BACKGROUND

The Western Australian Museum was established in 1891 (as the ‘Perth Museum’) and its initial collections were of geological, ethnological and biological specimens. Indeed, it can claim to be one of the oldest scientific institutions in the state. In 1959, its botanical collection was transferred to the new Herbarium and it continued to concentrate on earth sciences and zoology.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the addition of responsibility for developing and maintaining the state’s anthropological, archaeological, maritime archaeological and social and cultural history collections.

The collections, currently numbering more than three million specimens/artefacts, are the primary focus of research by the Museum’s own staff and others. The Museum’s aim is to advocate knowledge about the collections and communicate it to the public through a variety of media, but particularly through a program of exhibitions and publications. During the year, a total of 857,561 visitors, of which 56,613 were school students, visited the various Museum sites.

ESTABLISHMENT

The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the Museum Act 1969. It is a Body Corporate with Perpetual Succession and Common Seal, governed by a Board of seven Trustees, including the Chair and Vice-Chair. The Governor of Western Australia appoints the seven Trustees. The Director General of the Department of Culture and the Arts, or his/her nominee, is a Trustee ex officio. Appointments are made for up to four years and incumbents are eligible for reappointment.

Under section 36 of the Museum Act, the Trustees have established the following branches of the Western Australian Museum:

Western Australian Museum – Albany
Western Australian Museum – Fremantle History
Western Australian Museum – Geraldton
Western Australian Museum – Kalgoorlie/Boulder
Western Australian Museum – Maritime
Western Australian Museum – Perth
Western Australian Museum – Shipwreck Galleries

STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2006 – 2011

The Western Australian Museum has embarked on a period of significant change. Through a focus on, and new approaches to, increasing the public profile of all of the museum’s activities and the development and presentation of public programs, the museum will educate and entertain, as well as, distinguish itself in the eyes of the public as a socially relevant institution keeping pace with the economic, social and technological changes of the 21st century.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Western Australian Museum is to:

• collect, preserve, investigate, document and showcase the enormous wealth and diversity of this state’s faunal, geological and meteoritic resources, as well as its social and maritime history, in order to understand and value the past, enhance the present, and respond to the challenges of the future;

• enrich the cultural life of the state by providing a platform to share the unique stories of Western Australia’s people, land and sea and the state’s role in the region and wider world;

• integrate strategic collection and research activities with exhibitions and public programs that are educational, experiential, innovative, exciting and entertaining; and

• inspire discovery across diverse audiences, offering a forum to engage in debate and question issues that are important to, and impact on society and the community.

VALUES

Values underpin the activities undertaken by the museum and the way people within the organisation conduct themselves in order to fulfil the museum’s purpose. The core values of the museum are a commitment to:

Enterprise – By incorporating a business approach and a willingness to try new things, the museum aims to be dynamic in organisational matters.

Environmental Sustainability – The museum endeavours to play a vital role in terms of its operations, research, education and communication on environmental sustainability issues.

Inclusiveness – The museum strives to be a place that respects and welcomes people of all ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds. It aims to be a place for sharing stories, providing an ‘open’ and ‘safe’ environment for the exchange of information about different cultures, social issues and events; creating opportunities for communication between people.

Innovation – The museum values and encourages creativity, resourcefulness, and the testing out of new ideas, methodologies and technologies.

High Performance – The museum seeks to achieve excellence in every aspect of its work. In seeking to achieve excellence the museum’s performance and that of its staff are guided and governed by a range of state, national and international codes of ethics and professional standards, as well as national and international conventions and agreements.

Learning and Continuous Improvement – The museum aims to be a place for whole of life learning, a place where people of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to discover, discuss, reflect, question and contemplate. It seeks to be an organisation that grows and improves through continuous reflection on, and review of, its structure, practices and performance to ensure it has the capacity to meet its statutory obligations and deliver its strategic objectives.

Respecting Aboriginal Peoples – The museum recognises Aboriginal peoples as the first peoples of Australia, respecting Indigenous cultural and heritage values and ways of working. It seeks to advance greater understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, by working with Aboriginal communities to preserve and promote traditional and contemporary Indigenous culture.

