South Coast NSW History Stories

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

There is one report that we have found of the loss of a 5-ton cutter, the Agnes, on the 10th March 1865 after it was driven ashore and the four people on board reaching safety, and separate report of the Agnes being lost on 4th July 1865...

The 'Julie Heyne' was transporting coal from Newcastle to Adelaide when she started taking water in Bass Strait. The captain turned back towards Sydney. She reached Cape St George, off Jervis Bay, before the crew was forced to abandon ship. Had they had eight hours more fair wind they would have reached Sydney...

On 13th July 1865, laden with wood and carrying a crew of five, the 'Colina' was wrecked at the entrance to Wagonga Inlet. She was crossing the bar with a strong breeze from the south. It suddenly dropped and a powerful sea swell swept her onto the breakwater...

The 'Spec' was struck by a sudden squall and foundered a mile and a half off the coast of Gerringong. Two seamen lost their lives, one survived...

The ‘Ellen Simpson’ was a 297-ton wooden barquentine that had been built in the United Kingdom in 1847. Whilst sailing from Newcastle to Melbourne with a load of coal, she encountered a storm of such ferocity that the captain decided to beach the vessel to save the lives of the eleven crew members. He did this 30 miles south of Green Cape and 8 miles north of Cape Howe. Nine of the crew, including the captain, lost their lives...

The Hope was wrecked on Broulee Island in December 1866...

The 39-ton, 14-metre wooden schooner Porpoise was wrecked at Wagonga Heads, near Narooma, on the 16th May 1866. The vessel had been built at the Shoalhaven River in 1851...

'Lord of the Isles' was a small ketch that was in Kiama harbour, waiting to be unloaded, when a gale hit the area. The vessel was swept from the wharf, hit the bottom of the harbour and was holed, then was swept out of the harbour where it drifted to the north - but was last seen drifting south...

During a severe storm the J. G. Coleson, a schooner of 70 tons, laden with cedar from the Tweed River and bound for Sydney, was driven on the sand spit at the mouth of the Shoalhaven River, and became a total wreck...

The Prince Patrick, a 110-ton brigadine, sprung a leak in foul weather on a voyage from Newcastle to Melbourne and was beached on 23rd January 1867 just north of the entrance to Jervis Bay...

24th October 1867. The 'Aeolus', carrying a load of timber and bound for Sydney, was blown ashore in Jervis Bay and was wrecked...

Losing a sternpost from a sailing ship whilst at sea is catastrophic - and, that's what happened to the 'Picard'...

The 'Chippewa' was struck by a gale near Crookhaven Heads, struck a rock, drifted northwards and sank. Its crew rowed to shore. Later efforts to raise the vessel were unsuccessful...

The 263-ton brig ‘Ann and Maria’, bound from Newcastle to Melbourne, foundered in a gale on the morning of 5th July 1869. She was then ten miles south of Green Cape...

We’re treating the wreck of the ‘Duncan Dunbar’ in 1869 as a ‘maybe’...maybe at the entrance to the Crookhaven River, with the loss of three lives...

The 24-ton, 14-metre wooden ketch Mary Anne went ashore at the mouth of Tuross Lake and broke her back on 27th March 1869.

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Oops! The captain of the 'Rangoon' mistook the entrance to the Minamurra River for the entrance to Kiama Harbour and ended up wedging his vessel between two large rocks. This was on a dark and stormy night. A crowd of onlookers then watched (and occasionally helped with) salvage from the vessel and the rescue of the captain and crew...

At 10pm on 30th January 1870, the 'Camden' ran aground at Murramarang (south of Bawley Point near Brush Island) and quickly broke up. The weather at the time was described as very hazy and there was a fresh breeze blowing from the south-south-east...

The 15-metre, 34-ton ketch ‘Angus and Henry’ and the 17-metre, 31-ton schooner ‘Mary Cosgrove’ were sent to Murramarang to recover cargo from the ‘Camden’ that ran aground on 30th January 1870. On the evening of 19th February both vessels were caught by a southerly buster...

