Fremantle Museums and Collections’ Ian MacLeod retires

Fremantle Museums and Collections executive director Ian MacLeod went out on a high as he was conferred a Fellow of the WA Museum.

WA Museum chief executive Alec Coles said Dr MacLeod had made a significant contribution to the museum through his work in shipwreck conservation and the preservation of Aboriginal rock art.

“Ian came to museum conservation from an electrochemistry background and it was the minerals that formed on the copper sheathing of ships’ hulls that drew him to the WA Museum as a research officer in 1978,” he said.

“Since that time he has developed a formidable reputation as one of the world’s leading experts in conservation science and his services continue to be in great demand on internationally significant projects.

“There are certain individuals whose name and profile are so inextricably linked with the WA Museum that it is hard to imagine the Museum without them and there is no one who better fits that description than Ian MacLeod.”

Dr MacLeod has worked on the conservation of Australian WWI submarine AE2, preserved artefacts found on four VOC shipwrecks off the coast and has worked on the 1697 de Vlamingh Plate, an inscribed pewter plate considered to be one of Australia’s oldest and most treasured historical records.