The Wreck of the Ex-Slaver James Matthews

This contribution presents the progress of investigations into the wreck of the ex-slave ship James Matthews, wrecked off Western Australia in 1841. The James Matthews wreck site preserves many elements of the vessel’s structure, with the result that the basic architecture of an actual transport vehicle of the Middle Passage has been recorded in detail and can be analyzed in depth by maritime archaeologists working in tandem with naval architects. The discovery of the James Matthews wreck has made possible cross-disciplinary research of a type not previously feasible for the illegal period of slavery in the Atlantic.     

The first record of a Maastrichtian ammonite from the Perth Basin,Western Australia,and its biostratigraphical significance

The first known ammonite from the Maastrichtian of the Perth Basin, a single, incomplete specimen of Grossouvrites gemmatus (Huppé, 1854), is described from core material from the Lancelin No. 1 borehole. Foraminiferal and nannoplankton evidence date the ammonite as middle Maastrichtian; its age is also assessed on the basis of dinoflagellate assemblages from this section, but these give a less precise dating. The position of the ammonite with respect to a mid-Maastrichtian disconformity, which probably extended along much of the Western Australian margin is discussed.