This volume is dedicated to my wife Melissa for indulging me while I finally got this whale off my back, and to my parents John and Rosemary Gibbs and my siblings Steve, Russ, Jenni and their partners and children for ensuring my survival the first time around.

For their intellectual and/or practical support and encouragement in the revision into this current volume I would particularly like to thank David Roe, Rodney Harrison, Brad Duncan, Kathryn Przywolnik, Shane Burke, Annie Clarke, Sarah Colley, Mary Casey, Denis Gojak, Eleanor Casella, Judy Birmingham, Susan Lawrence and Peter Davies who also proof read the volume.

I will not repeat the original acknowledgements in full, in part because of their size, but also because this was the only part of the original dissertation which attracted the ire of the examiners. In retrospect I might have been a bit more formal and restrained in my fulsome explanations of peoples’ contributions, although it still seems to me that in the marathon that is a PhD there isn’t necessarily a huge gap between the intellectual and personal wellbeing of the student. That said, this time for the sake of brevity I will simply list them.

Previous researchers: The late Ian Heppingstone of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society and National Trust of Australia (W.A.) who wrote the original history of shore whaling in Western Australia was kind enough to discuss his work several times. Dr Michael Pearson and Mr Jack MacIlroy also generously discussed their previous archaeological research on the whaling sites of Western Australia and Mr MacIlroy also kindly provided permission to use his site plan of the Bathers Beach tryworks excavation.

Supervisors: Thanks to Prof. Sandra Bowdler (who did two stints separated by 6 years), Prof. Ian Lilley and Dr David Bulbeck for their advice and support before, during and after the process.

Field and laboratory assistants: Special thanks to Donald Lantzke who was my main assistant for most of my fieldwork and Fiona, Conner and Mark Bush for undertaking the huge task of sorting the ceramics. My apologies to anyone I have forgotten:

and UWA students Emma, Justine, Jenny, Kerri, Graeme and Rachel (whose surnames I neglected to record).

Fellow postgraduate students and colleagues: (Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia) for sharing the experience in what was sometimes an exciting and eventually a challenging period.

Professional colleagues who provided advice or kindly sent copies of documents and sources. I have listed their associations at the time of the original research:

Dr Moya Smith & Alex Baynes (WA Museum)

Dr Mike McCarthy (WA Maritime Museum)

Dr Lenore Layman (Murdoch University)

Denis Gojak (National Parks and Wildlife, NS.W.)

lain Stuart (Victoria Archaeological Survey)

Dr Peter Bell (Sth Aust. Dept of Environment)

Dr Michael Pearson (Aust. Heritage Commission)

Dr Nigel Prickett (Auckland Institute and Museum)

Mike Nash & Kathy Evans (Tas. Parks and Wildlife)

Justin McCarthy & Diana Coultas (Austral Archaeology)

Funding: I received a three year Australian Postgraduate Award and a small National Estate grant via the National Trust of Australia (WA). The National Trust of Australia (W.A.) and its C.E.O. Tom Perrigo also allowed me study time on the project while in their employ.

Site access: The Shire of Albany kindly permitted me to excavate at Cheyne Beach and Whaling Cove (Barker Bay), while the Dept. of Conservation and Land Management (WA) gave permission to survey several sites under their control.