Albany's Historic Whaling Station

The Cheynes Beach Whaling Company operated at Frenchman Bay until November 1978, when it became the last whaling station to close in Australia and in the English-speaking world, ending an industry that had begun on this coast in the 1820s. It reopened as a museum in 1980 with the plant left largely as it was: the flensing deck, the boilers and pressure cookers, the oil tanks now used as theatres and exhibition spaces, and the whale chaser Cheynes IV moored alongside and open to walk through. The presentation is direct about what happened here, and the museum now sits alongside a strong whale-watching industry in the same waters.

History

Whalers were recorded at Cheynes Beach in the 1840s, and in the early 1950s a syndicate of eight fishermen headed by G. R. Birss and C. Westerberg formed the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, moving in 1952 to Frenchman Bay, where the station was built partly from old mining equipment and a distillation plant from Collie, with a flensing deck over a natural rock slipway. The first season's quota was 50 humpback whales, and the station produced 508 tonnes of whale oil in 1953 and over 1,016 tonnes from 120 whales in 1954; it operated until 1978 (Wikipedia, Cheyne Beach Whaling Station).

The main sights

• The flensing deck - the slipway and deck where whales were processed.
• The Cheynes IV - the whale chaser ship, boarded and walked through.
• The oil tanks - converted into theatres and exhibition spaces.
• The machinery - boilers, cookers and plant left largely in place.

When to go

Year-round; the museum opens daily with guided tours through the day. Winter combines well with whale watching from Albany, when humpbacks and southern rights are in the bays. Wind on the peninsula is constant.

Good to know

The subject matter is confronting, with explicit description and imagery of the processing, which upsets some visitors and particularly children. Entry is charged. The site is industrial rather than scenic, though the bay behind it is beautiful.

Nearby

Torndirrup National Park and the Gap are on the same peninsula; Albany is twenty minutes north.