Welcome to our Swan River Heritage Project
We would like to acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people – Traditional Owners of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River). We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
MAAWA has been established since 1974, and its members represent the amateur division of the Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
We are primarily an Archaeology and Maritime History Association,
Many members do dive but we have members that don’t.
We carry out research into newly discovered and existing shipwrecks and all things historical about the Swan and Canning rivers.
This project was inspired by continuous research by members starting with a book published in 1981 of Swan & Canning River Wrecks by Colin Scrimshaw MAAWA.
History of the Swan River
The Swan River flows through Perth, Western Australia – from the Avon to sea at Fremantle. The Swan River has always been central to Perth’s landscape and history, as a place for life, industry, and recreation.
Aboriginal people have lived in the area for over 40,000 years. The Whadjuk Noongar are the Traditional Owners of the area, including the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River)
Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, visited the river in 1697. He named it “Swarte Swaene-Revier” (Black Swan River), after the black swans that are native to the area.
The Swan River Colony was established by the British in 1829, led by Captain James Stirling. The City of Perth was founded on the banks of the river as the Colony’s administrative centre. Perth is now the capital of Western Australia.
The river served as a crucial transportation and trade route, with much of early Perth built on stone and timber transported by Swan River barges. The shape of the river itself was changed as part of this maritime industry, with blasting at the river mouth establishing an estuary, and dredging of riverbed maintaining navigable channels.
MAAWA works to better understand the river’s history by documenting the Maritime Heritage Sites. Shipwrecks, jetties, boat sheds and other maritime infrastructure all form part of this story.
For more information, please visit our websites:
Our grateful thanks to
For their generous funding
Our thanks for Photographs and information
WA Maritime Museum
Battye Library WA
State Library of WA
Royal Historical Society of WA
Members of MAAWA
Members of Claremont MENS SHED Photography group