The Australian Contact Shipwrecks Program a precis and brief report on the completion of the first Stage in Western Australia.

This is the introduction to Strangers on the Shore an electronic database containing all known European and Asian shipwrecks around Western Australia's where survivors have had indigenous social contact.

Rationale
The shipwreck often results in the precipitate abandonment of a vessel's complement on what to them often appears as an inhospitable and frightening shore. This situation has characterised shipwreck events in remote regions of Australia. On arrival on the shores shipwreck survivors are often bereft of the trappings of power-the esentials which categorise organised exploratory trading or acquisitive 'landings'.

These trappings serve to enhance the status of the visitors and could appear to the inhabitants initially as lofty ships supporting rigging,sails and other structures far beyond the inhabitant's understanding,then they translate into smaller sailing or rowing boats (still larger than indigenous watercraft) carrying, armed crew, some in ceremonial dress with armaments, military equipment flags and sometimes gifts.

In contrast,the shipwrecked survivor most-often arrives in a destitute or even an injured form without armament,sometimes without clothing,and almost always at a distinct physical and psychological disadvantageas wrecked use the locate an area box.

The original version of Strangers of the Shore was developed by Michael Murrary, Lesley Silvester and Bob Richards.