The Shipwreck Coast of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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. History Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Gadub ...

Port Fairy Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal 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 S ...

, 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 cities of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated t ...

, and is home to the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

formations called The Twelve Apostles. Explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

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 city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, named after Charles Frederick Schomberg, 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, Scotland. Overview The name of the loch comes from ''àird'', the Scottish Gaelic word for a ''promontory, ...

'' (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'' (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 (Australia) Coastline of Victoria (Australia) History of Victoria (Australia) Shipwrecks of Victoria (Australia) Maritime history of Victoria (Australia)