Welcome Walls

The Albany Welcome Walls honour the many people who arrived in Western Australia through the port of Albany, beginning new lives far from their homelands. For more than 180 years, migrants, convicts, settlers and travellers stepped ashore here, bringing with them languages, traditions and stories that helped shape the State we know today.

Located beside Princess Royal Harbour, the Welcome Walls form a striking outdoor walkway that connects the Museum’s Residency Building with the Amity Precinct and the Kinjarling Trail. The boardwalk follows the path many new arrivals once took as they stepped onto Australian soil.

The design reflects these journeys. Timbers from the original Albany Town Jetty are built into the boardwalk — the same jetty many migrants would have walked along when they first arrived. Coloured bands along the top of the walls reference the funnel colours of the passenger steamships that carried people across the oceans to Western Australia.

Inscribed on the walls are hundreds of names, alongside the ships and years in which people arrived. Each name represents a personal story of courage, hope and change. Together, they recognise the generations of people who came from around the world and helped build the communities of Western Australia.

As you walk along the Welcome Walls, you are following a pathway that connects place, memory and arrival — a reminder that Albany has long been a gateway to new beginnings.