Wharf 7, 58 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont [E]: [email protected] [P]: 02 8204 3500
The Fleet’s Maritime Records & Research Centre holds an extensive collection of artefacts and records that have been assembled over a period of 50 years. These continue to grow as items of maritime interest are donated by generous donors.
The Centre is staffed entirely by volunteers and responds to a wide range of enquiries and search requests from both individuals and organisations on Australian maritime subjects with particular emphasis on Sydney and New South Wales.
The Centre is open every Thursday except for public holidays from 0900-1400 and may be visited by appointment.
The collections include:
Ship’s Plans of the Fleet’s vessels, as well as sailing ships, naval and merchant ships.
Photographs printed and digital, including images from numerous donated collections focused on maritime history.
Charts Navigational charts compiled by the British Admiralty, Australian Hydrographic Service and other organisations, together with many Pilot Books (sailing directions) covering some areas of these charts.
A highlight of this section is a set of 189 British Admiralty charts of the Australian coastline from late nineteenth to early twentieth century, bound into 18 portfolios.
Maps Various atlases and sheet maps including Lloyds Maritime Atlas providing a list of ports and shipping worldwide, and Sydney Harbour Trust handbooks from the early 1900’s showing the location of early wharves in the port of Sydney
Library More than 5,000 non-fiction books with maritime themes
Documents Over a thousand documents – certificates of competence, diaries, journals, letters, logs, and copies of analogue tapes of interviews with shipwrights, boat builders, yachtsmen, sail makers, merchant servicemen, etc
Ephemera Engravings, etchings, posters, sketches, paintings, postcards, and over a thousand artefacts including ship’s menus, timetables and souvenirs.
NB The centre does not hold passenger lists or crew lists and is unable to help with primary genealogical research