Blog post | 20-02-2017 | Robert de Hoop

Graeme Henderson (AM, Cit WA)

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 54 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.

Andrew Viduka (B.A., B.App.Sci., MMA) 

Andrew Viduka 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 Councilor 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 National Historic Shipwreck Program. Andrew is an ADAS Part 2 diver and has 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 searching for the Fortuyn shipwreck, an underwater survey of the Larnaca District of Cyprus, shared heritage management, Australian national capacity building projects and linking community outcomes with the discovery and protection of underwater cultural heritage.

James Parkinson (B.A.)

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.

Alex Moss (B.A. B.Sc. MSc)

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, B.Sc in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (2005) and B.A. 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.

Shinatria Adhityatama (S.S.)

Shinatria Adhityatama is from Jakarta, Indonesia and graduated as Bachelor of Archaeology from Gadjah Mada University in 2012. He’s one of the Indonesian Maritime Archaeologists who is currently working for National Research Center for Archaeologist (Puslit Arkenas) in Jakarta, Indonesia and has published peer reviewed papers.

Shinatria has been diving since 2006 and doing research on maritime archaeology since 2008. Since then he has been involved in domestic and international maritime archaeology projects and training. Some of the projects include: The exploration of German U-boat in Java Sea in 2013; The exploration of Prehistoric Maritime Culture in Misool Island, Raja Ampat in 2014; Survey the HMAS Perth (I) in Sunda straits in 2014; The exploration of Underwater Archaeology in the Outer Island of Indonesia: Natuna Island in 2015; Research for Shipwrecks in Belitung Island in 2015; and participated in the Underwater Archaeology Research and Field School in Selayar Island in 2015.

Robert de Hoop (B.A. Hons)

Robert de Hoop is from the Netherlands and is currently studying for his masters at the Maritime Archaeology Programme at the University of Southern Denmark. Robert completed a bachelor in Archaeology with Honors at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and has obtained his commercial diving IDSA level 1 ticket, Commercial SCUBA Diver. Robert's undergraduate thesis about predicting underwater cultural heritage was linked to an internship at the Maritime Programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.

Robert participated at: the International Fieldschool of Maritime Archaeology Flevoland, where he helped with the excavation of a ship on land (the OR49); in writing the process and best practice guidelines for the EU-project SASMAP; and the Oostvoornse Meer project with Computer Vision Photogrammetry. Robert is continuing his involvement in photogrammetry while involved in the Fortuyn Project as an intern.

Next: More insight in the thirty shipwrecks around Christmas Island