Port Victoria - Wardang Island

It takes three hours to drive to Port Victoria on the western Yorke Peninsula. From here nearby Wardang Island may be reached by launching a boat from the ramp on the foreshore near the Port Victoria Nautical Museum. Wardang Island lies in the Spencer Gulf 15km due west of Port Victoria, and is 10km long by 5km. At one stage the island was under the management of an aboriginal community, but it is now virtually uninhabited except for holiday visitors.

Cabin accommodation is available on the island, although conditions are somewhat primitive. There are no commercial facilities at Wardang and all provisions must be carried over from the mainland. However as the island is so near to Port Victoria, there is no need to be based on the island to dive the many wrecks off the Wardang.
Very little can be seen of the wrecks, although most have been located. All are in shallow water and have been reduced to scattered weed encrusted wreckage by the strength of the sea and early salvage divers looking for non-ferrous metals.
The small 6 tonne steam launch Tiparra appears to be the first of several vessels lost off Wardang Island. She foundered whilst under tow south west off Wardang Island in 1877. The ketch Maid of Australia was wrecked on the south west end of the Island in 1899. The schooner Lady Daly was stranded on the eastern side of Wardang in 1901. The barque Aagot was on the way from Semaphore to load wheat from Port Victoria when she was forced onto rocks on the western side of the island during a gale in 1907. The schooner Monarch was wrecked on the southern end of Wardang in 1909. The three masted ship Songvaar was wrecked off the north-east point in 1912. She had just completed loading a cargo of 40,700 bags of wheat when the weather came up . A second anchor was dropped but the ship swung around and settled on the anchor in the ebbing tide. After a year attempting to be refloated she was abandoned and left as a monument to the sea, between Point Pearce and Wardang Island. She was battered by further gales and was eventually demolished by explosives.

The SS Australian was loaded with 3,000 bags of wheat when she was wrecked off the south-eastern point in 1912. The barque Jean Bart was stranded on the western side of Wardang in 1913, and was soon refloated. The steamer Investigator struck rocks in 1918 while on a voyage from Port Augusta to Adelaide and lies on the south-west coast. The French barque Notre Dame d?Arvor was destroyed by fire shortly after stranding when sailing to Port Victoria to load wheat. She was wrecked on the south-west coast in 1920.

The Macintyre was a three-masted schooner laden with wheat when she struck a rock and was wrecked in 1927 on the south eastern point of Wardang. And much more recently, the three masted auxiliary schooner Moorara capsized and sank off the east coast in 1975. She was owned by the aboriginal community council of Point Pirie and was used to carry water from Port Victoria to the aboriginal community on Wardang Island.

Of these wrecks only the Songvaar, Notre Dame d'Arvor and Australian are worthy of a dive, and these only if one is desperate to dive on a wreck. Most are in shallow water and many have been blasted by scrap metal salvagers. The Aargot lies in very shallow water, completely broken up with wreckage scattered over open seabed with some above the high-water mark. The Songvaar is slightly deeper at 25m and is often partially covered in sand. She is also scattered due to nature and explosives, and visibility tends to be rather poor in the area. The Australian has broken up but the marine life is interesting. A boiler lies covered in weed. Scrap metal hunters have blasted the ship beyond recognition. The Investigator was also scattered by explosives and most of the wreck sections are covered in seagrass and other marine growth. The Notre Dame d'Arvor has also badly deteriorated. The Moorara remained fairly intact with her three masts showing but has now deteriorated also.