WOODEN BOAT SYMPOSIUM

Meet representatives from maritime museums around Australia and discover the organisations preserving the nation’s maritime heritage. Presented by the Australian Maritime Museums Council.

The Chinese Community Association of Tasmania explores the role of Chinese communities in Australia’s maritime heritage, while sailor and author Graham Cox of the Junk Rig Association demonstrates a working model of a Chinese junk rig and shows how this traditional sail design has beenadapted for modern yachts.

Browse a collection of books on seafaring, shipbuilding and maritime adventure, and settle in for a read between Symposium sessions. Presented by the Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania.

Join some of Tasmania’s working shipwrights for a panel discussion about the craft, skills and experience of building and maintaining wooden boats today.

Join us for the opening of the 2027 Wooden Boat Symposium, with an Acknowledgement of Country and official welcome before the weekend’s program begins.

Chris Bray shares the remarkable story of rebuilding a 29-foot junk-rigged sailboat and sailing it through the Northwest Passage, becoming the first junk-rigged vessel to make the crossing.

Graham Cox explores the history and practicalities of adapting yachts to junk rig, from Blondie Hasler’s pioneering Jester to the techniques used to convert and handle the rig today.

Aiko Ohno introduces ama diving, a centuries-old Japanese tradition of diving for marine resources, and shares her own journey from Tokyo photographer to ama diver in coastal Japan.

David O’Sullivan shares what he learned while documenting boatbuilding, sailing and maritime traditions in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, drawing on community stories, museum work and oral histories.

I Made Suparta and I Kadek Suarjana explore the origins, symbolism and traditional building of Bali’s jukung, including the ceremonies that bring the fishing boat to life and its enduring role in village life.

Jeffrey Mellefont explores the Macassan sailors who voyaged from Sulawesi to northern Australia, linking First Nations communities with Asia through centuries of maritime trade, boatbuilding and cultural exchange.

Samuel McLennan shares the story of HEART, a boat built from marine debris collected along Tasmania’s southern coast, and how discarded ropes, buoys and other waste became a vessel that sailed from Hobart to Sydney.

Iefke Van Gogh and Matt Morris share their seven-year journey building Tarkine, a 41ft Tasmanian Oak pilot cutter, from scratch with no previous boatbuilding experience.

An evening celebrating the D Class, bringing together sailors, builders and enthusiasts to share stories, history and the enduring appeal of these distinctive boats. Honouring the past, celebrating the future, and a party to follow!

Mark Chew shares a personal photographic journey among the dhow sailors of East Africa, exploring the construction, culture and working lives behind these traditional lateen-rigged craft.

Chiung Hsi (Jesse) Liu explores the revival of Taiwan’s traditional Indigenous bamboo sailing rafts, drawing on community knowledge, experimental voyages and plans for a future crossing of the Taiwan Strait.

Tim Stone traces the extraordinary journey of escaped convicts who sailed from Tasmania across the Pacific to Japan and China before eventually returning to England.

Dr Corioli Souter and Dr Howard Gray explore new research into the Batavia and Zeewijk shipwrecks, revealing how archaeology, archives and community perspectives are reshaping these remarkable VOC stories.

Dr Stephen Gapps explores the little-known history of Chinese-built junks and sampans in northern Queensland, where these versatile vessels supported fishing, transport, mining and even flood rescue.

Mirjam Hilgeman shares the story of Duyfken, one of the world’s few actively sailing VOC-era replicas, and how the vessel brings early 17th-century maritime history to life.

Celebrate 20 years of the Australian Register of Historic Vessels with Liam McGeagh and a panel of past and present contributors, reflecting on the Register’s history, highlights and future.

Hingor Chung explores the remarkable story of Zheng Yi Sao, the maritime strategist who commanded hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of pirates in the Pearl River Delta in the early 1800s.

David Perkins explores the unusual story of HMS Anson, an ex-warship that became a floating probation station for female convicts in Hobart during the transportation era.

Frances Walsh explores the lives of Aotearoa’s “ship girls”, women who formed relationships with visiting seafarers and were judged, stigmatised and sometimes criminalised for defying social expectations.

Settle in for a relaxed evening of short, visually driven stories from an eclectic mix of speakers. Each presenter has just 6.5 minutes and 20 images to share an idea, experience or story, with more show and less tell.