Whilst sailing up the east coast of Australia the 'Walter Hood' encountered a gale that stripped the vessel of its sails and swept one seaman overboard.

When land was finally sighted several days later (on Tuesday 26th April), the vessel was close inshore. It then did not have enough sail to beat out to sea, and was driven by the fierce wind onto a reef north of Bendalong where it began to break up...

A ship disappears. But where?

Some sources claim the ‘Dunkeld’ was lost at sea off Twofold Bay, others off Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. About the only thing they agree on is that it was in a severe storm on 27th June 1870 and that at least two lives were lost...

The schooner ‘Storm Bird’ was abandoned 3 miles from Green Cape in a storm on the 30th March 1870. She had been caught in a gale and was dismasted...

Another Wreck Bay wreck! - Summercloud Bay is named after this vessel.

Sent to salvage the 'Summer Cloud', the 'Maid of Riverton' was caught in a gale, was washed ashore, and was wrecked on Christmas Eve 1870.

Travelling from Newcastle to Adelaide with a load of coal, the 'Lanercost' was wrecked in heavy seas near Mowarry Point, Twofold Bay...

The ‘Coolangatta’ was a 30-metre, 87-ton side wheel paddle steamer owned by the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company. In February 1873, she was swept by a massive flood down the Shoalhaven River and out to sea...

Guess where the 'Rose of Australia' came to grief: Wreck Bay! On 22nd January 1874.

Yet another Wreck Bay wreck! The 'Sydney Morning Herald' of 13th February 1874 simply reported ‘The schooner ‘Mary’, of and from Melbourne, bound to Newcastle, was totally lost in Wreck Bay on the 8th February, during a heavy southerly gale. All hands saved.’

The 17-metre, 44-ton schooner Gipsy left Sydney on the 25th of July 1874. It was headed to Eden, but was lost at sea. It MAY have foundered on the South Coast.

The 'Bernard and Isabel' was caught in Kiama harbour on 2nd May 1875 by a violent easterly gale. Her master - against the advice of Kiama's pilot - attempted to take the vessel out to sea from the harbour. Unable to make a turn, she drifted onto rocks...

The schooner Minora was travelling from Adelaide to Brisbane in early 1875 with a load of flour and bran. She never arrived...

Only 40 of 105 aboard the steamer 'Dandenong' were saved when, in rough seas and off the coast of Jervis Bay, her propellor shaft broke, tearing a large hole in her hull...

The Ellen was beached at Tathra during a storm in February 1878...

In January 1878 the 'Jane Spiers' was travelling from Melbourne to Newcastle under ballast (to, presumably, load coal for transport to Melbourne which would be stockpiled for the then-increasing numbers of coastal steamers) when she struck rocks near Cape Everard (now Point Hicks, south of Cann River) in Victoria, when visibility had been limited by smoke from bushfires. Her captain thought he would be able to nurse the ship into Twofold Bay but was unsuccessful, the vessel sinking a few miles south of Green Cape. The crew was taken aboard another ship, the ‘Ellen White’, that had come to the aid of the ‘Jane Spiers’...

The 'Millewa' was a small ketch that, whilst attempting to enter Kiama Harbour, failed to successfully complete a tack and was swept into the breakwater by a heavy swell...

The steamer 'Monaro' was travelling from Sydney to Merimbula when, at 3.30am on an evening when it was raining heavily and extremely dark, she hit rocks off Bingie, about 6 miles south of Moruya Heads. She may have been steered closer to the coast than was usual so that she would pass inshore of Montague Island...

The schooner 'Lady of the Lake' was wrecked about 7 nautical miles off Shoalhaven Bight. Its crew of three survived...

The 'Bertha' was a schooner that transported blue metal from Kiama. Whilst she was returning from Sydney to Kiama, she was caught in a powerful north-easterly gale at Bass Point and was wrecked. Her owner lost a second ship, also a blue metal carrier returning to Kiama, in that same gale on that same day...