Maritime archaeology

Explore maritime heritage of Queensland through the extensive maritime archaeology collection and discover past seafaring along the Queensland coastline.

Overview

Maritime archaeological research is unique, investigating ship and aircraft wrecks along the Queensland coastline to reveal clues about our past and how to manage these sites into the future.

Scientific study

Maritime archaeology is the study of past human interaction in, on or around the water. It involves the study of ships and shipwrecks, maritime infrastructure, maritime identities and landscapes, seascapes, and other types of heritage, both tangible and intangible.

Images

Green glass bottle from HMS Pandora. Image: Queensland Museum.
Captains transportable fireplace. Image: Patrick Baker.
Researcher working on-site. Image: Matt Curnock.
Maddy McAllister, Senior Curator of Maritime Archaeology at Queensland Museum Network. Image: SB Creative.
Maddy McAllister, Senior Curator of Maritime Archaeology at Queensland Museum Network. Image: SB Creative.
Copper buttons from HMS Pandora. Image: Queensland Museum.
Green glass bottle from HMS Pandora. Image: Queensland Museum.
Captains transportable fireplace. Image: Patrick Baker.

1 of 6

Collection highlights

Queensland Museum’s maritime archaeology collection holds over 8,000 artefacts from approximately 25 shipwrecks along the Queensland coast and Great Barrier Reef.

A significant portion relates to the excavated artefacts from the maritime archaeological excavation of HMS Pandora (1779) shipwreck. As well as other notable sites like Foam (1893), Scottish Prince (1887), HMCS Mermaid (1829) and SS Yongala (1911).

View collection

Research overview

The museum has a broad research focus for maritime archaeology. Primarily, the focus is on understanding the collection and learning more about shipwrecks through the material culture we hold.

Led by Dr Maddy McAllister, current research focuses on the unidentified shipwrecks within the collection: the shipwrecks that have been found but their name and identity remain a mystery. Maddy is investigating ways to learn more about when and where these ships were built through analysis of copper alloy artefacts discovered on the shipwrecks. In addition, we are piecing together archival material to put a name to unidentified shipwrecks along our coastline.