Everyone talks about the Titanic but what about our shipwrecks? Like the song says, our land is girt (all 34,000km of coastline) by sea, the site for over 8000 shipwrecks. These disasters tell the story of generations of ships, environmental risks, the state of lighthouses and emergency aid, and most intriguingly, who were the people and goods coming and going. What was the cost of these tragedies, and could they have been averted? Today, should the wrecks be considered graveyards, or sites of leisure, or of loot? Why do we remember? And why do we more often forget?
Face-to-Face / Online
- Before 1788: Trial 1622, Batavia 1628, Vianen 1628, Zuytdorp 1712, Endeavour 1770.
- 1788-1820: Sirius 1789, Pandora 1791, Porpoise 1803.
- 1821-1850: Mermaid 1829, Hive 1835, Maria 1840, Clommel 1841.
- 1851-1888: Dunbar 1857, Admella 1859, Cawarra 1866, Gothenburg 1875, Loch Ard 1878.
- 1889-1913: Quetta 1890, Foam 1893, Rodney 1894, Falls of Halladale 1908, Yongala 1911.
- 1914-1930: Australia 1924, Greycliff 1927
- 1931-1945: Sydney 1941, Peary 1942, M24 & Kuttabal 1942, Montevideo Maru 1942, Centaur 1943.
- 1946-2000: Sydney, Lake Illawarra 1975
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Discover the stories of the most significant shipwrecks in Australian history
- Explore the major stages in the evolution of ship and lighthouse technology
- Understand the changing attitudes to the sites of shipwrecks and their archaeology
