The building at 66 Victoria Avenue, now part of the Freshwater Bay Museum complex, has functioned since it was built in 1862, as a school, a place of religious worship, a boarding house, police station and residence for police officers. In 1975 it was opened as the Town of Claremont’s Claremont Museum, the first Council initiated museum in Western Australia. A permanent exhibition tells the story of the Noongar connection to the land and to Freshwater Bay and the many uses of the original building. The historic boat shed on the Freshwater Bay foreshore is a key part of the Freshwater Bay Museum. It was donated to the Museum by the Mews family and moved from its Victoria Avenue site to its current location in 1996. In the past two years the Town of Claremont and the Museum have worked to upgrade the boatshed with two Lotterywest Grants for the Interpretation of Cultural Heritage and one Community Heritage Grant for Conservation from the National Library of Australia.