Overview
- Features: Two of the six maritime museums in Western Australia, housing the famous sailing yacht, Australia II, and Royal Australian Navy submarine, HMAS Ovens
- Opening Times: 9:30am to 5:00pm, daily
- Best Time to Visit: Any time
- Duration: 2 to 3 hours
- Travelled By: Rental car, train
- Cost: Museum – $10 adult, $3 child; Museum & Submarine Oven – $16 adult, $5 child
- Address: Fremantle, Western Australia
- Type: Museum
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Summary
The Fremantle Maritime Museums are two of the six maritime museums in Western Australia. Located on the beautiful Victoria Harbour, it houses several unique galleries and some of the most famous boats – Australia II and HMAS Ovens. This is a must visit attraction while in Fremantle.
Fremantle Maritime Museum
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The Western Australian Maritime Museum is the best with its stunning maritime design, set on Victoria Quay at the entrance to Fremantle Harbour. At this Museum, Western Australia’s rich maritime history is well documented through a series of world class displays and presentations.
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The Museum contains galleries with themes such as the Indian Ocean, the Swan River, fishing, maritime trade and naval defence. It is also home to the internationally renowned Australia II yacht which contentiously won the America’s Cup from the Americans in 1983. Australia II was a 12-metre-class America’s Cup challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982 and won the 1983 America’s Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Skippered by John Bertrand, she was the first successful Cup challenger, ending a 132-year tenure (with 26 successful defenses) by the New York Yacht Club.
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Australia II design featured a reduced waterline length and a short chord winged keel which gave the boat a significant advantage in maneuverability and heeling moment, but was a significant disadvantage in choppy seas. The winged keel was a major design advance, and its legality was questioned by the New York Yacht Club. The controversy was decided in Australia II‘s favour. Australia II sported a number of other innovative features that contributed to her success, including radical vertical sail designs, all kevlar running rigging and a lightweight carbon fibre boom.
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Situated adjacent to the Western Australian Museum – Maritime is HMAS Ovens, an Oberon class submarine, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy, that is open for guided tours. Ovens became the first Royal Australian Navy submarine to fire an armed Mark 48 torpedo, when she sank the decommissioned Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Colac in 1987. On her return to port, Ovens flew a ‘Jolly Roger’ to indicate a successful mission: the first time a Royal Australia Navy submarine had done so.
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Nearby in Cliff Street, Fremantle, the Western Australian Museum – Shipwreck Galleries is recognised as the foremost maritime archaeology and shipwreck conservation museum in the southern hemisphere. The museum is housed in a 1850s-era Commissariat building.
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It houses the original timbers of the hull from the infamous 17th century Dutch Batavia shipwreck which sank in 1629 further north at the Abrolhos Islands. There are also exhibits of gold and silver coins, furniture, crockery and cutlery as well as stories of bravery, survival and of course mutiny from the shipwreck.
It also houses the horizontal trunk engine recovered from the iron steamer SS Xantho which sank in 1872. This unit, the only known example of the first mass-produced, high speed and high pressure marine engines, can now be turned over by hand. Many other shipwrecks appear in the Museum’s exhibits.
In 1980 the Museum also commenced the development of a ‘Museum-Without-Walls’ program via its ‘wreck trail’, or ‘wreck access’ programs at Rottnest Island. These ‘trails’ now appear at many places along the coast.
