong Xi Fa Cai! Western Australia is a proudly multicultural state that embraces its wide range of cultural backgrounds. For our Chinese communities, the Lunar New Year is one of their most important annual celebrations.Read more Article Emily Carroll
9 Dec 2016Trapdoor spiders disappearing from Australian landscapeRecent surveys by Australian scientists have identified an apparent significant decline in the numbers of trapdoor spiders across southern Australia Famous for their carefully camouflaged burrows – some with lids or ‘trapdoors’ from which they launch themselves to catch their prey – trapdoor spiders are remarkable animals. The females of some species are known to live in the same burrow for more than 25 years. Read more News Sharna Craig
2 Dec 2016Rough medicine on the high seasRough Medicine: Life and Death in the Age of Sail opened at the Museum of the Great Southern today. WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said the exhibition explores the fascinating history of how illness impacted upon and even shaped early sea voyages from the 17th Century until the advent of the steamship in the late 19th Century.Read more News Sharna Craig
2 Dec 2016Museum of the Goldfields' Open Day MuralAs part of the Museum of the Goldfields’ Open Day, a privately commissioned Heartwalk art piece will be unveiled. Heartwalk is a two year public art project which will showcase the creative vibrancy of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region. From 2017, both local artists and creatives from across Western Australia will be invited to paint large-scale murals across the CBD area – activating disused spaces, empty windows and blank walls. The initiative works to embrace the spirit of the community, whilst providing the opportunity for cultural expression.Read more Article Emily Carroll
1 Dec 2016International Congress on Underwater Archaeology at the WA Maritime MuseumThe Western Australian Museum is pleased to host the Sixth International Congress on Underwater Archaeology (IKUWA6) at the WA Maritime Museum this week. Museum CEO Alec Coles said IKUWA (Internationaler Kongreß für Unterwasserarchäologie) is an independent, not-for-profit international network, and IKUWA6 is organised under the patronage of UNESCO and focuses on maritime archaeology.Read more News Flora Perrella
29 Nov 2016Beneath the Waves wins screen awardAn online interactive documentary created by the Western Australian Museum and production company Periscope Pictures, together with interactive experience developers Hungry Sky, has won a 2016 SAE ATOM Award. Beneath the Waves was announced as the ‘Best Educational/Training Video or Website (Primary/Secondary)’ at an awards ceremony in Melbourne. Western Australian Museum CEO Alec Coles said the Beneath the Waves is the culmination of six years of marine biodiversity survey work in the Kimberley and more than a year of digital production design.Read more News Sharna Craig
22 Nov 2016Spiders invade Elizabeth QuayThe Western Australian Museum will be displaying, playing and talking all things spiders – alongside a 50-tonne fire breathing spider at Elizabeth Quay this week. The Museum’s spider encounter will take place inside the WA Museum’s inflatable museum for Arcadia Australia. Arcadia – a spectacle of technology, performance, lasers and community activities – will make its Australian debut in Perth from tomorrow and thousands of people are expected to attend. WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said it is a unique opportunity for people to get up close and personal with spiders.Read more News Sharna Craig
11 Nov 2016 The VOC Story East India House - the Amsterdam headquarters of the VOC, 17th century. Public Domain Read more Article Western Australian Museum
4 Nov 2016Descendants of the VOC exhibition presented by Make Smoking History, opens in GeraldtonAn exhibition featuring exquisite photos and oral histories of indigenous people from Western Australia, Indonesia and Southern Africa who claim Dutch heritage through adventurers visiting their shores, opens this Saturday at the Museum of Geraldton (previously the WA Museum – Geraldton).Read more News Sharna Craig
2 Nov 2016Exceptional Yurlmun exhibition opens in Albany An exhibition featuring historic objects made by Albany’s Menang people nearly 200 years ago opens at the Museum of the Great Southern (previously the WA Museum – Albany) today.Read more News Jane Rosevear
31 Oct 2016Dutch King and Queen unveil Hartog Dish in FremantleThe Western Australian Museum is pleased to announce that its special exhibition, Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean World, was officially opened today by Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. The exhibition is one of the Museum’s many contributions to the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the first European contact with Western Australia, when Dutchman Dirk Hartog landed at what is now Cape Inscription.Read more News Sharna Craig
31 Oct 2016The de Vlamingh DishIn February 1697 the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh arrived off Shark Bay. On Dirk Hartog Island a landing party found an old flattened pewter dish lying in the sand at the base of a tall wooden post. On the dish was inscribed a record of the first landfall on the Western Australian coast, by the Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog, in 1616. Recognising the significance of the dish, de Vlamingh took it to Batavia (modern Djakarta) and in its place left a dish of his own, nailed to a new post.Read more Article Western Australian Museum
19 Oct 2016The Story of SS Xantho: WA’s First Coastal SteamerSS Xantho The paddle steamer Xantho, one of the world’s first iron ships, was built in 1848 by Denny’s of Dumbarton in Scotland. Like most 19th century steamships, Xantho was driven by both sails and steam.Read more Article Western Australian Museum
17 Oct 2016New survey allays fears about coral reef health in the inshore KimberleyOnly six months after one of the worst summers in history for coral bleaching, a new coral reef biodiversity and health survey suggests some of Australia’s most biologically important fringing reef communities in the central Kimberley remain intact. A team of Western Australian Museum and Curtin University researchers accompanied by Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation's Uunguu Rangers have just returned from a seven-day survey of coral reefs in the Bonaparte Archipelago.Read more News Sharna Craig