SS Dicky removal: Sunshine Coast locals say goodbye to visible remains of 122-year-old shipwreck

Updated

Dozens of Sunshine Coast residents have gathered on Dicky Beach to say goodbye to the 122-year-old shipwreck for which the beach was named.

The visible remains of the SS Dicky, the coastal trader that ran aground there in 1893, have been cut up and removed.

Decades of storms, cyclones and pounding waves have seen the ship reduced from its once mighty iron frame down to the ribs of the hull and keel.

Caloundra photographer Kate Wall was one of the first down on the beach this morning.

The 25-year-old organised a "photowalk and Instameet" earlier this month for the SS Dicky, which saw more than 40 photographers, amateur and professional, gather to snap the shipwreck one last time.

Ms Wall said as the sun crept up this morning, more people arrived, some to take their final photos of the famous shipwreck and others just to see it one last time.

"It's pretty emotional, I'd say. Someone joked about tying themselves to the wreck in protest," Ms Wall said.

"It will be sad to see it go, that's for sure. It's sinking in this morning. I think that's why more of the locals came out.

"As I was leaving the young surfers from the surf club got some photos in front of it.

"It's pretty iconic ... it's not really Dicky Beach without the Dicky. They did name the beach after it, after all."

Ms Wall first photographed the Dicky wreck in 2008 when she moved to the region.

Over the years it has become one of her favourite photo subjects.

"It's different from your normal beach or rocks ... there aren't many shipwrecks around," she said.

"It's different and you can shoot is so many different ways because you get many different conditions.

"I've shot it more than six times in the last two and a half weeks and no two photos I've taken are the same. It's the best part; you can get creative with it."

"You can have a bit of fun with it ... there are endless possibilities."

Ms Wall said she would like to see the Sunshine Coast Council put on a photographic exhibition to celebrate the shipwreck.

"There's so many different photos of it and people then can see the different ways it was captured," she said.

"It's not about who takes the best photos because everyone sees something different ... it's how people have captured the Dicky and people own their own personal touch."

The council's $180,000 SS Dicky strategy includes removing the exposed upper portions of the wreck, ongoing removal of loose wreckage as it becomes more exposed, and keeping the main portion of the wreck buried beneath the beach.

A wreck interpretation display, which will preserve those visible parts of the wreck, will be developed as part of a park landscape plan for the Dicky Beach foreshore park.

Removed pieces of the ship not used in the display will be conserved and stored.

Topics: community-and-society, charities-and-community-organisations, history, photography, dicky-beach-4551

First posted