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WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM
The Western Australian Museum is the State’s premier cultural organisation, housing WA’s scientific and cultural collections. For over 120 years, the Museum has been making the State’s natural and social heritage accessible and engaging through research, exhibitions and public programs.
Established in 1891 in the old Perth Gaol, where it was known as the Geological Museum, it officially became the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery in 1897. In the late 1950s, the Museum’s botanical collection was transferred to the new Herbarium, and the Museum and the Art Gallery became separate institutions. The Museum focused its collecting and research interests in the areas of
natural sciences, anthropology, archaeology and the State’s cultural and social history. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Museum also began to work in the emerging areas of historic shipwrecks and Aboriginal site management.
The Western Australian Museum has six public locations across the State. In addition to the recently opened WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth, there are two museums in Fremantle, and museum sites in Albany, Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Geraldton. The Museum also currently assists in the management of Gwoonwardu Mia: Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre, in Carnarvon.
The WA Museum Boola Bardip is in the heart of the Perth Cultural Centre.
Credit: P. Bennetts
WA Maritime Museum, Fremantle.
Credit: WA Museum
WA Shipwrecks Museum, Fremantle.
Credit: Red Eclectic
Museum of Geraldton.
Credit: Gina Jenkins
Museum of the Goldfields.
Credit: Billy Stokes Photography
Museum of the Great Southern.
Credit: Nic Duncan
Gwoonwardu Mia: Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre, in Carnarvon.
Credit: WA Museum
With a large and diverse State collection of more than 8 million items, the Museum also has a Collections and Research Centre. This large facility contains purpose-built storage and laboratories for the ongoing management and research of the collections. The Museum continues to document, digitise and make its collections available on the Museum’s website, and a range of other digital platforms.
Credit: R. Frith
