South Coast NSW History Stories

Wrecked in Wreck Bay, 15th January 1836. See the Hive.

The 13-ton schooner Elizabeth, sailing from Sydney to Port Phillip, encountered a strong south-westerly gale and tried to shelter in Batemans Bay. However, she ‘drove from her anchors’ on 7th November 1839, was driven ashore and broke up...

The 'Rover' was headed to Gabo Island with eleven convicts on board to build a lighthouse. A gale forced it back from Twofold Bay to Broulee, where it sought shelter. However, the vessel was driven onto the beach. 11 of those on board were saved thanks to the efforts of local settlers and local Aboriginals. 12 others perished...

The ‘Perseverance’ was apparently a wooden vessel that was wrecked somewhere in the Illawarra region in January 1842 (or maybe on 31st December 1841). All hands aboard were lost...

The "Swallow' was wrecked either entering or leaving Gerringong Harbour on 15th March 1842. The cause was the breaking of a warp (a light hawser used to manoeuvre a ship, usually when docking). The two people on board – an unnamed a man and an unnamed boy were drowned...

A collision with the cutter 'Harriett' resulted in the 'Rose' drifting ashore at Broulee where she was wrecked...

The 'Fly', with a cargo of potatoes, drifted onto rocks on the north side of Gerringong harbour in early March 1844...

The cutter Alexander foundered on a voyage from the Shoalhaven to Sydney on 16th April 1848. Three men lost their lives...

A 14-ton cutter, the ‘Industry’ was lost in Broulee harbour in late June 1845.

A 17-ton ship, the 'Dolphin', evidently ws lost on the South Coast in mid April 1849...

The 'Susan' struck the south bombora of Ulladulla Reef at 3am on 3rd July 1849. Her captain had been sailing too close to the coast...

The 340-ton wooden barque ‘Juniper’ left Liverpool in England in February 1850 and travelled to Oporto in Portugal where it was loaded with ‘a full cargo of wines in casks and cases’. It was headed for Sydney. Rounding the south-eastern tip of Tasmania it started to encounter ‘very thick weather and variable winds’.

On September 1st, the ship was just south of Jervis Bay where there were ‘heavy squalls from the south-east and east…the ship labouring very much’. Unfortunately, the ‘Juniper’ had sailed into Wreck Bay...

The ‘Jeannie Deans’ was a wooden schooner that had been built in Ulladulla. On 10th April 1851, whilst on a voyage from Sydney to Broulee, she was becalmed off Broulee and drifted on to the shore, where she was wrecked...

The ‘Amphitrite’, a wooden ketch, was driven ashore and was totally wrecked off Shellharbour on 15th June 1851...

The 26-ton, 12-metre wooden cutter Catherine was wrecked on 15 May 1851 at Bermagui River...

'Currency Lass' was wrecked when she was driven from her moorings and was washed ashore on Ulladulla Beach on 15th June 1851.

The breeze dropped soon after 'Twin Sisters' left Kiama harbour bound for Sydney and 'the fated vessel was irresistibly drifted by the force of the current and heavy swell on to the rocks, where she became a total wreck'...

We have found a single reference to a schooner, the Chase, being driven onto rocks and being wrecked whilst attempting to enter the Shoalhaven River in 1852...

We have found two separate single mentions of a ship named Margaret being wrecked off the NSW South Coast in 1852 - one a schooner in Twofold Bay, another a brig which went ashore a few miles north of Twofold Bay in July 1852 whilst bound from Melbourne to Sydney.

Somewhere on the NSW South Coast are 2,000+ oz gold waiting to be recovered - cargo that went down when the 'Favourite' foundered. Around 21 people lost their lives...

Two shipwrecks, one soon after the other, on and near Gabo Island led to the owner of one of these vessels, the 'Mary Wilson', building the first lighthouse on Gabo Island...

The 'Susan' was a small ketch that was driven ashore by a gale at Crookhaven whilst on a journey from Broulee to the Shoalhaven. The two people on board perished...

The Almeda was caught in a storm on 9th July 1863 when six miles north-east of Cape Howe. The crew abandoned ship...

On 11th October 1854 the crew were rescued from the 'Teazer' which was sinking offshore of Twofold Bay. The ship had been blown from Bass Strait by a 'heavy gale of wind', was severely damaged and had become unmanageable...

