We
are delighted to have received notification from the Maritime Museums of
Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS) of our successful grant application
to undertake the ‘HMS Sirius
Collection Condition Assessment 2015’ project.
Established
in 1995 MMAPSS provides funding to support Australia’s maritime heritage. It
is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the Australian National
Maritime Museum (ANMM). The Norfolk Island Museum
has been extremely fortunate to have been the recipient of numerous grants over
the years; grants that have assisted us in caring for the HMS Sirius Collection and funded the
research, conservation, care and display of various aspects of Norfolk Island’s maritime heritage.
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| Carronades |
This
year’s project provides for a conservator from the ANMM to visit Norfolk Island to conduct an assessment of the condition
of the HMS Sirius Collection, the
proposed date for the visit is February 2016.
In 2012 the collection was relocated from the Pier Store Museum into a
dedicated HMS Sirius Museum, this is
in the old Protestant Chapel or the Prince Phillip Youth Centre as some of us
will remember. This dedicated museum
offers better environmental conditions than the Pier Store. The collection is continuously monitored by
the museum staff and preventive conservation is applied to ensure it remains
stable in the new environment.
However,
it is seven years since a qualified conservator has undertaken a whole of
collection condition assessment. In this
time not only the collection on display has been exposed to movement and a
fluctuating environment, but the collection in storage has been rehoused into
micro-environments. This amount of changing
activity to the collection now requires an assessment to record its condition.
It is hoped the assessment will record the collection is in a good condition
due to the environmental improvements over this time.
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| Sirius artefacts raised from the seabed |
Janelle Blucher
