of modern whaling. The sealing vessel Cap Nor (346 tons) was purchased and her auxiliary engine was upgraded and she was fitted out for whaling. Renamed Antarctic, the vessel left Norway on 20 September 1893 and after sealing at Kerguelen Island en route arrived at Melbourne on 24 February 1894. Antarctic left Melbourne in April 1894 and briefly cruised off Tasmania before heading for the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island, returning to Melbourne five months later. Norwegian firms established shore-based whaling stations in Western Australia at Frenchman’s Bay near Albany in 1912 and at Point Cloates in 1913. The Australian Whaling Commission established another whaling station in Western Australia in 1949 at Carnarvon. Norwegian factory ships and catchers sailing to and from the Antarctic would call at Hobart for provisions, men and repairs. They also tried whaling off the coast of Tasmania. A factory ship reached Tasmania in January 1912 and took 1,599 barrels of oil off the coast. Another factory ship took just 480 barrels of oil off the coast of Australia but found a single piece of ambergris that weighed 1,003 lbs, the largest ever recorded till that time, which sold in London for £23,000. By 1956 there were six whaling stations operating in Australia. Three were in Western Australia, at Frenchman’s Bay, Point Cloates and Carnarvon. One was located at Tangalooma in Queensland and another at Byron Bay in New South Wales. The sixth was on Norfolk Island. Overfishing caused the collapse of the humpback population by 1962 and a shift in focus to sperm whales. Overfishing also saw the closure of some whaling stations before the government ban on the industry was introduced. The whaling station at Tangalooma, Queensland, on Moreton Island alone harvested and processed 6277 humpback whales between 1952 and 1962 and contributed to the crash in the eastern Australian humpback population and forced the closure of the Tangalooma, Byron Bay and Norfolk Island whaling stations in 1962. There are a number of heritage institutions connected with the whaling industry in Australia. These include the Eden Killer Whale Museum in southern New South Wales and the Cheyne Beach Whaling Station (now known as Albany's Historic Whaling Station) in Western Australia. The largest collection of Australian whaling ship log books is held by the W L Crowther Collection in the State Library of Tasmania. The abolition of whaling in Australia In 1978 the Federal Government