In early 2012 the Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project (AHSPP) was awarded a large Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, enabling ten Partner Organizations to join with three Australian universities in one of the largest multi-organizational maritime archaeology projects to be undertaken in Australia. A grant of AUD$500 000 was awarded to investigate the excavation, recording and in-situ reburial of wooden shipwrecks and their associated artefacts. It was duly noted that to be a truly national research project, more than one at-risk historic shipwreck site should be included in the in-situ preservation study for comparative analysis, but this was dependent on available funds following the first reburial trial. The wooden trading vessel Clarence (1850) in Victoria's Port Phillip Bay was chosen as the initial case study. However, after careful examination and prudent project management, expansion to a second site was possible. Thus, the ex-slaving vessel James Matthews (1841) in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia, was chosen as the second case study. It was imperative that both sites met a number of criteria, including that the site was: identified to be 'at-risk'; logistically accessible under available project resources; previously researched, monitored and excavated; and, that the current managing heritage agency supported AHSPP's research design and agreed to on-going, long-term monitoring.