About the Graveyards

About the Graveyards

Of the approximately 800 shipwrecks which are known to lie in South Australian waters, more than 70 can be classed as graveyard vessels. These wrecks have been deliberately abandoned at 19 identified sites around the State's coast and waterways. Some locations contain the remains of just one or perhaps a few vessels, while the largest site, the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard at Port Adelaide, includes at least 25 craft.

The wrecks abandoned at these graveyards demonstrate propulsion and shipbuilding technologies from the 1850s to the 1960s and represent the diversity of craft which plied South Australian waters during the 19th and 20th centuries. They range from majestic windjammers, steamships and motor vessels that travelled international waters, to coastal traders, fishing boats, ferries, tugs, dredges and barges.

Today these deliberately scuttled vessels lie in various states of repair. While a rotting keel or rusting plates are all that remain of a few, other vessels are largely intact. Many have been abandoned on muddy shores and can be viewed by land, kayak or small boat, while other locations vary from depths of at least 50 metres south of Kangaroo Island to shallower Gulf waters easily accessible to recreational divers.