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Gokstad Longship Project

A replica of the Gokstad longship will soon be built by the Australian Viking Ships Museum. One reason for doing this is that ships of the Gokstad tradition are part of the heritage of so many Australians.

The map (on the left) shows the Viking-era trading routes used by ships like Gokstad.

Such ships played a huge role in the histories of many of the peoples who make up the contemporary Australian population.

These include the English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Icelanders, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Russians, Poles, Dutch, Germans, Belgians, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, Ukrainians, and Greeks.

Not able to be shown on the map are Greenland (a major source of luxury goods for all of medieval Europe), and Canada (visited by the Vikings for its timber and furs).

Many experts believe that ships of the Gokstad tradition also visited what is now the USA.

Every effort will be made to involve members of these communities in the Australian Gokstad project.

Various other modern nations have already celebrated this brilliant technological milestone in their histories by building their own recreations of Gokstad.

The proposed Australian replica will be the centrepiece of a new museum that will help all members of the community to learn and understand more about our Australian heritage, and will also equip them to interpret this heritage in terms of science, technology, human behaviour, history, art, economics and culture.