From the depths to display: Rediscovering South Australia’s oldest known shipwreck
Beneath the waters of Encounter Bay, South Australia’s oldest known shipwreck, the South Australian, lay hidden for almost two centuries before being rediscovered in 2018.
Built in England in 1819, the South Australian first served as a mail ship before it was used to transport European settlers to Australia and later as a whaling vessel.
But after just four months in the whaling trade, the ship was lost in a storm in 1837, before slipping from view a decade or two later.
After years of investigation and renewed searches, maritime archaeologists finally located the wreck about 300 metres offshore, buried beneath sand and seagrass.
Artefacts recovered from the site are now on permanent display at the National Trust Museum in Victor Harbor, offering a rare glimpse into the state’s early maritime history.
Read on to discover the ship’s journey - from its early days at sea to its rediscovery and recovery, and how it came to be on display today.
The early history of the South Australian
Originally built as the Marquess of Salisbury in Flushing, England, the South Australian was first launched in 1819.
It was one of only a handful of three-masted vessels to serve as a Falmouth packet - a specialised class of ship designed to carry mail between Great Britain and overseas ports.
It was later renamed HMS Swallow when the Royal Navy took over the British mail service. They armed the vessel with six guns, most likely carronades - a type of short-range cannon.
From 1821 to 1835, the vessel made voyages to ports across the Atlantic and beyond, including Halifax (Nova Scotia), New York, Bermuda, Mexico, Cuba and Rio de Janeiro.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the ship - Swallow was almost lost in 1834 after sailing into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
To save the vessel, the crew cut away its masts and threw the guns overboard, before rigging makeshift masts and limping into Havana, Cuba for repairs.
In 1836, Swallow was sold for £1,000 to the South Australian Company, a British enterprise formed to establish a colony of free European settlers in South Australia.
The vessel’s journey to South Australia
After the South Australian Company acquired Swallow, it was repaired, refitted, re-rigged as a barque - a three-masted sailing ship - and renamed South Australian.
The vessel transported colonists from England to Kangaroo Island in 1837, before being prepared for whaling and sent on to Encounter Bay.
There, it would serve as a cutting-in vessel for the South Australian Company’s shore-based whaling station, removing blubber, tongue and baleen for oil and other uses.
How the ship was lost
In the early morning hours of 8 December 1837, shortly before the South Australian was due to depart for Kangaroo Island, the barque was struck by a strong southeasterly gale.
As the storm intensified, the ship broke free from its anchors. Driven over Black Reef and taking on water the ship then drifted ashore where it ran aground and tipped onto its side.
No lives were lost, and over the following weeks the crew salvaged as much as they could from the wreck. The hull was unfortunately abandoned but remained visible above the water for several years.
By the 1850s, the South Australian had completely disappeared from view, but the wreck’s location was likely known to local fishers for many years.
The shipwrecks discovery and recovery
In the 1990s, the Department for Environment and Water (then the Department of Environment and Heritage) made two attempts to re-locate the wreck site.
During one survey, a local resident told staff it was located, “about 300 to 400 yards straight out to sea from the residence next to the Fountain Inn, at the line between brown and blue water, in eight to nine feet of water.”
The description proved remarkably accurate. In 2018, the department returned to the site - this time with a handful of research partners - and successfully located the wreck.
The research partners included Flinders University, the Australian National Maritime Museum, the South Australian Maritime Museum and the Silentworld Foundation.
The search was guided by the resident’s account, supported by clues from historic letters, the vessel’s logbook, an 1838 map and an early watercolour that helped pinpoint its location.
After preparing a detailed layout of the wreck, the site was then surveyed twice more, during which several artefacts were carefully recovered and catalogued.
The department and its research partners have since returned a number of times to record newly exposed sections of the wreck and monitor sediment levels to ensure it remains protected.
Where the artefacts are now
In 2024, the department loaned several artefacts to the Australian National Maritime Museum for its exhibition: A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck – Rediscovering South Australian.
After the exhibition closed late 2025, the department transferred the artefacts to the National Trust Museum in Victor Harbor, where they are now on permanent display.
The display features:
- Wooden fragments and copper fastenings (bolts and spikes) from the ship's hull
- A wooden deadeye from the ship's rigging
- A lead tingle fragment (repair patch)
- Glass bottles
- A whetstone/grinding stone
- Several gunflints
- A blue willow pattern ceramic sherd, and
- A copy of South Australian's logbook.
Protecting our maritime heritage
The South Australian was listed on the South Australian Register of Historic Shipwrecks in 1988 and declared a historic shipwreck in 1996 under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981.
Following the shipwreck’s discovery in 2018, the department declared a 30-metre protected zone around the site, prohibiting all vessels and people from entering without a permit.
The department now plans to rebury the site in 2026 using geotextile, sandbags and marine sediment to protect it from natural processes and support its long-term preservation.
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