Blog

: The author (right) and Irini Malliaros from the Silentworld Foundation use ‘old school’ methods to obtain measurements of the Admiralty Old Pattern Long-Shanked Anchor found in the shallows at Boot Reef. Image: Julia Sumerling/Silentworld Foundation.

An anchor’s secrets revealed

07 Mar 2019

In December last year, maritime archaeologists and researchers from the museum and the Silentworld Foundation conducted a shipwreck survey of Boot Reef in the Coral Sea. While searching for the wreck of the Lancashire Lass, they also discovered something at the end of a large, long chain...

Conducting the photogrammetry survey of M24, using underwater lights. Image: Steve Trewavas.

Recording M24, the Japanese midget submarine

05 Mar 2019

For over 60 years a Japanese midget submarine lay in the waters off Newport, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. In 2017 a high resolution 3D model of M24 was produced, providing an unprecedented level of detail of the wreck. We spoke to the team leader, maritime archaeologist Matt Carter, about this exciting project.

Clean Up Australia Day at the Museum, 2019. With our partners Silentworld Foundation.

Dredged Up

04 Mar 2019

Clean Up Australia Day 2019, with the Silentworld Foundation

Award-wining photographer Michael Aw discusses his passion for conservation and wildlife photography.

Capturing nature, before it disappears

28 Feb 2019

Multi-award-winning international nature photographer Michael Aw has lived on the edge of art and adventure. But his photographs also tell a story of a changing planet and the impact this is having on the animals.

Scott Gustetter, swimmer, at the 2002 Gay Games. © Paul Freeman Reproduced courtesy of Paul Freeman.

Sea of Rainbow

19 Feb 2019

Black and white photographs from the 2002 Gay Games have been found hiding away in the museum closet, and now we are raising the flag for queer stories of the sea.

The young crew aboard HMAS Voyage. Image: John Withers.

Speaking of history

12 Feb 2019

Collecting oral histories from Navy veterans has been a profoundly humbling experience for volunteer David O'Sullivan.

The exposed breech of one of four iron cannons at shipwreck site RI 2394 (‘Kerry site’). The visible portion of the cannon is approximately one metre in length, and the photogrammetry target in the foreground measures 10 centimetres square. Image: Irini Malliaros/Silentworld Foundation© RIMAP 2018, used with permission.

Photogrammetric recording in the search for Cook’s Endeavour

10 Feb 2019

Lieutenant James Cook’s HMB Endeavour is best known as the ship whose voyage to Australia led to the European colonisation of this continent. But what became of it after it returned to England? The answer seems to lie on the muddy seafloor of a historic harbour in the United States. By Dr James Hunter and Kieran Hosty (ANMM) and Irini Malliaros (Silentworld Foundation).

Black tip reef shark. Image: Global_Pics/iStock.

Thinking about sharks

05 Feb 2019

Neuroscientist Dr Richard Gates is fascinated by the relationship between a shark's brain function and their behaviour. So, what do we know about these apex animals?