Annual Report 2010-2011 - Western Australian Museum

ACHIEVEMENTS
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Western Australian Museum ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011
As a partner in the ‘Atlas of Living Australia’ project – a collaborative, national project focused on making information
about Australia’s biodiversity more accessible and usable online – the WA Museum secured $68,182 infrastructure
funding to help maximise its input to this comprehensive online resource. The constantly evolving Atlas (www.ala.
org.au) already holds more than 23 million records on the distribution of Australia’s fauna and flora, as well as maps,
images, literature, identification and tracking tools, and is designed to help researchers and others better understand,
protect and manage Australia’s biodiversity. The Museum will use the funding for digitisation of images and to help
improve its collections management.
A collection of historic Dutch shipwreck artefacts gifted to the Museum by the Dutch Government late last year
has been integrated with the maritime archaeology collection already held at the Museum’s Shipwreck Galleries in
Fremantle. The collection includes more than 1,125 objects from 17 th and 18 th Century Dutch East India Company
ships wrecked off Western Australia’s coast, including the Batavia, the Vergulde Draeck, the Zuytdorp and the
Zeewijk. The varied collection of items – including bullion, cargo, building materials, navigational equipment and
personal possessions of the crew and passengers, all discovered at the wreck sites since the early 1960s – has been
returned to Western Australia under the Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks Agreement.
They are being displayed at the Shipwreck Galleries from February to December 2011 (www.museum.wa.gov.au/
museums/shipwrecks/#shipwrecks%2Fwhats-on/).
The Museum’s work in finding and describing new species is highly significant in international terms. During the year,
61 new animal species, five new animal genera and two new meteorite species were described by WA Museum
staff. Of these, 62 holotypes 1 were added to the Museum’s collections (two fossil and 60 living animal species).
Discoveries included:
• a new species of bee located in Forrestdale (only 21 kilometres from the Perth CBD), around the size of a
honeybee and displaying unusual burrow-guarding behaviour amongst males;
• the Bearded Velvetfish, discovered in the far north Kimberley region during fieldwork sponsored by Woodside. The
species – named for its bearded chin and velvety feel – had not been found before due to the remoteness of the
region and the fish’s ability to camouflage itself with its surroundings;
• the Kimberley Rockhole Frog, the newest member of the Rockhole Frog family, renowned for its ability to ‘skip’
across water without sinking to escape predators; and
• more than 250 different sponge species from the Ningaloo Marine Park’s huge underwater sponge gardens,
recognised as one of the world’s richest and most diverse sponge sites.
Museum scientists also identified the jawbone fragment of a pterosaur – a flying reptile with a wingspan of between
four and five metres that lived in the Perth region around 95 million years ago. While finds are common in other
continents, this was the first pterosaur fossil to have been found in the Perth basin, and only the second pterosaur
fossil to have been found in Western Australia.
The Museum continues to integrate and rationalise the 700,000 digital images of its collection onto its databases
with a view to making the collection available to the public on the Museum’s new website.
The Museum is continuing a project to manage Patricia Vinnicombe’s archives, images, and notebooks. This work
is predominantly undertaken by volunteers. Dr Vinnicombe was a world renowned rock art researcher. Her early
book People of the Eland was celebrated internationally for its contribution to understanding rock art. She was
subsequently a Museum Honorary Associate and recipient of the Museum medal for her contribution to heritage
studies. Her material is a significant resource for researchers and Aboriginal community members.
1 A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked
taxon) was formally described.
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