Albany 2026: Photos, plans, and tools that built city’s first colonial ships and famous Amity revealed in expo

As with any coastal town, the story of Albany is deeply intertwined with the ocean.

It is the details of the first colonial ships that travelled the waters of King George Sound, the shipwrights who built them and the story of the city’s most famous “modern” boat that is explored in a new maritime exhibit at the Museum of the Great Southern.

The Early History of Boatbuilding Around Albany and 50 Years of the Amity Replica exhibition opened on June 25 at the Museum of the Great Southern.

Running until July 31, the special exhibition coincides with the city’s bicentenary celebrations, the 50th anniversary of the completion of the replica Brig Amity and the Albany Maritime Festival.

The display traces the build of the Amity in the 1970s by a dedicated team of volunteers and the wider evolution of wooden boatbuilding in the Great Southern

“This is a special year,” said Elly Spillekom, exhibition curator and secretary of the Maritime Heritage Association of WA.

“It’s 200 years, but it’s also 50 years since the Amity replica was built.

“It is an amazing project because it is the oldest replica ship in WA.”

Though acknowledging the story begins long before European settlement, the exhibition opens with the Dutch navigator Pieter Nuyts charting much of the south coast in 1627, before covering the arrival of the original Brig Amity on Christmas Day, 1826.

Carrying Major Edmund Lockyer and his party, the Amity’s arrival marked the beginning of the British military settlement at King George Sound

Within months, ship carpenters from the Amity and other visiting vessels were repairing and building boats along the harbour.

As Albany developed, boatbuilding remained largely driven by demand, with wealthy settlers commissioning vessels as needed.

Many were built in simple clearings beside the Kalgan and King rivers, where sawpits and skilled tradesmen transformed local timber into working boats that kept the isolated settlement connected.

“Without ships you were lost,” Ms Spillekom said.

“Travelling to Perth took longer than sailing overseas or to the east coast, so the amount of energy they had to put into building and maintaining boats was enormous.”

Visitors can explore that history through photographs, original drawings, woodworking tools, books and detailed ship models, alongside displays featuring vessels including the Pelican, Ada, Avina, Dan and Silver Star.

Another feature includes ships that met their end along Albany’s coastline.

The star of the display, however, is a tribute to the remarkable community effort behind the replica Amity.

Completed in 1976 under the leadership of the late Stan Austin, with the help of Rod Olsen, Pieter van der Brugge and using ancient boatbuilding techniques, the vessel remains moored beside Princess Royal Harbour as one of Albany’s most recognisable attractions 50 years later.

Mr Olsen and Mr van der Brugge attended the opening of the exhibition last month alongside their families, and two of Mr Austin’s daughters — Shanti Bezard and Janet Austin.

“People like the Austin family preserved hundreds of photographs, newspaper clippings and council reports,” Ms Spillekom said.

“Everything had a place somewhere, and together it tells an incredible story.”

Ms Spillekom said Albany’s maritime heritage continued to thrive through the dedication of volunteers, community organisations and museums

“Albany has so much more to give,” she said.

“There are lectures, festivals, children’s activities and so many people willing to share their knowledge. It’s amazing what the community has achieved.”

Fifty years on, the vessel remains moored beside Princess Royal Harbour as one of Albany’s most recognisable attractions.

The free exhibition is open daily from 10am to 4pm at the Museum of the Great Southern and weekly Tuesday lectures throughout July will delve further into Albany’s rich maritime history.

Ms Spillekom will also host curator talks each Wednesday morning.