THE STRATEGIC PLAN

The strategic plan for the Western Australian Museum 2006 – 2011 represents an opportunity to reposition the museum as a premier cultural and scientific institution and enhance its profile as a centre of excellence. The plan:

• provides a whole of organisation framework for coherent and strategic planning, policy development and decision making;

• provides a basis for the development of business plans for divisions and departments of the museum and master plans for each of the museum’s public sites;

• will be integrated into budgeting and reporting platforms and reviewed annually;

• aims to be manageable in terms of the collection, analysis and reporting of data required to monitor and report on the organisation’s performance;

• prioritises the need to modernise museological, public programing and operational practices; and

• highlights the need to develop the museum’s workforce, public profile and business streams.

The museum’s strategic plan reflects its multi-functional, multi-disciplinary and complex operations. The museum manages, amongst other things:

• the state’s collection of almost four million objects presently valued at over $200 million;

• 200 located shipwrecks of the 1500 known to exist off the coast of Western Australia;

• $81 million of land and building assets and $20 million of non-building assets;

• eight public sites in metropolitan and regional areas;

• seven collection storage facilities including 14,000 square metres in Welshpool, which includes research facilities and laboratories; and

• commercial operations including seven shops and venue hire.

STRATEGIC FOCUS

Work done to achieve the museum’s purpose is carried out in the areas of Collections, Knowledge, Experiences, Community and Capacity. These five areas provide a strategic focus for the museum’s objectives, goals, performance measures and strategic initiatives.

1. Collections
The museum will strategically manage and strengthen the collections by acquiring and preserving faunal, geological and meteoritic specimens, and objects related to the social and maritime history of the state, for the benefit of current and future generations of Western Australians.

The management and accessibility of the collections are fundamental to the museum’s purpose; providing the ‘real objects’ that enable the unique stories of Western Australia to excite, inspire, educate and be experienced by visitors.

2. Knowledge
Leadership in generating knowledge that relates to an understanding of Western Australia’s natural, maritime and social history will be demonstrated by continuing to build on the museum’s tradition of academic and scientific excellence.

The museum contributes to advancing knowledge nationally and internationally through publication of its research activities in a range of mediums, loaning items from its collections to national and international scholars and institutions and hosting local, national and international visiting scholars.

The museum plays a vital role in training and mentoring the next generation of scientists and museum practitioners through the supervision of post-graduate and doctoral students, auspicing research grant staff, and supporting tertiary museum and heritage studies programs.

3. Experiences
Exhibitions and programs will be educational, engaging, inspirational and informative experiences. They will be developed and built using international best practice, based on scholarship and informed by community interest.

Public programs and exhibitions will provide opportunities for discovery, inquiry, debate and reflection. They will be dynamic, combining contemporary practices (including the latest new media technologies) with the best educational and communication techniques. Engaging and innovative public programs will encourage multiple visits to museum sites both metropolitan and regional.

New and exciting retail, hospitality, and special event experiences will be created to enliven and enhance the visitor experience of the Western Australian Museum’s sites.

With the development of a new museum for Perth, new architectural and design experiences will embody the principles of environmental sustainability and innovation. The new museum will be a premier attraction, a tourist destination in its own right. It will represent an entry point to Western Australia, introducing the state, the people, their stories and our natural heritage.

Engaging and interpretative experiences offered through the museum’s website will generate virtual visitors ensuring the museum’s collections and programs are accessible across the state and internationally.

4. Community
Strong, respectful and mutually beneficial relationships will be developed with communities across the state to achieve the purpose of the museum, support community aspirations and build community capacity.

5. Capacity
The museum will ensure it has the capacity to meet its statutory obligations, deliver its strategic objectives and enhance the provision of its services through:

• Ensuring the financial security and longer term viability of the museum through a strong relationship with government, the foundation and other funding partners, as well as through strong financial management practices and reinvigorated commercial operations;

• A motivated, resourceful and trained workforce with a workforce culture which is focussed on services and benefits to the public and the state;

• Quality corporate practices, including risk management processes, OHS practices, asset management and effective information management;

• A strong information communications and technology (ICT) culture that places the museum at the leading edge of research, collections management, communications and exhibition and public program technologies; and

• Compelling communication of the museum’s aspirations, achievements, activities and value to the state and community of Western Australia.

• Board and advisory committee members that are valued by, and valuable to the museum in achieving its purpose.