The Amazon 1863 Project Inc. was formed in 2019 to protect the recently revealed Amazon shipwreck on the Surf Beach at Inverloch on the Bass Coast, South Gippsland Australia. The Committee encourage annual memberships and sell merchandise to fund artefact conservation and share the history of this A1 Class mid-nineteenth century wooden sailing ship. Bass Coast Shire plans for the Inverloch Cultural Discovery Centre will be the perfect facility to showcase artefacts and the Amazon story.
Discover how this sailing ship left the Port of Melbourne in 1863 bound for Mauritius and became wrecked on an Inverloch beach. Remarkably no lives were lost!
The Amazon Shipwreck is on the Surf Beach at Inverloch in the Bunurong Marine National Park which is managed by Parks Victoria. First locate the Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club at the intersection of Surf Parade and Goroke Street, there is a carpark, toilets and a path leading down to the beach.
Approximately 450m to the west, the wreck of the Amazon can usually be seen in the sand at LOW TIDE. If Wreck Creek is running you may require waterproof shoes or just bare feet. Check ‘Inverloch Surf Beach Tides’ for tide times.
This section of the Amazon bow was revealed transiently in 2020 and quickly recovered with sand. Deadwood are the internal structures which give strength to the stem of a wooden ship. The vertical planking with a rib attached would have been in a horizontal position. The stern was ripped off on impact during beaching of the vessel.
What a wonderful way to finish off the year with the ‘Deadwood Unveiling’ finally taking place on the 158th anniversary of the grounding of the Amazon on the Inverloch Surf Beach. The Deadwood is 3.3 metres (11 ft) tall and is quite an imposing relic. It is fixed using the
rtefact returns to Inverloch – The big unveiling We have had to postpone the artefact Unveiling at the Hub yet again due to Covid restrictions. We had booked August 27th, but with Melbourne still in lockdown and our Conservator, Heritage Victoria & Victoria State Living Heritage Program officials unable to
Join us for drinks, nibbles & the official unveiling of the recently preserved Amazon artefact known as ‘The Deadwood’. Come & support the Amazon 1863 Project. Unveiling at 6 pm, drinks, nibbles, raffles… Join us Members receive a Doubloon in exchange for a glass of “Dirty 3 Wine” Bring some $$$ & join in the excitement! Where: Inverloch Community Hub in A’Beckett St. When: Wednesday 15th December at 6pm (was Friday 1st Oct). RSVP: By email to Secretary@Amazon1863.org.au or call 0423 682 580
By Doug Ford, Friends of the Jersey Maritime Museum. Download their full October 2020 Newsletter In our last newsletter I mentioned the 33-ton Jersey-built barque AMAZON which ran aground on the coast of Victoria, Australia during a severe gale on the morning of Tuesday, 15 December 1863. With no hope of being able to claw his way back to the open sea to save his vessel, Captain Ogier ran her straight onto the shore and then had his crew cut away the fore and mizzen masts to prevent her breaking up. By 3:00pm all the crew were safely ashore and the AMAZON lay abandoned on the shore about eight miles east of Cape Paterson. For the next 150 years or so she lay hidden beneath the sands, occasionally and tantalisingly poking a wooden rib or two through the sand. She even gave her name to the area of the beach – “Wreck Creek”; and then during the Autumn storms in March and April 2015 more of the wreck surfaced including rare and delicate organic artefacts such as a deadeye with a knot still tied at one end. Since then the situation has worsened and the wreck site has been at