Shipwrecks
The waters off Fraser Island have become a graveyard for many ships over the years. The list of ships here is not exhaustive.
1836 STIRLING
CASTLE21 May
[Swains Reef]
1864
PANAMA 4 March
[Rooney Point Breaksea Spit]
1870 EVELYN
1871 JULIET (schooner) [Breaksea Spit]
1884 CHANG
CHOW 24 October [Breaksea
Spit]
1904 ARAMAC [Breaksea Spit]
1905 WAIWERA Breaksea Spit]
1914
MARLOO27 Sept [Marloo
Bay]
1930 A number of launches were lost off Double
Island Point on 3 st May
1935 MAHENO
8 July [Orchard Beach]
1937 HAIPING 13 March (last seen 15 March low in the
water 50k east of Sandy Cape)
1943 SS KOWORRA 24 April (sunk by the Japanese 60 k
off Sandy Cape)
1959 NATONE (also known as Fane Fijord, Wyatt Earp
and Wongala) 24 January
1962 BREAKSEA SPIT LIGHTHOUSE 6 June (by MV
Gladstone Star)
1967 BEAGLE (trawler) 2 April
STIRLING CASTLE
Fraser Island was named after a Scottish sea
captain, James Fraser and his wife Eliza. Under the
command of Captain James Fraser, the brig, "Stirling
Castle" set sail from Sydney for Singapore on 14 th
May 1836. A week later it was stranded on Swaines
Reef off present day Rockhampton. The survivors,
including Captain Fraser and his wife Eliza, took to
the boats and headed south to reach the settlement
at Moreton Bay. Several days later they beached on
K'gari, what is now named Fraser Island.
PANAMA,
was a 2 masted brig, 223 & 98/3500th tons, 86.0 x
21.2 x 14,5, built in 1849 in Quebec, by J.A. Roe
and Company. On 23 September 1851 her owners were
John Thompson & Alfred Maning of Hobart. Robert
George Gibbons of Launceston, Tasmania, purchased
her on 27 September 1851 and sold the vessel again
on 10 October 1851, when the registration was
transferred to S. G. Henty at Portland Bay,
Victoria.
CHANG CHOW
Place Name BREAKSEA SPIT
Latitude (Degrees o and Minutes' ) 24º 35' S
[Decimal Degrees -24.59841º]
Longitude (Degrees o and Minutes' )153º 15' E
[Decimal Degrees 153.25102º]
Feature Number=4417 1:100 000 map no. 9548
SG5603C4251411
MARLOO
The Adelaide Company continued to add new passenger
and cargo ships to their fleet. They did not have a
monopoly in the interstate passenger trade. The
Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN),
Howard Smith, McIlwraith, McEacharn, and Huddart
Parker all operated ships through Port Adelaide. In
June 1893 gold was found in Kalgoorlie and the
passenger trade to the 'West' became the glamour
trade until the end of the century. By 1897 there
were nineteen passenger steamers running to Western
Australia, and the demand for steerage passages was
so heavy that Adelaide Steamship's 2628-ton Marloo
and 2361-ton Wollowra, both built in 1891, were
fitted with extra accommodation in the holds and
could each carry up to 500 passengers.
Place name MARLOO BAY
Latitude (Degrees o and Minutes' ) 24º 54' S
[Decimal Degrees -24.91508º]
Longitude (Degrees o and Minutes' )153º 19' E
[Decimal Degrees 153.31769º]
Feature Number=21028 1:100 000 map no. 9548
SG5603C19762398
Information on this page courtesy of Manfred's Bushwalking.
