The Australian National Centre of Excellence in Maritime Archaeology
In 1994, the Federal Government announced in its cultural policy statement Creative Nation that the Western Australian Maritime Museum would be established as a National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology. The Statement identified the Pandora, national and overseas programmes in maritime archaeology and maritime archaeological conservation as issues of significance for the Centre. Funding was provided for a three-year period to support a number of projects including the 1996, 1998 and 1999 HMS Pandora investigations, and the Galle Harbour Project, Sri Lanka. In addition, the Centre supported the James Cook University’s project ‘Investigation of historical and archaeological evidence—Pitcairn Island and the Bounty’, and Flinders University of South Australia’s project ‘Archaeology of Whaling in Southern Australia’. At the technical level, the Centre aquired an Omnistar satellite derived Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) this was an initiative between Fugro Surveying Pty Ltd and the Centre. The system has been used in the Historic Shipwrecks Program in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory with major projects including the search for the Portuguese wreck the Correo da Azia at Ningaloo, mapping shipwrecks in Port Adelaide, a French site on Dirk Hartog Island and also used in the Galle Harbour Project in Sri Lanka. The Centre has also evaluated two photogrammetric systems: PhotoModeller and Virtual Mapper programs that have applications for underwater archaeology. The evaluation has determined the theoretical accuracy of the systems in an ideal underwater situation and then applied them to real archeological systems situations to determine its working limitations. The PhotoModeller system has been applied on a number of sites including a J3 Submarine site in Port Phillip Bay, the City of Launceston wreck site and in New South Wales and South Australia. The Virtual Mapper system which is a joint project with DEMS Pty Ltd—a Western Australian photogrammetric company—has recently been applied in the Pandora excavation. The Centre initiated the development of a high precision acoustic surveying system (HPASS) in conjunction with the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University of Technology. The HPASS system consists of a diver unit and six transponders. The diver places an acoustic probe on a point of interest, presses a button on the unit and the unit interrogates the transponder. The diver can take up to 1500 measurements and then on return to the surface download the information and process that data to provide three-dimensional co–ordinates of the measured points. This system has enormous potential for underwater surveying and the results have shown that an accuracy of about 5 mm over 30 m is typical. The system has been used on the City of Launceston in Victoria and the Pandora expedition. A new side scan sonar was purchased by the Centre. Here is a list of the projects that are carried out at the Australian National Centre Of Excellence in Maritime Archaeology. 1. Technical Resource Programme |