"Archaeology as a discipline can tell us a lot about the past, especially when there are no written records, photos, and other documentation. We need archaeology to understand deep time and the human story."
Associate Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde
For 20 years, Flinders University Maritime Archaeology Program (FUMAP) has been expanding our knowledge of humanity’s deep past and teaching students from across the planet about the importance of maritime archaeology to our understanding of both human history and humanity’s future.
Students from as far afield as New Zealand, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Italy and the Netherlands have joined Australian students to study beside leading archaeologists such as Associate Professor Jonathan Benjamin, Associate Professor Wendy Van Duivenvoorde and Dr John McCarthy and gain practical experience on archaeological projects interstate and overseas. Our graduates have gone on to work professionally for underwater cultural heritage management agencies, museums and consultancy companies, as well as studying and teaching at universities all over the world
FUMAP has long been one of the best-regarded archaeological programs in the world, and the Graduate Program in Maritime Archaeology at Flinders is the top named degree of its kind in Australia.
Join us as we celebrate 20 years of creating history.
Top program in Australia
for the last 20 years
UNESCO UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology
Full member and past Network Coordinator (2015-2018)
Only dedicated master degree
in Maritime Archaeology in Australia
Significant contribution to ERA from Maritime scholars
including high impact journals
Flinders University’s first micro-credential:
MICR-PSDC Professional Scientific Diver
Track record of high-profile external research funding
including several ARC grants
Deep theoretical teaching across a broad scope of topics
Extensive practical training in scientific diving and underwater research
Field-based learning opportunities in unique locations – from shipwrecks to prehistoric sites to underwater indigenous cultural landscapes
Lead the continued development of maritime archaeology through international collaboration, research innovation, and exceptional training.
Encourage and support diverse cultural representation and participation throughout the field of maritime archaeology.
Drive innovative and cutting-edge research that produces job-ready graduates with solid academic training and scientific diving credentials.
Hear from maritime archaeologist Dr John McCarthy who is developing world-first AI technology that can help look for ancient submerged landscapes on the ocean’s floor.
Flinders Victoria Square, Level 1, Adelaide
9 am - 4 pm
Take part in the one-day workshop on recent trends, barriers and solutions, and practical approaches to Scientific Diving hosted by Flinders University and ANZSDA AGM.
Flinders Victoria Square, Level 1, Adelaide
9 am - 5 pm
Celebrating 40 years of AIMA and 20 years of Flinders University's Maritime Archaeology Program, the annual AIMA conference will take place in Adelaide this year. It will provide an opportunity to engage into dialogue around the meaning, approaches and lessons for ‘decolonising’ maritime archaeology, maritime museums, and underwater cultural heritage.
Sol Bar, Level 9, Sky City, Adelaide
5.30 - 7 pm
Join fellow graduates and staff to celebrate 20 years of teaching Maritime Archaeology at Flinders and catch up on exciting discoveries, dives, all the twists and turns of life and careers, and everything in between!
Jolleys Boathouse, Adelaide
6.30 - 9.30 pm
Join fellow conference attendees at Jolleys Boathouse. As part of the AIMA 40th-anniversary celebrations the dinner tickets are sponsored by AIMA providing a $40 discount.
Growing up in the Netherlands, a nation famed for its maritime heritage, Wendy van Duivenvoorde became fixated on the sea. Drawn to archaeology at university, she jumped at the opportunity to volunteer on dives at maritime archaeological sites, sealing her fate as a scholar captivated by the histories of the deep.
Dr van Duivenvoorde came to Australia to be involved in the study of the Batavia, a Dutch East India Company vessel built in Amsterdam that was wrecked on its maiden voyage on the West Australian coast, at a time when the waters of the southern hemisphere were largely uncharted – and 150 years before Captain Cook mapped Australia’s eastern coastline. The loss of the Batavia and the trail of mutiny and murder that followed the disaster fostered huge interest in the excavation of the wreck after it was rediscovered in 1963.
Born and raised amongst the Coastal Redwoods and Live Oaks of California, Jonathan spent his childhood in and around Monterey Bay, surfing, cycling, playing youth soccer and baseball and exploring his environment.
Australia’s maritime archaeology has been dominated by a European colonial narrative, but Jonathan’s fascination with deep time and appreciation of Indigenous archaeology has seen his project team significantly contribute to and expand our understanding of Australia’s past, and what may lie beneath the waves. This opens up an enormous new field of study in Australia.
Jonathan undertook his PhD in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. It was here that he combined archaeology with underwater field methods, which led to further studies of Neolithic and Mesolithic coastal sites. A new career opportunity beckoned, and in 2014 he moved to Adelaide to lecture at Flinders and continue his research.
Megan Lloyd
Middle Ages, history of the crusades, medieval historiography, and the literature and languages of medieval western Europe.
