The Museum
The Wireless Hill Museum is situated within Wireless Hill Park in Ardross and hosts regular exhibitions, educational talks, school holiday activities, and a Museum Learning Program.
The Museum building is located within the old Engine Room of the original Wireless Station established in 1912. The Wireless Station was one of Australia’s first links with radio technology, used for telecommunications during World War One and World War Two.
Using Morse Code, the Station communicated with ships off the Australian coast using a mast that was 120 metres (396 feet) tall. In 1968 the Wireless Station was vacated and it is now listed on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places.
See more information on the historical timeline of the Wireless Station.
Wireless Hill has been a place of communication for thousands of years, as it was previously used by the Noongar Beeliar Aboriginal people as a lookout and a place to send smoke signals.
Opening Hours
The Wireless Hill Museum is opened:
- Wednesdays, 10am to 2pm
- Fridays, 10am to 2pm
- Sundays, 12 noon to 4pm
Excluding public holidays
Museum staff are on site between Tuesday and Friday, and group bookings can be arranged for other days and times by contacting staff by phone or email. We are also open for school group bookings on Wednesdays and Thursdays. For more information see the Museum Learning Program.
Contact Details
Phone: 9364 0158
Email: wireless.hill@melville.wa.gov.au
Postal Address: Wireless Hill Museum Locked Bag 1, Booragoon, WA 6954
Location
Wireless Hill Museum is in Wireless Hill Park, Telefunken Drive (extending from Almondbury Road), Ardross.
The Wireless Hill Museum Collection
The Wireless Hill Museum collection consists of objects, photographs and documents that relate to telecommunications and the site itself. These include remnants of the Wireless Hill station, Morse Code equipment, electronics, QSL cards, transmitters and receivers.
Some industrial relics such as steel cabling and glass conductor fragments were recently unearthed during an archaeological site dig near the mast base in 2012. A rare set of plate glass negatives found onsite at the Hickey Street Cottages also form part of the collection.
The Wireless Hill Museum also houses an extensive collection of domestic radios, some of which were manufactured in Western Australia and are very significant to the state's history.
Melville Milestones
Make your Memories a part of Melville's history!
The City of Melville became a city in May 1968 and 2018 marks the 50th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion we have collected objects, stories and photos connected with the last 50 years, for an exhibition called 50 Objects, 50 Years Melville.
Focusing on the people of Melville and the businesses they worked for and the places they socialised at e.g. we are still searching for a poster from a gig at the Booragoon Hotel, a ticket from a movie at the Mellway Drive-in or a photo of a family visiting the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop on Canning Highway - the first fast food outlet in Perth!
You can also submit your memories online below, or if they are hard copies, pop in and speak to our friendly Museum staff at Wireless Hill Museum. For more information call 9364 0158 or email wireless.hill@melville.wa.gov.au.
Current Exhibition
50 Years 50 Objects
50 Years 50 Objects celebrates the 50th anniversary of the City of Melville, through an eclectic range of objects that have been grouped together to tell their own stories, all in some way connected to the Melville story of the past 50 years.
On show at Wireless Hill Museum from 25 February to end of December 2018.
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A Centenary of Wireless Hill celebrated the 100th anniversary of Wireless Hill Station in 2012. The Centenary of Wireless Hill exhibition setup took place over 5 days in September 2012, in the lead-up to the Centenary Celebrations.
Home Front / War Front explored the significant role that Wireless Hill played in both World Wars, under control of the Australian Navy. The exhibition also looked at the lives of ordinary people in our community of Melville, and how they were touched by the war experience - be it on the front line, or here at home.
An exhibition held in partnership with the Vintage Gramophone & Wireless Club of WA, Radiosonic! showcased radios and objects from both collections and told the story of the role that Wireless Hill played in the history of this loved form of communication. Radiosonic was accompanied by a series of free Sunday Radio Talks at Wireless Hill Museum.
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John E. Maloney's exhibition Botanica is a collection of fine art photography, bringing to life the beautiful flowers which were first collected in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries around the Australian coast. Botanica is an Art on the Move touring exhibition.
The City of Melville, in partnership with the Morsecodians Fraternity of Western Australia proudly presented The Wire: A History of Morse Code at Wireless Hill Museum. Please view the Exhibition Booklet or flyer for more information.
Wireless Hill Museum, in partnership with Art On The Move, presented Machines & Makers − an exhibition displaying a healthy obsession for sewing machines, which captures the extraordinary history of a disruptive technology from the 19th Century that changed the world. Curated by Jude van der Merwe, the exhibition took us through the magic of creating stitch, texture and beauty, and reflects on the disposable clothing culture of the 21st Century.
The twelve artists’ various approaches were broadly grouped into three areas of investigation − the political, social and economic differences made by the inventions, many of which are seen through the lens of memory.
Image: Judith Forrest – Back Stitch: Decorating with needles (detail), 2016, oil on canvas.
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