Shipwreck Databases Western Australian Museum

Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report

Author/s M. Stanbury

Year of publication 1983

Report Number: 21

Introduction
In January 1982, the Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, carried out an archaeological investigation and survey of the site of a former whaling station at Norwegian Bay, W.A. The work was undertaken conjointly with the Department's third and final excavation season of the wreck of the Rapid, an AmericancChina trader lost off Point Cloates ·in 1811 (Henderson, 1980 & 1981).

Whilst the project was designed partly to give students of the Post Graduate Diploma Course in Maritime Archaeolog-y additional field survey experience, it was also aimed at preserving some knowledge of a modern maritime industry now extinct in Western Australia.

This report presents the results of the field investigations together with an historical account of the whaling industry at Norwegian Bay as gleaned from archival and other literary sources.