James McGowan
Australian history and feminist history, particularly gendered violence, the politics and experience of the reproductive body and Indigenous-settler relations.
Chris Shaw
Imperial and colonial histories, the histories of war and conflict, and the histories of migration and migrant control.
"I am exploring how the latest digital techniques can enhance our understanding of maritime heritage on a global scale."
Dr John McCarthy is a DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in Maritime Archaeology at Flinders University. His research focuses on digital innovation in archaeological methodology, submerged archaeological landscapes, and in European merchant vessels of the Early Modern period. As a Scientific Diver, John has led surveys of numerous shipwrecks dating from the 17th century onwards, and has been working on submerged ancient sites in the North Sea, the Baltic, the Levant and Australia. Dr McCarthy was part of the team that located and surveyed Australia's first sub-tidal Aboriginal archaeological site in 2020.
Currently, John is undertaking a 3-year DECRA Fellowship to investigate the potential for use of machine learning in prospecting for submerged archaeological landscapes around Australia. Much of his research involves synthesis of passive and active remote sensing data to create digital archaeological reconstructions for animations and virtual reality. Dr McCarthy also has an extensive background in archaeological excavation and survey, pre-development cultural heritage mitigation, strategic heritage studies, and has participated in Native Title proceedings.
“My passion for being underwater led me to gain unique SCUBA diving industry experiences worldwide. I'm sharing and teaching these skills and know-how in boating and diving to students while studying the maritime programme. With our Professional Scientific Diver course, our students can learn and complete the occupational diver certification that will allow them to participate in scientific diving work around the world.”
As lead SCUBA Instructor and Technical Instructor for the Maritime Archaeology Micro-credential – Professional Scientific Diver course, Hiro is a key member of the Flinders team.
Throughout his time with the program, he has helped procure the boat Bungaree as a research vessel, become an organisation member of the American Academy of Underwater Science to enable him to certify students as AAUS Scientific Divers, providing technical support to the Maritime Archaeology programme, as well as teaching the micro-credential courses.
Over a 46-year career as a practicing archaeologist, Associate Professor Mark Staniforth has participated in diving archaeology excavations on significant shipwrecks such as Pandora, William Salthouse, Clarence, Batavia and Sydney Cove. In the process he has increased the knowledge of maritime history, colonial trade, shipbuilding, shipwreck conservation practice, and the immigrant experience.
While working as curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney he had higher degree studies in his sights, choosing Flinders as the best University to complete his PhD.
“Flinders University was one of the few universities that taught and conducted research in historical archaeology. It was an eclectic, accepting and interesting university with highly respected archaeologists, including Vincent Megaw – a renaissance man and an outstanding scholar and the person who has inspired me the most in my academic life.”
"To understand how people lived on the coast in the deep past, we must look in the sea."
Chelsea's research focuses on archaeological sites that were inundated by sea-level rise. Thousands of years ago, these sites were on land, but as sea level rose, they eventually became submerged sites.
These archaeological sites are extremely important to better understand how people in the past lived along ancient coastlines and adapted to climate change. In many cases, these sites are incredibly well-preserved and enhance our knowledge of how people lived in these now-submerged landscapes.
During her PhD research, Chelsea was part of the Deep History of Sea Country project, which found the first submerged ancient Aboriginal sites in Western Australia. In her current role, she will be researching underwater sites off the coast of Israel.
Omaima Eldeeb's Honor Frost Foundation and UNESCO UNITWIN Underwater Archaeology Network funded PhD research investigated the amphorae remains from the Alexandrian and the north-western Egyptian coastline sites using a network analysis approach.
The research explored the region’s changing commercial ties and trade networks from the Hellenistic period until the late Roman period. It provided an understanding of how the economy of Alexandria was integrated within the broader Mediterranean world and quantified the economic implications of these interactions and other commercial connectivity.
For her research, Omaima won the Flinders Vice Chancellor's Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence in 2020 as well as the Best Student Paper Prize at the Annual Conference of the Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (AIMA) in 2019.
After a naval career as a hydrographic surveyor, Mick went on to teach practical navigation overseas while studying maritime archaeology. He joined the Flinders University Maritime Archaeology Program in its 10th year as an external student.
Mick returned to Australia to start a PhD in archaeology, and his research showed how people in the Persian Gulf adapted their common watercraft, and adopted new technology, in response to violent intrusions in their seas.
With a life-long fascination with shipwrecks, Mick followed his interests into a second career in maritime archaeology, working on projects in Australia, the Persian Gulf, India and Europe. His current research uses visual sources like rock art, models and paintings from seafaring cultures to find out how people explored, used and fought from the sea, and how they responded to pressures from other cultures they met on the way.
Graduate Diploma in Maritime Archaeology
Masters in Maritime Archaeology
Micro-credential - Professional Scientific Diver Certification
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