By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Jan 17: Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has disclosed that the Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum at Jalan Gambier here has reached 86 per cent completion and is set to open to the public by the end of this year.
Abang Johari stated that the museum was proposed during his tenure as Minister of Tourism, when both the Kuching Waterfront and Brooke Dockyard were upgraded.
He went on to say that the Brooke Dockyard has its own history, having been founded during the reign of Rajah Charles Brooke to serve as a hub for shipbuilding and ship repair industries in Sarawak.
“So, with such a historical background, when I became the Tourism minister, since we already had a shipyard far from the city of Kuching, and it (Brooke Dockyard) no longer functioned as a shipyard, that’s why we proposed to restore the Brooke Dockyard area and change its function as a historical place with a connection with the shipping and maritime industry.
“We have also allocated a total of RM42 million for the upgrading costs of the Brooke Dockyard,” he told reporters following a walkabout at the Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum here today.
The Premier also noted that another RM5 million is required for interior decoration of the ship replica of HHY Zahora.
“I came here today to identify a few places that must be preserved in the Brooke Dockyard area.
“One of them is the crane from the Brooke era. The second is the machine materials, as the machinery here is old. And this will be one of our exhibits in the shipbuilding and maritime industry.
“And we will upgrade this place as a leisure place, and perhaps we will have a restaurant here.”
Abang Johari emphasised that the museum is significant in several ways as it signifies the beginning of the development of the shipbuilding industry in Sarawak.
The presence of the museum also attests to a time where trade and commerce activities were carried out only through ships and that it bears testimony to the link between the administration and people of a time past.
Earlier, the Premier witnessed the contract signing between Brooke Holding Sdn Bhd (BHSB) and Sarawak Shell Berhad for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of Fixed Offshore Structure Works for F6 VLAP Compression Project at the Hikmah Exchange Event Centre (HEEC) here. — DayakDaily
