Who We Are

In 1963 Graeme made the first discovery of a 17th century shipwreck in Australian waters. In the following year he and co-finders, brother Alan, father Jim and John Cowan, persuaded the Western Australian Museum to become responsible for historic shipwrecks with a Deed of Assignment, transferring their finder’s rights of the Gilt Dragon (Vergulde Draeck) to the Museum. Graeme joined the Museum in 1969 and worked in the field of Maritime Archaeology until 1992. From 1992-2005 he was the Inaugural Director of the Western Australian Maritime Museum. From 1993-2005 he was Delegate to the Commonwealth Minister for the Historic Shipwrecks Act.

He developed awareness of Australia’s 18th century shipwrecks, leading early expeditions to the wrecks of the Sydney Cove off Tasmania, HMS Sirius on Norfolk Island and HMS Pandora off Queensland. He escorted VIPs through the Western Australian Maritime Museum including Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, the Sultan of Brunei and Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange (now King of the Netherlands).

He jointly led a UNESCO Mission to examine the feasibility of establishing the world’s first underwater Museum at the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Australia ICOMOS invited him to establish the International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage Heritage and in that role he coordinated the development of the draft for the Annex of the UNESCO 2001 Convention for Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, now adopted by 47 countries.

Graeme arranged a partnership between the Maritime Museum and the Duyfken Replica Foundation for the construction of the replica Duyfken at the Museum. He lobbied successfully to have Australia’s Most Famous Yacht Australia II brought back to Western Australia. He is the author of 13 books and over 100 articles about the maritime heritage. Since 2009 he has been a Research Associate with the Western Australian Museum.

AWARDS
1996: State Government Award as sole Principal Discoverer Gilt Dragon (1656) wreck.
2002: Western Australian Citizen of the Year (Cit. WA): Arts, Culture, Entertainment.
2003: Centenary Medal, Commonwealth of Australia.
2012: Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Andrew Viduka (B.A., B.App.Sci., MMA) has been employed as an Archaeological Objects Conservator, Maritime Archaeologist and Cultural Heritage Manager. Andrew is a Research Associate of the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University, Churchill Fellow, member of Australia ICOMOS, Bureau member of the ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH) and Councillor of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA). He is the author of numerous scientific papers and contributed to and co-edited the 2014 Towards Ratification: Papers from the 2013 AIMA Conference Workshop. Andrew is employed as the Assistant Director of Maritime Heritage in the Australian Government Department of the Environment and administers the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and Australia’s Historic Shipwreck Programme. Andrew led the development of the Australian National Shipwreck Database and Australia’s National Research Project on in situ preservation and reburial. Andrew’s current research foci include an underwater survey of the Larnaca District of Cyprus, searching for the Fortuyn shipwreck, shared heritage management, Australian national capacity building projects and linking community outcomes with the discovery and protection of underwater cultural heritage.

James Parkinson completed his Archaeology Degree from La Trobe University, Melbourne, (2000) and a Graduate Diploma in Maritime Archaeology from Flinders University, Adelaide, (2009). James also holds an ADAS Advanced Diploma in Dive Project Management (2014), ADAS Part 3 diver, ADAS Dive Trainer, Dive Supervisor, Dive Medic Technician and Coxswain certifications.

James began his diving career in 1995 and commercial diving career in 1998. To date James has 5000+ commercially logged dives both onshore and offshore in Australia, the Middle East and Europe. After joining Professional Diving Services, Melbourne, Victoria in 1998 James spent 16 years working as a diver, ADAS Dive Supervisor, Project Manager, ADAS Dive trainer and Operations Manager and after leaving in 2013 continues to work for PDS in a consultancy capacity. During late 2013 James was privileged to have been asked to be involved in the diving operations salvaging the Costa Concordia on the island of Giglio, Italy. For the previous 3 years James has been working offshore in the southern sector of the North Sea for a Swedish offshore diving company Nordic Dive Enterprise contracted to provide diving services from dynamically positioned vessels during the construction phases of the offshore wind farms being built off the German coast.

While continuing to pursue a career as a commercial diver James has been heavily involved in a numerous maritime archaeological projects in his career both in a voluntary and professional capacity including but not limited to;

• ‘Finding the Fortuyn Project’ Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean (2015)
• Excavation and in-situ preservation project carried out on the Clarence by Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project (2012-2014).
• NT Heritage Department’s expeditions to Sanyo Maru (2012) and the Florence D (2011)
• Port of Melbourne Channel Deepening Heritage Monitoring (2009-2011)
• Cosmos Archaeology’s, Lombok Tourism and Mixed-Use Project, Lombok, Indonesia, (2008)
• Former Hovell Pile Light excavation and reburial. Cosmos Archaeology and the Port of Melbourne Corporation. (2008)
City of Launceston project for Heritage Victoria. (1998-2002)

Alex Moss is principal consultant for Maritime Heritage Surveys, and principal investigator for ShipShapeSearchers, a non-profit organisation with the research purpose of obtaining and using non-archaeological remote sensing datasets for maritime archaeological purposes.

Alex has worked as a contracting archaeologist in the UK and Australia, after gaining his Msc in maritime archaeology (2006) from the University of Southampton, Bsc in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (2005) and BA in archaeology at Flinders University (1993).

Alex gained the part III certificate from the Nautical Archaeology Society, BSAC Sports Diver and ADAS part I commercial diving qualifications.

In addition to Wreck Check’s Closing in On The Fortuyn Project, Alex has participated in numerous fieldwork projects including:

Bouldner Cliff Excavation and Survey (2007).

Cyprus Maritime Archeology Project (2006)

Zea Harbour Project (2005)

Alcoa Jetty Wreck Survey (2005)

Barcombe Roman Villa Excavation (2003)

James Hunter is the inaugural Curator of Royal Australian Navy Maritime Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). He received his MA in historical archaeology from the University of West Florida, and holds a PhD in maritime archaeology from Flinders University, where he is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology. James has worked in the field of maritime archaeology for nearly two decades, and during that time has participated in the investigation of shipwrecks and other archaeological sites ranging in age from prehistory to the modern era. He was a member of the archaeological team that investigated the American Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley, and a staff archaeologist with the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch. He has worked at various locales within the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Some of the more notable maritime archaeology projects with which he has been affiliated include investigations of the first Emanuel Point Shipwreck (1559), Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol (1705), Spanish slave ship Trouvadore (1841), U.S. Navy anti-slavery vessel Chippewa (1817), and the ex-convict transport ship Royal Charlotte, which wrecked off the coast of Queensland in 1825. Most recently, he co-directed an initiative to document the Australian colonial warship HMCS Protector with 3D scanning technology.
James’ areas of expertise include nautical archaeology, historical archaeology, conflict archaeology, computer applications in archaeology, field stabilisation and conservation of artefacts, wooden shipbuilding and ship construction (particularly that of Spanish vessels of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries), shipboard small arms, artillery and ordnance, and early torpedo warfare. He is currently involved in the development of ANMM’s new Warships Pavilion exhibition space, and is the museum’s representative responsible for management of the wreck site of the Australian First World War submarine AE2, located in Turkey’s Sea of Marmara. James has been published widely and is also an accomplished archaeological illustrator whose work has been featured in a number of scholarly books and articles.