Western Australian Museum Annual Report 2003-2004

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Corporate Operations
With the opening of the new Maritime Museum, a risk management review was undertaken with
the assistance of Riskcover. The actions arising are being progressively addressed.
COORDINATION OF NEW MUSEUM DEVELOPMENT
The relocation from the Francis Street building is an initial step in the creation of a new museum
for the 21st century. The Museum is assessing a number of locations including East Perth and
Francis Street sites.
The Museum has been investigating museum developments such as Te Papa in New Zealand,
the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Guggenhiem in Bilbao and Museum Victoria. All are examples
of museums which have had significant impacts on the community as well as attracting
international tourism and consequential economic benefits.
PROPERTY AND SECURITY SERVICES
The focus this year was on general maintenance at the regional Museums at Albany, Kalgoorlie-
Boulder and Geraldton. At Geraldton the fire safety system was upgraded and planning was
undertaken for the Archive Repository and the new Education Centre. Security was upgraded
at the Fremantle History Museum. The Property and Security Officer is assisting with the relocation
to Kew Street and is project-managing the fit-out of the Jubilee Wing at the Perth site.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
As of 1 July 2003, information technology support services were provided by the Information
Services Unit of the Department of Culture and the Arts. There have been very significant
achievements with major projects associated with the identification and replacement of systems
which were obsolete, the implementation of an internet service with higher bandwidth and
lower costs, and the introduction of a new email system across the Museum. A range of projects
at the Maritime Museum were addressed including rationalisation of the wide area network,
new storage and backup systems and replacement of network devices. By coming within the
Department of Culture and the Arts information technology system, the Museum has significantly
increased security, and a fully automated, unified antivirus system has been provided.
Perhaps most significantly from the point of view of staff, access to the Service Desk and
professional assistance has improved dramatically. The Department of Culture and the Arts
Service Desk logged over 2,500 calls in 2003–04.
DOCUMENTARY UNIT
The Western Australian Museum Documentary Unit is approaching its fourth year and continues
to expand its reach into the international documentary market. It now operates under the
registered business name WAMdoc.
A major highlight for the year was the August 2003 broadcast of three hours of high-definition
television in Japan depicting the Museum’s Operation Leo expedition. Footage sales to the
ABC’s Catalyst series, ABC Asia’s Pacific Nova series, and to private production companies
value-adds to the importance of the archival footage held by WAMdoc. Clay Bryce attended
two conferences, the World Congress of Science and History Producers in Paris and the AIDC
conference in Fremantle. Outcomes from these included cementing negotiations with National
Geographic and the Henson group to produce four one-hour programs titled Bone Diggers and
co-production deals with two French film companies, Films-A-Trois and Media Video Compagnie,
to produce two separate programs.
WAMdoc retains a slate of 12 other programs in various states of development, including a
series of DVDs for the Department of Fisheries on their new Abrolhos Islands research station.
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 2003–2004