[updated 17/04/2015]
Under a MYR 5 million conservation project, the restoration of the fort building has been completed. The interior has been refitted as a heritage museum. The site will re-open on Sat. 18 April 2015 under the management of the Sarawak Museum Department.
re- Fort Alice restoration, March 2014
The massive iron wood structure, dating from 1864, is one of the earliest forts of Sarawak’s Brooke era. It has been carefully dismantled and reassembled piece by piece. Research on the fort’s history and on the craftsmanship used at the time of construction produced valuable information which was used as much as possible in the reconstitution process, in line with state-of-the-art heritage conservation practices.
SHS was involved in a MYR 40,000 community engagement project entitled “Reminiscing Forgotten Treasure… Simanggang” * which accompanied the conservation project per se. . The community engagement project was concluded by a special event that took place on 11-12 April 2015, one week ahead of the official re-opening of the fort cum museum. [See our About/Activities and Projects page and detailed Activities Records on our Archive page].
In the media :
- “Alice in Foreverland” – article by Karen Shepherd, SHS President, in Kuching In and Out (KINO) Nr.12, March-April 2015
- “Fort Alice given a new lease on life” – article by reporter Irene C. in The Sunday Borneo Post, 1 Feb. 2014 [pdf ]
See also : a research paper on Fort Alice : “Fort Alice – Syncretic Architecture in Sarawak under the Brooke Regime”, John Ting, 2006. [With permission of the author. Originally published in ‘Contested Terrains: Conference Proceedings, edited by Terence McMinn, John Stephens, Steve Basson, pp. 543-49. Perth: SAHANZ, 2006] [7 pages, 0.1MB]
* ‘Simanggang’ is the old name of Sri Aman town – located about 190km from Kuching (approx. 3 hours by road).
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