About the Graveyards

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Introduction

Of the approximately 800 shipwrecks which are known to lie in South Australian waters, more than 70 can be classed as graveyard vessels. These wrecks have been deliberately abandoned at 19 identified sites around the State's coast and waterways. Some locations contain the remains of just one or perhaps a few vessels, while the largest site, the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard at Port Adelaide, includes at least 25 craft.

The wrecks abandoned at these graveyards demonstrate propulsion and shipbuilding technologies from the 1850s to the 1960s and represent the diversity of craft which plied South Australian waters during the 19th and 20th centuries. They range from majestic windjammers, steamships and motor vessels that travelled international waters, to coastal traders, fishing boats, ferries, tugs, dredges and barges.

Today these deliberately scuttled vessels lie in various states of repair. While a rotting keel or rusting plates are all that remain of a few, other vessels are largely intact. Many have been abandoned on muddy shores and can be viewed by land, kayak or small boat, while other locations vary from depths of at least 50 metres south of Kangaroo Island to shallower Gulf waters easily accessible to recreational divers.

What is a Ships' Graveyard?

Eleni K, Goat Island

Ships' graveyards are official dumping sites for obsolete watercraft - those locations where vessels, or their partly salvaged remains, have been deliberately abandoned with the approval of relevant authorities.

What is NOT a Ships' Graveyard?

Often the phrase 'graveyard of ships' is used to romanticise a particularly dangerous area of the sea or coast where many vessels have come to grief, but this is not its meaning here.

• Although some of the vessels found in South Australia's ships' graveyards may have been involved in wrecking incidents during their working lives, their ultimate demise was much less catastrophic, being planned and purposeful.

Not all abandoned vessels are part of a ships' graveyard.

• Vessels which have accidentally sunk, run aground or been otherwise damaged, and in a sense 'abandoned' by the crew, are not considered graveyard vessels unless (like the Hougomont (PDF) and Eleni K (PDF)) they have been removed to an officially sanctioned site and scuttled.
• Likewise, derelict vessels which have simply deteriorated through disuse and lack of repair, or illegally scuttled vessels such as obsolete fishing boats privately sunk as artificial reefs ('snapper drops'), are not authorised abandonments and therefore not included as ships' graveyard sites.

Why Do Vessels Become Obsolete?

The simple answer is that vessels become obsolete when they are no longer financially viable, although the reasons for this can vary. Vessels may become obsolete because of:

• Economic and social changes
• Technological changes
• Disrepair
• Misfortune
• A combination of reasons

Ketch Fleet, Birkenhead, 1937 Photo: State Library of SA:B 9697

Economic and social changes

For example the growth and development of roads and rail systems, which impacted on shipping and reduced the size of coastal fleets, or the effects of the Great Depression or 2 World Wars which directly influenced the fate of many vessels.

Technological changes

For example developments in propulsion technology from sail to steam and later to diesel, which caused many vessels to be scrapped, or developments in ship construction, materials and design that also affected a vessel's "use-by date".

Disrepair

For example hull deterioration or other effects of age which have caused many vessels to be scrapped as unseaworthy.

Misfortune

For example accidental damage from collision, running aground or being dismasted in storms which led many owners to dispose of their vessels through salvage rather than undergoing costly repairs.

A combination of reasons

Many vessels became obsolete in terms of their primary function but were converted for other, secondary purposes before finally being scrapped or abandoned. For example some sailing vessels, replaced by steamships, were used as coal hulks within the port until they eventually fell into disrepair or were no longer needed in this service.

How Are Obsolete Vessels Disposed Of?

Obsolete vessels are generally stripped of fittings and other saleable items and then completely dismantled and sold for scrap.

However this is not always the preferred or most viable option. A number of vessels have ended their days in ships' graveyards - either scuttled at sea or deliberately abandoned on shore.

In South Australia alternate disposal methods for ships' graveyard vessels have included:

• Beaching
• Sea Dumping
• Target Practice
• Relocation

Beaching

Garden Island Ships' Graveyard

The relative shallowness of Gulf waters and the costs of towage meant that disposal at sea was generally not practical. The alternative was that many vessels were beached at various sites within or near ports. A major advantage of this disposal ashore was that the vessel remained available for further salvage.

• vessels were stripped of saleable items, with the hull then towed to an out-of-the-way location and beached - some unauthorised salvage may have followed. (eg the Excelsior (PDF) at Mutton Cove)
• vessels were partially broken up in one area, with remains towed to another site and abandoned - further salvage generally followed. (eg most of the vessels located in the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard)
• vessels were incompletely broken up with remains left on site. (eg Jervois Basin, where evidence survives of a few of the many vessels broken up at this major ship-breaking site)
• vessels were occasionally disposed of by incineration. (eg the Alert (PDF), at Jervois Basin, was burnt by authorities when the salvager was unable to complete his contract)

Sea Dumping:

Scuttling the ex-HMAS Hobart at Yankalilla Bay, November 2002

Obsolete vessels are sometimes acquired and sunk for a particular purpose. This generally involves some salvage of fittings as well as removal of dangerous or loose material. The gutted vessel is then towed to a predetermined site and scuttled with either explosives or by flooding.

• a number of vessels have been sunk in coastal waters to become artificial reefs for recreational angling and diving ventures. (eg the scuttling of the Bronzewing (226Kb PDF) at Port Lincoln or the MV Seawolf (PDF) at Port Noarlunga were club projects, while others, like the sinking of the South Australian (PDF) at Glenelg, the Ardrossan Barge (PDF) or the recently scuttled ex-HMAS Hobart (311Kb PDF) at Yankalilla Bay were Government initiatives)
• one vessel, the badly damaged sailing barque Hougomont (PDF), was towed to Stenhouse Bay and purposely sunk to serve as a breakwater.

Target Practice:

• two obsolete vessels, the Pam (PDF) and the Quorna (PDF) , were stripped and towed to predetermined sites south of Kangaroo Island, where they were used as target practice by the Royal Australian Navy and Air Force respectively.

Relocation:

Occasionally a badly damaged vessel, which poses a hazard to navigation, is relocated to an area away from shipping lanes (eg the Eleni K (PDF) which foundered near Ceduna was removed to Goat Island).