The “First Fleet Piano” is part of a multi-million dollar collection of newly restored instruments gifted to WAAPA.

Arguably the most important piano in Australia – the first ever to have arrived on Australian soil as part of the First Fleet of 1788 – will find a new home at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. The “First Fleet Piano” is one of 130 historically significant pianos collected by Stuart Symonds that will soon become the Stewart Symonds Collection at Edith Cowan University’s WAAPA.

WAAPA’s procurement of the instrument has been facilitated by Australian pianist and conductor Geoffrey Lancaster, who worked closely with Symonds while writing his book The First Fleet Piano: a musician’s view, which documents the history of the instrument. The HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which left from Portsmouth, England in 1787, taking the best part of a year before arriving in Botany Bay. Aboard it was a simple English square piano, which was brought into the country on the Sirius by Ship’s Surgeon, George Worgan.

“This is an extraordinary gift to WAAPA and one that we are very excited about,” Lancaster says, “The acquisition of the First Fleet piano, let alone the acquisition of one of the world’s most significant historical keyboard collections, is a major boon for the cultural and academic life of WAAPA and ECU. But most importantly it’s something that the people of Western Australia can happily own. This is a wonderful thing for WA to have.”

In addition to playing it himself, Worgan also gave lessons on the instrument to Elizabeth McArthur, the first documented piano student in the country. “This is the first piano in Australia and the first piano upon which piano lessons were given, by the first piano teacher in Australia. There’s a whole cloud of cultural significance associated with this particular instrument,” says Lancaster.

Symonds put together his collection to celebrate the design and innovation of the piano over time, but many of the instruments are not in playing order. WAAPA intends to restore the pianos so that their music can be enjoyed again. “We have quite a task in front of us,” Lancaster says, “thankfully there are experts in the world who have devoted their life’s work to understanding how best to restore important keyboard instruments from the past.” The restoration will also lead to new avenues of research and education for the university, Lancaster expressing the hope that WAAPA will ultimately be able to offer courses in instrument restoration “so that we can lead Australia in this regard.”

The piano will be flown from Sydney to Perth (shipping it by train could endanger the instrument’s 18th-century animal glue) and will be the first instrument of the Stewart Symonds Collection to arrive at WAAPA. The remaining instruments will arrive later this year.

“The collection I’ve put together has taken on its own identity that is more important than I am,” says Symonds, “WAAPA fully appreciates what the collection is and recognises its world importance. By giving these pianos to WAAPA, they will be there for all who come for hundreds of years. Students, observers, and people of all sorts of interests will find it a wonderful resource.”