The Artisan stranded at Wreck Beach, April 1901. Photo: Wonthaggi & District Historical Society
By Linda Cuttriss
I DRIVE out of Wonthaggi towards Harmers Haven, turn left at the end of the road and swing into the car park at Wreck Beach. I pass a historical marker sign on my way in but when I walk across to have a look the plaque is gone. In its place someone has drawn an anchor and written 'Artisan, 1901', the name and date of the incident for which the beach is named.
The large barque Artisan was sailing from Manila in the Philippines via the Indian Ocean to take on a load of coal at Newcastle in New South Wales in April 1901 when a mighty storm drove her onto the shore platform. She was left stranded in an almost upright position and miraculously there was no loss of life. At low tide all the crew walked ashore.
I DRIVE out of Wonthaggi towards Harmers Haven, turn left at the end of the road and swing into the car park at Wreck Beach. I pass a historical marker sign on my way in but when I walk across to have a look the plaque is gone. In its place someone has drawn an anchor and written 'Artisan, 1901', the name and date of the incident for which the beach is named.
The large barque Artisan was sailing from Manila in the Philippines via the Indian Ocean to take on a load of coal at Newcastle in New South Wales in April 1901 when a mighty storm drove her onto the shore platform. She was left stranded in an almost upright position and miraculously there was no loss of life. At low tide all the crew walked ashore.
I expected the historical marker to be the plaque that records William Hovell finding coal nearby in 1826. Hovell wrote in his journal that the coal was “lying in three parallel lines in succession for at least one or two miles, about 10 inches thick …. it extended below the low water mark on the side of one of the cliffs”.
The year 1826 was significant in the colonisation of Australia. Earlier that year the British had hoisted the Union Jack and established Fort Dumaresq where Rhyll now stands to claim formal possession of the land. The site was soon abandoned for the more reliable water supply at Settlement Point (Corinella) which Hovell used as a base for his explorations of the Bass Coast region.
The year 1826 was significant in the colonisation of Australia. Earlier that year the British had hoisted the Union Jack and established Fort Dumaresq where Rhyll now stands to claim formal possession of the land. The site was soon abandoned for the more reliable water supply at Settlement Point (Corinella) which Hovell used as a base for his explorations of the Bass Coast region.
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I walk across to the path where a sign informs visitors that Hooded Plovers breed, feed and roost here and reminds us to protect these threatened little shorebirds. At the end of the path, steps lead down to Coal Creek which runs behind a dune at the back of Wreck Beach. The creek is lined with rushes and coastal shrubs, except for a section of bare sand that slopes down to where an Australasian Grebe is busily feeding.
I cross the footbridge and follow the footprints across the dune to the open coast. To the north-east, Harmers Haven is camouflaged among the scrubby cliff tops that wrap around to Coal Point. I walk south-east towards Cape Paterson where the mouth of Coal Creek is like a lagoon perched above the high-water mark.
I cross the footbridge and follow the footprints across the dune to the open coast. To the north-east, Harmers Haven is camouflaged among the scrubby cliff tops that wrap around to Coal Point. I walk south-east towards Cape Paterson where the mouth of Coal Creek is like a lagoon perched above the high-water mark.
  | I imagine Hovell camping here on the night he “discovered” the coal. His journal records that, “At 6.30 stopped for the night at a small place of fresh water …. A few yards from the beach, put a piece of coal on the fire and find it to burn well, it has fine glossy and pitchy appearance”. I look across the vast shore platform of Cretaceous sandstone and mudstone worn flat by wave action, abrasion by sand and gravel and weathering by wetting and drying as the tide comes and goes. I pick up a pebble of yellow-brown sandstone and a grey mudstone and feel the gritty texture. A black pebble nearby feels smooth and surprisingly light and has a shine to it and I realise this must be coal. Like sandstone and mudstone, coal is a sedimentary rock. It is formed from masses of dead plant material compressed over millions of years. |
An outcrop of smoothed, curved mudstone appears like a creature stranded on the sand and reminds me that a 22-metre Fin Whale washed ashore on this beach in July 1923. Charlie Taberner bought the whale’s jawbone for £25 as an archway to the entrance of his hotel and the whale bones remain an iconic part of the Wonthaggi Hotel to this day.
The whale was previously identified as a Pygmy Blue Whale but last month, following an article in the Post, it was identified as a fin whale by Professor Trevor Branch from the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, University of Washington.) Photo: Wonthaggi & District Historical Society
Beyond a low shrubby bluff, my eye catches a glint of shiny black rock about 30 centimetres wide and several metres long. This is undoubtedly a coal seam, its cindery sheen unmistakable against the dull grey and yellow-brown of the mudstone and sandstone. Behind, there are more coal seams overlain by mudstone.
