Scale model of HM cutter MERMAID

HMCS MERMAID was an 84 ton cutter that undertook several important survey voyages between 1817 and 1820. It had associations with many significant figures in the early colony of NSW.

Lieutenant Phillip Parker King made four voyages to unsurveyed areas of the south and northwestern coastlines between December 1817 and April 1822. The first three were in HMCS MERMAID, purchased by Governor Macquarie in 1817. Among the crew of the first voyage were the botanist Allan Cunningham and Bungaree, an Aboriginal man from the Broken Bay area who had previously travelled with Matthew Flinders.

The ship was badly damaged on the third expedition but re-fitted and used as a transport ship until it foundered in the Great Barrier Reef in 1829.

The wreck was rediscovered by a team of maritime archaeologists led by the Australian National Maritime Museum in early 2009. The model constructed by Richard Keyes was given to the museum at this time.