ANCODS stakeholders in Australia are the Commonwealth and Western Australian State governments as well as the Western Australian Museum and the Australian National Maritime Museum which act as custodians and/or repositories of the Australian ANCODS collection.

The two appointed committee members are historians Professor Geoffrey Bolton AO, chairperson of the Archaeology Advisory Committee of the Western Australian Maritime Museum and Western Australian of the Year 2006; and Doctor John Bach AM, chair of the ANCODS committee and former president of the Australian Association for Maritime History.

The Western Australian Museum

The Western Australian Museum in Perth was established in 1891 as the 'Perth Museum'. Shipwrecks are an important part of the museum's curatorship and feature prominently in the museum's maritime branch, the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle. It was through the discovery of the four VOC shipwrecks: Batavia, Vergulde Draeck, Zuytdorp and Zeewijk that the museum was delegated responsibility for the sites in 1963 under what became the Maritime Archaeology Act 1973. In 1976, responsibility for all shipwrecks below the Low Water Mark was given to the Commonwealth Government, under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976.

From 1971, the newly formed Department of Maritime Archaeology undertook a series of excavations, first on the Vergulde Draeck, then on the Batavia; later excavations were also carried out on the Zeewijk and Zuytdorp. This work was financed by the Western Australian State Government and as a result the ANCODS was set up, acknowledging the state's involvement in this work. Currently the museum holds in the ANCODS collection about 14500 artefact records representing 85,800 individual objects and 12,500 numismatic records representing 38,245 individual coins.

The Australian National Maritime Museum

The Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney was opened in 1991 at Darling Harbour, an important site in Australia's maritime commerce. Its aim is to bring Australia's maritime heritage to life and preserve it for future generations. The initial National Maritime collection was created during five years leading up to the museum's opening.

It was during this time that they were allocated ANCODS artefacts as part of the transfers from other Commonwealth collections. Artefacts from the ANCODS collection form the backbone of its display on Australian-Dutch maritime history.

In 2006 both museums collaborated to host an international symposium in Fremantle and Sydney commemorating the 400th anniversary of Dutch-Australian maritime links.

Australian National Maritime Museum