Bunbury Museum & Heritage Centre

Museum in Bunbury, WA

Bunbury has a unique and exciting history. For centuries it’s been a meeting place and has long been regarded as the second capital city of Western Australia. But Bunbury’s heritage has gone unrecognised. The city has very limited capacity to promote its historical identity and tell the stories of Bunbury people. That is now changing. Years of feasibility studies and community consultation have shown the Bunbury community wants to know its own history. Now these unique stories can be told at the Bunbury Museum & Heritage Centre, which is being developed in a perfect location right in the heart of Bunbury’s CBD.  

Schools now need local history resources for their students as part of the curriculum. Education programs will underpin all the activities offered by the Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre. An Education Centre will show how classrooms have changed over the past century, incorporating the best of the new technologies such as internet connections and digital media.

The Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre will be unique. Visitors will be able to hear the voices of the people who have lived in Bunbury, including the chance to hear the Noongar language of the area’s aboriginal people. These voices have never been heard by general audiences before. The ‘Street Stories;’ program launched in partnership with the National Trust will allow children and adults to develop their own stories of their neighbourhoods, choosing from drawings, online research, photographs, video, and family movies.

These are just a few of the resources which could then be exhibited as part of school activities at the Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre. The Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre team is already working to commemorate WWl in partnership with the Western Australian Museum and the Bunbury RSL, showing how the war to end all wars changed the community forever.

The Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre is developing a carefully targeted collection so objects will be able to show visitors just how much life has changed. Members of the Bunbury community have helped to develop collection themes which include the importance of the Bunbury Port, early settlers and migration. Visiting Exhibitions: Space has been planned for the Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre to be able to show traveling exhibitions in partnership with State and National museums, bringing cultural heritage to Bunbury for the first time. Discussions are well progressed to bring a national historic display to Bunbury – the only South West center to be offered the exhibition.