Historic 1857 shipwreck uncovered on Tasmanian beach after east coast low

Updated

The storms that battered Tasmania last week have revealed a hidden treasure buried in the sand along the coast of the Freycinet National Park.

The wreck of a ship appeared briefly at Friendly Beaches but has almost completely disappeared again.

Parks and Wildlife Marine Historian Mike Nash said he thought it was a rare glimpse of the Viola, a 139-ton brig that was forced ashore during strong winds in November 1857, while carrying coal from Newcastle to Hobart.

"It's certainly one that we haven't seen [before]," he said.

"I found a newspaper report that it turned up in 1976 or something, that was the last report of that coming up.

"Just from the historic accounts and the size of the timbers and that sort of thing, that's what we think that one is."

But the only way to know for sure would be to get samples of the timber wreck and that has proven difficult.

"That's the problem because these things disappear very quickly," Mr Nash said.

"There's a lot of weed and sand coming back in so I'm probably not going to get the opportunity to record that one in detail."

Mr Nash said some samples of the wood could help to determine it's origin and he has asked the local ranger to take a sample.

"He's tried once and couldn't relocated it," he said.

"That particular vessel was built in Canada so if we get samples then we can match those and identify where it come from.

"Unfortunately with these things the sand comes in very quickly so its a matter of you have to be there pretty well within a day or two of it being found.

Old friend Zephyr reappears near Bream Creek

The storms have also washed away sand near Bream Creek in Tasmania's south, once again revealing the wreck of the Zephyr.

The Zephyr was wrecked in 1852 near Bream Creek and turns up every few years when conditions scour the sand from the beach.

The Zephyr was a locally built schooner weighing 63 tons and 62 feet in length.

It was carrying general cargo and about 14 passengers when it was wrecked, with the loss of eight lives.

That wreck has been exposed a number of times before.

"What usually happen when there's a bit of bad weather we get a number of wrecks around the coast that turn up on a periodic basis," Mr Nash said.

"In the case of the Zephyr from 1862 that appeared at Marion Bay, that one appears on a fairly regular basis so I was sort of expecting that one.

"With the Zephyr, because we know where that one is, we did some work on it about 10 years ago.

"We actually had a group of students and did a pretty good survey and dug a bit and took some timber samples."

There are more than 1,000 shipwrecks in Tasmania and only about 70-80 have been located.

"There's probably about 20 that appear at various times," Mr Nash said.

"We had one on the west coast, half a ship almost appeared one time about 10 yeas ago when there was a lot of storm activity.

"There's ones at Maria Island and there's other ones at different locations.

"I get reports and I pretty well know which ones they are but new ones do turn up according to the weather conditions."

Under the Historic Shipwreck Act, all wrecks that occurred more than 75 years ago are protected.

Parks and Wildlife is urging anyone who comes across a shipwreck to report it to them.

Topics: community-and-society, history, floods, disasters-and-accidents, tas, bicheno-7215, bream-creek-7175, nsw, newcastle-2300

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