Brooke Dockyard museum to open by year-end

KUCHING: The Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum has reached 86 per cent completion and is scheduled to open by the end of this year.

Premier Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said the upgrading and improvement works at Brooke Dockyard were among the matters proposed when he served as the Minister of Tourism previously.

He said that Brooke Dockyard has its own history, serving as a place for shipbuilding and ship repair industries in the state of Sarawak.

Abang Johari poses for a photo in front of the replica ship, HHY ZAHORA. Photo: Ghazali Bujang

“So with such a historical background, when I became the Minister of Tourism, since we already had a shipyard far from the city of Kuching, and it no longer functioned as a shipyard, that’s why we proposed to restore the Brooke Dockyard area.

“We have also allocated a total of RM42 million for the upgrading costs at Brooke Dockyard,” he told reporters after a walkabout at the Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum here today (Jan 17).

He added that another RM5 million is needed for the interior decor in the HHY Zahora ship replica.

The purpose of the visit, he said, is to identify several places that must be preserved around the Brooke Dockyard area.

“One of them is the crane from the Brooke era. The second is the old machine here. And this will be one of our exhibits in the shipbuilding and maritime industry,” he added.

Abang Johari said the museum holds significance, firstly from the perspective of shipbuilding industry development.

Abang Johari listens to a briefing on Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum. Photo: Ghazali Bujang

“The second is the importance of ships at that time for trade and commerce activities.

“The third is as a link between the administration and the people,” he said.

Earlier, he witnessed the contract signing between Brooke Holdings 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 Hikmah Exchange Event Centre (HEEC) here.

Also present were Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah; Petros chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Hamid Bugo; State Financial Secretary cum BHSB director Datuk Seri Dr Wan Lizozman Wan Omar; and Senior Vice President Upstream Malaysia and Country Chair Shell Malaysia Siti Hurrairah Sulaiman.

Abang Johari tours around the Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum. Also seen on his left is Satok assemblyman Datuk Ibrahim Baki. Photo: Ghazali Bujang