Annual Report-2000-2001 - Western Australian Museum - The ...

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of Excellence. Although funding for the centre has
now expired, an active research program is continuing,
with a number of partnership initiatives.
Maritime Archaeology staff continued research into
techniques for replicating Batavia shipwreck ‘survivor’
skulls and making a wax model. Stephen Knott, of
QEII PathCentre, visited Madame Tussaud’s
laboratories in London in August 2000 to observe
wax models manufacture and gain information about
the materials and techniques used.
Jeremy Green participated in the 2000 Tektash
(Turkey) expedition for six weeks, assisting with the
underwater surveying photogrammetric recording
of the site using Photomodeller. The site is a 4th
century BC shipwreck lying in 40 metres of water.
The production of a series of documentary films,
entitled ‘The Shipwreck Detectives’, by Prospero
Productions is facilitating ongoing field research on
several projects. The first is the grave-site of the Batavia
shipwreck ‘survivors’, partially excavated in 1999.
Survey work was carried out this year at Long Island
on the Abrolhos to locate the mutineers’ execution
site, and ground-penetrating radar was used to
attempt to locate other graves on Beacon Island.
The second project is an investigation of the
Deepwater Graveyard off Rottnest. The area was
initially searched using side-scan sonar; Prospero
Productions then commissioned UTS, a local survey
company, to carry out an airborne magnetometer
survey over an area of 32 square kilometres. Eight
sites were located and subsequently investigated with
a side-scan sonar. Work on this, involving remotely
operated vehicles, is ongoing.
The third project is a search for the aircraft destroyed
during the Japanese raid on Broome. Side-scan sonar
has located a number of new sites, which are being
investigated.
Western Australian Museum Annual Report 2000–2001
Western Australian Maritime Museum
A team from the Maritime Archaeology Department
visited Middle Island, near Esperance, to examine the
grave-site of Matthew Flinders’s bosun, Douglas, and
other historical sites. The survey did not reveal the
location of the Douglas grave, but the remains of
several buildings and a well were surveyed, together
with the camp-site of the people who salvaged the
Penguin wreck.
Inspections were completed on the Penguin and
Belinda wrecks on Middle Island. The historical
buildings on Middle Island are thought to be part of
the whaling and sealing camp and possibly also
associated with the salt works. Negotiations regarding
sealing and whaling studies in the Recherche
Archipelago off Esperance are under way with staff
of the Centre for Archaeology, UWA, and also with
the Southern Australian Whaling and Sealing Study
Group centred at Flinders University.
A team comprising Geoff Kimpton (chief diver), John
Lashmar and Dr John Williams of Augusta, Les Moss
(President, Shire of Shark Bay), author Hugh Edwards,
Carmelo Amalfi (science writer for the West
Australian), and leader Mike McCarthy travelled to
the Ascension and Falkland islands. With the
assistance of Philippe Godard and island residents,
they located the wreck-site of HMS Roebuck (1701)
of William Dampier fame, which was lost on
Ascension Island, and the wreck of the lovers Rose
and Louis de Freycinet’s exploration vessel Uranie
(1820), lost in the Falklands. The expedition was
made possible by donations and sponsorships from
private individuals, notably Dr John Hanrahan of
Perth, and corporations such as the Shire of Shark
Bay, Shark Bay Salt Joint Venture, Monkey Mia Resort,
Royal Brunei Airlines and Mainpeak Cottesloe.
A site inspection for the proposed Blacklip Pearl Oyster
aquaculture lease west of Gun Island, inside Half
Moon Reef, was carried out. The proposed area is
inshore of the Zeewijk (1727) wreck-site. The