Protector Revealed: An Initiative to Archaeologically Document, Interpret and Showcase an Historic Australian Warship with Laser Scanning Technology

Her Majesty's Colonial Ship (HMCS) Protector was one of Australia's first purpose-built warships. It served the colonial navy of South Australia between 1884 and 1901 and was later a fleet asset of both the Commonwealth Naval Forces and Royal Australian Navy. Following service in the First World War, Protector was decommissioned and spent over a decade as a civilian transport before again being placed in military service during the Second World War. It was subsequently damaged in a collision and scuttled as a breakwater on the Great Barrier Reef in 1944. In 2013, the South Australian Maritime Museum spearheaded a laser scanning survey of Protector as part of a larger initiative to archaeologically document the site and virtually showcase it within a centenary exhibition marking the outbreak of the First World War. What follows is a brief synopsis of Protector's history, a discussion of methodologies employed to document its surviving remnants, and how digital data obtained during the project are being utilized in the site's ongoing interpretation and exhibition.