Dutch to return shipwreck relics to West Australian
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21498,24948912-2761,00.html?from=public_rss
Dutch to return shipwreck relics to West Australian
January 22, 2009 05:11pm
ALMOST 2000 items from the Batavia and other Dutch shipwrecks
off the WA coast will return to the State under an agreement
reached with the government of the Netherlands.
The artefacts, including a canon, elephant tusk, amber, German
stoneware, coins and porcelain from the 17th and 18th centuries
are currently stored in the Netherlands.
The 1,326 artefacts and 633 coins will be relocated as close
as possible to the West Australian shipwrecks - the Batavia,
the Vergulde Draeck, the Zuytdorp and the Zeewyk.
``The Netherlands over the last four or five years has been
getting a bit uncomfortable about having this collection,''
the WA Museum's head of maritime archaeology Jeremy Green
told AAP today.
``It goes against the modern museum practice of keeping
collections together.
``What they're concerned about is that they've got a
collection that they can't really do much with.''
The federal government says the agreement will deliver the
largest maritime endowment Australia has ever received.
``It's very significant from our point of view
because ... it begins to make the collections more
accessible nationally and internationally, for people to
look at, study and do more research,'' Mr Green said.
While a committee is yet to decide where exactly the new
collection will be held, Mr Green said it was not likely
to be outside WA.
``It's fairly inconceivable that it would go anywhere
else,'' he said.
The objects will be housed as close as possible to the
shipwrecks they were taken from, the federal Heritage
Minister Peter Garrett said today.
The Batavia was wrecked in 1629 on the Houtman Abrolhos
islands situated off the coastal town of Geraldton.
The Vergulde Draeck is situated off Ledge Point, just
north of Perth, the Zuytdorp went down on the coast
between Kalbarri and Shark Bay, 871 km north of Perth,
and the Zeewyk is in the Pelsart Group on the
Abrolhos islands.
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