From Store to Museum

There are many clues in the Shipwreck Museum indicating that the building has seen many uses over the years. For most of its existence it was simply a store, with large, open spaces for stacking all sorts of goods. If you look up in the Dutch Wreck Gallery you may notice that some of the beams and rafters have dark staining on them, as if they had been scorched. The staining is caused by lanolin, from the bales of wool which used to be stacked right up to the roof in there. When the building closed as a store, a survey was done to ascertain what could be kept and what would have to go. Here in the Xantho Gallery you can see the massive overhead gantry, which used to run from one end of this room to the other. This has been left in place, as it had become an integral part of the building but, there was a problem. In order to make the two floors of the Museum accessible to the public stairways had to be fitted, which necessitated cutting out some of the floor, and a lift had to be installed. The problem with the construction of the lift was that the walls of the lift shaft were going to be right where the gantry rails were located. What to do, well, you can see the answer. The walls were built to enclose the gantry, and there it will stay. 

Elders Wood Sheds, Fremantle, November 1928
Credit: State Library of Western Australia, 211094PD

Lanolin from wool used to stain wood and also used for cosmetics
Credit: Public Domain, Jeran Renz