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Sunday, 22 December 2024
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The Leven Lass 

This wooden brig was carrying timber from Tasmania to Melbourne in 1854 when she ran into Westernport Bay after springing a leak and was reported breaking up on a sandbar.


Centurion

A 91 tonne, 23.5 metre ketch built at Erina, New South Wales in 1907, the 
Centurion caught fire off Phillip Island while returning to Melbourne with a cargo of lime and was beached and burnt to the waterline in July 1913. 
At low tide, her remains were visible until 1979 on the mud flats opposite San Remo. 

Dandenong

This 30 metre barge was lost off McHaffie’s Reef in February 1913 while on the way from Melbourne to Flinders Naval Depot in ballast.
She was a grab punt which was brought into Westernport Bay in 1913 to undertake dredging for the establishment of the Navy Base at Cerberus.


Miss Evelyn

Having started life as a 12 tonne 14 metre ketch, built at Port Pirie, South Australia in 1903 as the Evelyn, she was remeasured and renamed in 1948 as an auxiliary ketch of 27 tonne and 15 metres. 
She sailed from Port Adelaide for a cruise to the Pacific Islands in August 1949 and encountered gales two days later which left her dismasted, her engine broken down, and the deck badly damaged. 
The derelict vessel drifted eastwards for a further nine days before being abandoned some 30 miles from Curtis Island in Bass Strait where the crew of two landed safely. They were rescued about a month later. 
Although not one of the Phillip Island shipwrecks, wreckage from the sunken ketch drifted ashore at Phillip Island near Forrest Caves.

Vixen

In July 1917 the Vixen was under tow to Melbourne for an overhaul when she started to leak and ultimately sank. 
During her heyday between 1887 and 1915 she was a passenger and cargo ferry operating from San Remo around Westernport.
A 17.6m timber screw steam ferry, she rests in about 16 metres, north-east of the Cowes jetty. 

Ventnor

The timber steam driven boat of 21.9 metres on ran briefly on Western Port in 1923 as she was uneconomic. She was dismantled and her hull ran up on the beach east of the Rhyll jetty around 1930 and is now covered by sand.
Having been built in 1874, she had over her first forty eight years been used by Carlton & United Brewery in Melbourne to transport beer barrels to Williamstown.
This vessel is not to be confused with the SS Ventnor which was lost off New Zealand in 1902 carrying the bones of 500 Chinese gold miners to China.

Birchgrove and Palace

Both vessels were condemned to burning at sea at the end of their lives. The tug crews set the two vessels on fire and cast them adrift. However, the fires went out and they drifted ashore, beaching near The Nobbies, Phillip Island, where they broke up in the surf in 1932. 
Locals salvaged a lot of the hull timbers and bronze bolts.
The Birchgrove had been built in 1856 in England as a three masted timber barque of 41.4 metres but was converted to a lighter in the 1880’s. 
The Palace had been built as the three masted 41 metre barque, Confederate Star, in Canada in 1866 and renamed in 1869. 

Genista

Genista was a 24 metre timber steamer built in Sydney in 1886 and commenced duty as the Stony Point/Phillip Island/San Remo ferry in 1889. 
In 1935 she sank at her Rhyll moorings while being dismantled.
She continued to be visible at low tide until 1966 when the wreck was flattened by explosives.

Minah

An iron hulled steam powered tug of 90 ft, she broke loose from her anchorage in a gale in 1950. 
The vessel grounded on a mud bank near Rhyll and was ultimately abandoned.
The wreck is still visible today on the mud bank.
As a tug, Minah had assisted in saving at least one other vessel – refloating a 70t ketch in 1936.

George Kermode

In 1970 a 60 metre 1,380 tonne long bucket dredge, George Kermode, was scuttled by Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to form an artificial reef for fish. 
It is located at 38,31'12'S 145,14'38"E roughly 1.4k SSE from the centre of Cunningham Bay (Siberia Corner of Phillip Island Circuit) in about 20 metres of water. 
Although technically not a Phillip Island shipwreck, it provides both excellent fishing and diving opportunities.

Unidentified wreck

In 1913, while trying to locate the sunken barge, Dandenong, near McHaffie’s Reef, a diver reported an old wreck lying in about 34 metres. 
It appeared to be a ship of heavy timbers with a beam of about 12 metres.
It is possibly a collier which was on its way to Melbourne from Newcastle, when it struck a reef in the 1850's.