In April 1855 the 'Martha & Elizabeth' left Melbourne to sail to Newcastle. At 5.30pm on April 26th, Cape St George (the southern peninsula to Jervis Bay) was sighted. At that time it was windy with heavy showers of rain and it seems a heavy swell was running that pushed the vessel towards Point Perpendicular (the northern peninsula to Jervis Bay).

Around 8.50pm the wind dropped but the ship was driven by the heavy swell towards land. About 9.30pm the vessel hit rocks and was driven by the swell into a small gully. There ‘the vessel struck instantly, the sea breaking furiously over her’...

The 'Oliver Frost' left Sydney on 3rd October 1856 and, during the next evening whilst travelling south, her skipper ‘fancied the schooner was going out of her proper course, but owing to the darkness of the night he could discover nothing wrong’.

Four hours later ‘he discovered she had lost her rudder. Breakers were then just ahead, and she shortly afterwards struck on a rocky reef, about half a mile from the shore’...

Whilst on a voyage from Liverpool, the ‘Lawrence Frost’ arrived off Port Phillip Heads in
Victoria with a general cargo on the 17th August, 1856. It was planned that it be anchored just inside the heads until unfavourable winds abated. However, in attempting to anchor, one anchor was lost and a second anchor dragged. The ship ran ashore near the Port Phillip Quarantine Station and the hull was severely damaged.

After much of the 2,000 tons of cargo was offloaded, the ship was floated off and taken to Hobson’s Bay (the northernmost part of Port Phillip Bay) for repairs. She then sailed to Sydney to await additional repairs.

Two or three days later, the ‘Lawrence Frost’ was sighted north of Twofold Bay by the steamer ‘City of Sydney’. She was heading south to Twofold Bay – and was sinking!...

The 'Neptune', a small 15-ton ketch, 'parted from her anchors, and was driven against the rocks close to the jetty. Despite every effort to save her, she has become a total wreck.’...

The 'William Bowness' was sailing from Newcastle to Melbourne, laden with coal, when she ran aground in Twofold Bay in a thick fog...

The brigantine 'Retriever' was lost at sea in April 1857 whils sailing from Newcastle to Bluff in New Zealand. Some reports suggested ‘she was caught in a sudden squall off Cape Howe…all hands lost.’ However...

Little information has been found: The schooner 'Mounstbay' was wrecked on a bend of the Crookhaven River on 23rd May 1858. The cargo was saved with assistance from the crew of the 'Nora Creina' and two volunteers from on shore. No lives were lost...

The 'Vision' became a loss on the Pambula River bar in October 1858...

The 'Caroline' was on a voyage from Melbourne to Newcastle when, on 26th January 1859, she encountered a strong north-easterly wind off the coast from Jervis Bay. The captain put into Jervis Bay for shelter.

The following day, the ‘Caroline’ again put to sea, on this occasion with a ‘fresh southerly breeze’ blowing. However, just off Point Perpendicular the breeze ‘suddenly
fell calm’ and the vessel lost steerage only to drift onto the shore. ‘In in a very short time she became a total wreck’.

On the 28th May 1860 the barquentine 'Solon' hit rocks on the south side of Crookhaven Head while sailing from Sydney to Melbourne. The vessel broke up rapidly, one crew member was drowned...

With almost 100 passengers aboard, the 'City of Sydney' ran into fog. Its crew thought they were further out to sea than they actually were - an error they only realised when the vessel hit Green Cape!

The vessel sank so quickly that the last boat carrying passengers and crew away was struck by the auxillary steamer's falling masts, rigging and sails. Two of those on board were washed overboard...

Can you give us a hand researching them and writing up their stories for inclusion on this website? There are potentially 300 stories requiring work (far too many for our current resources!). If you are interested, contact us on 0448 160 852.

'The wind was S.S.E., the sea rather heavy, and an impenetrable darkness prevailed. There were on board two seamen' when the 'Echo' hit rocks off Bass Point...

The loss of the ‘Mimosa’ on 18th September 1863 is something of a mystery. It occurred during the day, in calm seas, in fine weather when a light north-easterly wind was prevailing, and on a coasting track that has been constantly traversed by vessels trading to and from Sydney for more than half a century. Two passengers died...

The ‘Mynora’ was the second vessel the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company lost in just over 6 months. Travelling from Moruya to Sydney, she struck a reef off St Georges Head and was then beached three miles north...

Two sailing ships were caught in the same storm and were wrecked at Crookhaven Heads - one was the 'Sarah Jane'. One crewman lost his life...