The Shipwreck Coast of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

stretches from

Cape Otway Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park. The cape marks the boundary between the Southern Ocea ...

Port Fairy Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Souther ...

, a distance of approximately 130 km. This coastline is accessible via the

Great Ocean Road The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage-listed stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia, between the Victorian towns of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and dedica ...

, and is home to the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

formations called The Twelve Apostles. Explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

said of the Shipwreck Coast, "I have seldom seen a more fearful section of coastline." There are approximately 638 known shipwrecks along Victoria’s coast, although only around 240 of them have been discovered. The Historic Shipwreck Trail along the Shipwreck Coast and the Discovery Coast shows some of the sites where gales, human error and, in some cases, foul play caused these vessels to be wrecked. Ships wrecked on the Shipwreck Coast include: * ''Thistle'' (1837) * ''Children'' (1839) * Unknown French whaler (1841) * ''Lydia'' (1843) * ''Socrates'' (1843) * '' Cataraqui'' (1845) * ''Enterprise'' (1850) * ''Essington'' (1852) * ''Freedom'' (1853) * SS ''Schomberg'' (built

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, named after

Charles Frederick Schomberg Vice Admiral Charles Frederick Schomberg (c. 1815 – 29 September 1874) was an officer of the British Royal Navy. He was the eldest son of Admiral Alexander Wilmot Schomberg by his second marriage. The ship , was named after him. She was buil ...

, sunk 1855) * ''John Scott'' (1858) * ''Golden Spring'' (1863) * ''Marie Gabrielle'' (1869) * ''Young Australian'' (1877) * ''

Loch Ard Loch Ard (Scottish Gaelic: Loch na h-Àirde) is a loch, located in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Stirling (council area), Stirling council area, Scotland. Overview The name of the loch comes from ''àird'', the Scottish Gaelic w ...

'' (1878) * ''Napier'' (1878) * ''Alexandra'' (1882) * ''Yarra'' (1882) * ''Edinburgh Castle'' (1888) * ''Fiji'' (1891) * '' Joseph H. Scammell'' (1891) * ''Newfield'' (1892) * ''Freetrader'' (1894) * ''La Bella'' (1905) * ''

Falls of Halladale ''Falls of Halladale'' was a four-masted iron-hulled barque, built at Greenock in Scotland in 1886 for the Falls Line of Glasgow. She was operated in the long-distance trading of bulk cargos. On 14 November 1908, she was wrecked on the Australi ...

'' (1908) * ''The Speculant'' (1911) * ''Antares'' (1914) * ''Casino'' (1932) * '' City of Rayville'' (1940) Over 50 shipwrecks are commemorated in a Historic Shipwreck Trail beginning at

References

External links

Shipwreck Coast - Maritime HistoryHistoric Shipwreck Trail guideFlagstaff Hill Maritime Village
{{coord missing, Victoria (state) Coastline of Victoria (state) History of Victoria (state) Shipwrecks of Victoria (state) Maritime history of Victoria (state)