The extraordinary circumnavigation of Jeanne Baret
27 Jul 2020
On this day 280 years ago, Jeanne Baret was born – the first woman known to circumnavigate the globe while disguised as a man.
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Discover stories behind the latest exhibitions, fascinating explorations into maritime science and archaeology, and the surprising details of what happens inside (and outside) a modern working museum.
Cabinet of curiosities
23 Jul 2020
Weird, wonderful, quirky – and odd. What objects are hiding in our collection? And how did they come to be part of the National Maritime Collection?
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Fixing the Frederick Elliott watercolours: A big conservation project of small paintings
22 Jul 2020
Follow the journey of Conservator Luci Ronai as she prepares the Frederick Elliott watercolour paintings for loan to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.
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Las Balsas: The world's longest raft journey
16 Jul 2020
Twelve men, seven nationalities, three rafts, six months and one epic 14,000-kilometre trans-Pacific voyage. Curator Kim Tao interviews Luis Guevara from the 1973 Las Balsas expedition, which completed a record-breaking crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to Australia on three balsa-wood rafts.
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Ask an Archaeologist Day
15 Jul 2020
Today is Ask an Archaeologist Day so we had the museum's maritime archeologists, James Hunter and Kieran Hosty answer your burning questions.
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Who was Kupe?
08 Jul 2020
According to many Māori iwi (tribes), Kupe was the first Polynesian to arrive in Aotearoa (New Zealand) over 1,000 years ago. While stories differ from region to region, we explore the tradition and the anchor stone that is featured in our current exhibition, Here: Kupe to Cook.
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History highlights: HMAS Onslow 50 years on
04 Jul 2020
On this day 50 years ago, HMAS Onslow arrived in Sydney after it was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on 22 December 1969.
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World Oceans Day: Innovation of the Seas
11 Jun 2020
Our Curator of Ocean Science and Technology Emily Jateff recaps World Oceans Day and some of the ways it was marked over the world.
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Long way from the River
10 Jun 2020
A 13-metre-long dugout canoe suspended from the ceiling forms the centrepiece in our new permanent gallery, Under Southern Skies. Curators Helen Anu and Dr Stephen Gapps explore how this unique canoe from the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea came to be part of the museum's collection.
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A new museology for generation Z: The impact and revolution of Japanese digital art
29 May 2020
The museum's CEO & Director Kevin Sumption recounts visiting the Digital Art Museum (DAM) in Japan where ground-breaking art technology is changing the primacy of physical collections in museums.
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