Victorian Ships' Graveyard History
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Port Phillip Bay and Bass Strait During the period 1913 to 1999 a total of 46 obsolete vessels have been systematically and purposely disposed of in the Victorian Ships' Graveyard. These vessels range in size from 50 tons to 3347 tons and include sailing ships, steam ships, dumb hopper barges, steam hopper barges, J-Class submarines, dredges, tugboats, a Paddle Steamer, and an RAN Attack Class Patrol Boat. Originally thought to be located in a single area, the Graveyard actually covers a 20-kilometre stretch of the Victorian coastline between Torquay and Port Phillip Heads with vessels dumped between 10 and 20 kilometres offshore.

Sea Dumping

There has been a long history of sea dumping in Bass Strait, which is the discarding of material into the ocean from vessels, platforms or aircraft. Since European settlement, the following have been dumped in Bass Strait:
  • chemical and industrial waste;
  • defence waste (ammunition, etc);
  • dredge spoil;
  • human bodies (burial at sea); and
  • obsolete vessels.
Throughout the 1920s sea dumping was widely used as a method of disposal, but with this came an increase in the number of dumping related mishaps. For example, a failure to scuttle the 567-ton barque NORWESTER saw her hulk end up on the popular tourist beach at Portsea in November 1928. In a separate incident in February 1932 the wooden barques PLACE (339 tons) and BIRCHGROVE (381 tons) were disposed by incineration (set alight) off the Nobbies at Phillip Island. This practice was not successful as both vessels failed to sink, but instead ended up on Phillip Island, still ablaze, until eventually claimed by the rocky coastline. Public outcry at such mishaps saw the introduction of sea dumping legislation in 1932 by the Federal Government. These new laws placed restrictions on the type of material that could be dumped and identified 14 Commonwealth areas for disposal of obsolete vessels in Australian waters.

Commonwealth Area #3 is the designated Victorian zone for sea dumping of obsolete vessels. Area #3 is 6 kilometres in diameter and ranges in depth from 40 to 60 metres and is located approximately 10 kilometres south west of Barwon Heads. In 1981 the statutory rules were reviewed and updated so as to align with International legislation, thus further restricting what could be dumped in the ocean and updating the Commonwealth Sea dumping areas. Commonwealth Area #3 was first used in March 1935 with the scuttling of the 3347-ton S.S. MILORA. The MILORA, after a rather dubious career of accidents, ran aground on Point Lonsdale Reef at Port Phillip Heads in September 1934. After being refloated and towed to Melbourne for inspection, she was deemed too expensive to repair, was stripped of all valuable items and scuttled in Area 3. Her end was as error-prone as her life, the work crew overshooting the designated scuttling zone and sinking the vessel 1 kilometre outside the Area 3 boundary. The last vessel listed as being scuttled in Area 3 was the dumb hopper barge VHB 53 in 1971.

Prior to 1935 obsolete vessels were not dumped in Commonwealth Area #3, but outside the Port Phillip Heads 3 mile port limit. Unfortunately (for us), disposal crews favoured no single spot for disposal with vessels being scuttled over a wide area between Barwon Heads and Port Phillip Heads. The earliest official record of a scuttling in Bass Strait occurred in July 1913 with disposal of 375-ton iron barque BRUNETTE. The last vessel to be scuttled outside the Heads was the 150-ton Attack Class Patrol boat BAYONET in September 1999.

Why Scuttling?

A vessel ended up in the Ships' Graveyard due to one or more of the following reasons:
  • Economic Change - better rail and road infrastructure to coastal communities;
  • Superceded Technology - steam replaced sail; diesel replaced steam.
  • Hull deterioration - some vessels in operation for over 75 years; and
  • Accidents - running aground and/or collisions at sea.

Malaita

Decommissioned vessels were sold at auction for a fraction of their original purchase price. The new owners, often shipyards, hulked the vessel.Hulking is the process of removing all items of value until all that remained was the vessels hull and boilers. Sometimes these boilers were salvageable and removed for resale. Once hulked the vessel would be either be completely cut up and sold for scrap or prepared for sea dumping. In the case of sea dumping it was a requirement that all loose fittings be firmly secured (e.g. ship masts) so as to limit the debris field when a vessel was scuttled.
J7 submarine When suitable weather conditions presented themselves, a work crew would tow the hulk to the designated scuttling area and send the remains to the bottom of Bass Strait by either the opening of seacocks or by explosive charge. After the vessel had slipped beneath the waves, a surveyor would take a sextant reading and, if possible, land transits to establish the final resting place of the scuttled vessel. The scuttling would be formally documented (post-1932) and forwarded as a surveyor's report to the then Melbourne Harbour Trust (now the Victorian Channels Authority).

These official surveyor reports are the definite source of scuttling positions, which have found their way into references such as Nayler's book The Silent Fleet, the Parsons and Plunkett Scuttled and Abandoned Ships in Australian Waters and the Hydrographic Office Official Notices to Mariners.

In our experience we have found that the degree of error between the recorded and actual scuttling position ranges from between 300 metres and 2 kilometres. Surveyor reports prior to 1932 generally indicate the name of a vessel scuttled in Bass Strait, but rarely its position.

Three Decades of Exploration 1972 - 2002

HygeiaThe Graveyard was first dived in 1972, with intrepid explorers diving the remains of the MILORA and the BATMAN. In time the list of known wrecks would grow to include the ROTOMAHANA, J-CLASS SUBMARINES, COURIER, and COOGEE, all now regularly visited and easily accessible recreational dive sites. In the early 1990s interest in diving to 50 metres saw a number of new wrecks being found and dived on in Area #3. However, it was not until late 1999 that diving on shipwrecks deeper than 50 metres had surfaced. This phenomenon has been motivated by availability of better diving equipment and training in decompression diving to the recreational market.

We suspect that commercial fishermen, a rather tight knitted bunch, know the locations of most scuttled wrecks as they derive considerable income from fishing these artificial reefs. It is therefore not surprising that the locations of these vessels are closely guarded. For example, we were recently fortunate enough to acquire the location of a new wreck from a commercial fisherman. This wreck, located approximately 15 kilometres south of Port Phillip Heads resides in 70 metres of water. The wreck is covered in fishing lines/nets and scattered in and around the vessel are a proliferation of beer bottles from almost every decade of the 20th century! A large Cray pot has also fouled upon what remains of the vessels stern. We believe this wreck to be that of the ALBERT, a 50-ton ketch that capsized while being towed to Port Phillip Heads in 1890.

Red October Mapping Project

Since 1st June, 2000 the Red October Group have been systematically searching the Victorian Ships' Graveyard in an effort to locate new dive sites. The latest research list of all vessels scuttled in the area may be found here.

© Copyright 2002-2005 Rowan D. Stevens