Darling Harbour wharves
Manufacturer
Kodak
(American, founded 1888)
Date1980s
Object numberANMS1488[074]
NamePhotograph
MediumColour photographic print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 101 x 150 mm,
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Jane Major
DescriptionThe idea of a national maritime museum was first proposed in 1975 and eventually led to the opening of the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney, in 1991. One of the key figures driving this development through the 1980s was Rear Admiral Andrew Robertson AO DSC, a retired Royal Australian Navy officer. This collection of documents includes handwritten notes of conversations and meetings, plus formal minutes, reports and architectural designs, many of them annotated by RADM Robertson. The collection is nationally significant owing to its association with a major figure in preserving Australia’s maritime heritage, and for documenting the creation of a national collecting institution following the 1975 Inquiry into the National Estate – the Australian National Maritime Museum.HistoryAndrew John Robertson AO DSC was born in England in 1925 and died in 2020. Robertson joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1939 as a Cadet Midshipman. He served in Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Coral Sea and New Hebrides from 1942 to 1944, in the Mediterranean from 1944 to end of World War II, then in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He was awarded the King’s Medal in 1942. He served as Captain of frigates HMAS QUICKMATCH and YARRA and aircraft carrier HMAS SYDNEY, as Director General of Operations and Plans, Navy Office, Canberra, and as head of the Australian Defence staff in the Australian High Commission in London. He retired with the rank of Rear Admiral in 1982 and thereafter served as Federal Vice-President of The Navy League of Australia.
During his naval service, RADM Robertson was instrumental in establishing the Australian Naval Aviation Museum at Nowra and after retirement was appointed to the Interdepartmental Working Group on a National Maritime Museum, 1982–88. During this period RADM Robertson participated in numerous local, state and national committees, and also conducted an extensive overseas tour of maritime museums, lodging several key reports. Newspaper accounts from the period credit him as a driving force for the creation of the museum, some going so far as to describe him as its ‘father’. When the Australian National Maritime Museum came into being, RADM Robertson was a foundation member (number 37) and was later made an honorary life member.
The documentary material, including unpublished sources, photographs and architect’s plans for what became the Australian National Maritime Museum encapsulate its formative decade and opening in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Many items are annotated, presumably by RADM Robertson, and include diverse correspondence with maritime museums and related stakeholders around Australia and internationally. These sources also document addition to interactions with politicians and government organisations at local, state and federal government level, as well as the United States Government. Together, these documents provide a comprehensive primary source for analysing and narrating the social, political and cultural milieu in which the museum came into being.
Plans for a National Maritime Museum arose from the Inquiry into the National Estate (the ‘Piggott Report’), released in 1975. It posited a range of potential new cultural institutions, including a National Museum in Canberra (now the National Museum of Australia), a National Aviation Museum in Melbourne (never built) and a National Maritime Museum in either Hobart or Sydney. The potential Sydney site included the Customs House at Circular Quay, Woolloomooloo Bay, Birkenhead Point (then the home of the Sydney Maritime Museum, now Sydney Heritage Fleet) and the very head of Cockle Bay (currently the IMAX Cinema). In 1983 the Commonwealth and NSW Governments announced that a Sydney site in Darling Harbour had been chosen and the new Australian National Maritime Museum would open in time for the 1988 Bicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet. This facility would be built by the Commonwealth Government upon land leased from the NSW Government. It was part of a major state-driven strategy, in concert with the City of Sydney Council, to revitalise the former dock and warehouse district of Darling Harbour as a tourism and cultural destination. Original plans included inclusion of a replica of HMS SIRIUS and a variety of wharf layouts, with room for both museum and visiting vessels. Staff appointments began in 1985 and the collection of objects commenced in 1986, followed by detailed gallery planning. The Australian National Maritime Museum bill was debated from 1986 but only passed into legislation as the Australian National Maritime Museum Act 1990. The complex politics of the project, including the extensive building delays that completely missed the Bicentenary moment, saw members of the museum’s Interim Council dismissed in March 1988, including RADM Robertson. As exhibition development for the early galleries developed over 1988-90, the Australian National Maritime Museum finally opened in November 1991.SignificanceThe idea of a national maritime museum was first proposed in 1975 and eventually led to the opening of the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney, in 1991. One of the key figures driving this development through the 1980s was Rear Admiral Andrew Robertson AO DSC, a retired Royal Australian Navy officer. RADM Robertson undertook a wide range of consultancies, including a survey of international examples of maritime museums, and sat on various intergovernmental panels that led to the site selection, design, collection development, exhibition planning and opening of the museum.
This collection of documents includes handwritten notes of conversations and meetings, plus formal minutes, reports and architectural designs, many of them annotated by RADM Robertson. They primarily span the key decade in the museum’s early history, 1981-91, and comprise a comprehensive sample of the decision-making processes. The collection also represents the inspiration, drive and achievements of one of the key figures in preserving and displaying Australia’s maritime heritage, with press reports in the 1980s describing RADM Robertson as the ‘father’ of the Australian National Maritime Museum.
This collection is significant at a national level owing to its association with a major figure in preserving Australia’s maritime heritage, RADM Andrew Robertson, and for documenting the creation of a national collecting institution following the 1975 Inquiry into the National Estate – the Australian National Maritime Museum.