Beyond a low shrubby bluff, my eye catches a glint of shiny black rock about 30 centimetres wide and several metres long. This is undoubtedly a coal seam, its cindery sheen unmistakable against the dull grey and yellow-brown of the mudstone and sandstone. Behind, there are more coal seams overlain by mudstone.
Hovell’s “discovery” was “rediscovered” by Samuel Anderson, the first settler in the Bass Coast region who arrived shortly after the “founding” of Melbourne in 1835 and established a wheat farm, flour mill, salt works and orchard on the Bass River with his friend William Massie. Anderson opened up a track to cart coal to his station and claimed to have extracted tons of coal for his use.
Anderson reported his find and in 1840 the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Port Phillip Colony, Charles La Trobe, inspected the site with Anderson. While optimistic about what he saw, he had concerns about the lack of a safe harbour for transporting the coal.
Through the 1840s and early 1850s surveys were undertaken, reports written, consortiums, committees, associations and companies formed, boreholes sunk and shafts dug, but little progress was made.
In 1851, Victoria became an independent colony and, with Melbourne booming, concern was mounting about the new colony’s reliance on expensive coal from New South Wales. A gold rush was underway in Central Victoria but there was still no coal rush, so in September 1852, the new Legislative Council offered a £1000 reward for finding coal deposits of sufficient size, quality and ease of transport to Melbourne.
In 1853, a survey by Government Geological Surveyor Alfred Selwyn reported that two rich veins, the Rock Vein and Queen Vein, running north-west of Cape Paterson to around Coal Creek had a good supply of quality coal but economic viability was doubtful due to the challenges of transport to market.
Shipping from Anderson Inlet was considered but its shallow entrance thought too risky. A tramline to Griffith Point (San Remo) was an option but hugely costly and Cape Paterson’s exposed location on an open coast was problematic.
Despite the difficulties, a few enterprising individuals persevered, two companies were established and coal was eventually shipped from Cape Paterson. The coal was loaded onto bullock wagons, hauled to a jetty built from a rock platform near the present-day Cape Paterson rock pool, bagged and loaded onto whaleboats and transported to ships moored offshore.
In 1859, 500 tons of coal was recovered by the Cape Patterson Coal Company and by 1865, 2,000 tons of coal had been shipped to Melbourne by the Victorian Coal Company. But, after repeated storms damaged the jetty and moorings and insurers refused to cover vessels visiting the Cape, production on the Cape Paterson Coalfields ceased.
Numerous contenders applied for the government reward offered in 1852 but it was Richard Davis who was successful, albeit apparently receiving only £400. Davis had put down the deep bore that proved the extent of the resource and was mine manager for the Cape Patterson Coal Company which recovered the first 500 tons. The original shaft sunk by Davis, which he named the Reward Shaft, is now lost amongst the scrub on the side of the cliff at Harmers Haven.
As I return, I notice rusty relics of the Artisan appear to have melded with the rocks, much as the stories of the wrecked ship and Hovell’s discovery of black coal are strangely interlinked. The Artisan was sailing to collect NSW coal when she was wrecked at the same location where coal was first “discovered” in Victoria, a find that led to the establishment of the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi and Victoria’s liberation from dependence on NSW coal. The curious irony adds a twist to the colourful history of Wreck Beach.
Anderson reported his find and in 1840 the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Port Phillip Colony, Charles La Trobe, inspected the site with Anderson. While optimistic about what he saw, he had concerns about the lack of a safe harbour for transporting the coal.
Through the 1840s and early 1850s surveys were undertaken, reports written, consortiums, committees, associations and companies formed, boreholes sunk and shafts dug, but little progress was made.
In 1851, Victoria became an independent colony and, with Melbourne booming, concern was mounting about the new colony’s reliance on expensive coal from New South Wales. A gold rush was underway in Central Victoria but there was still no coal rush, so in September 1852, the new Legislative Council offered a £1000 reward for finding coal deposits of sufficient size, quality and ease of transport to Melbourne.
In 1853, a survey by Government Geological Surveyor Alfred Selwyn reported that two rich veins, the Rock Vein and Queen Vein, running north-west of Cape Paterson to around Coal Creek had a good supply of quality coal but economic viability was doubtful due to the challenges of transport to market.
Shipping from Anderson Inlet was considered but its shallow entrance thought too risky. A tramline to Griffith Point (San Remo) was an option but hugely costly and Cape Paterson’s exposed location on an open coast was problematic.
Despite the difficulties, a few enterprising individuals persevered, two companies were established and coal was eventually shipped from Cape Paterson. The coal was loaded onto bullock wagons, hauled to a jetty built from a rock platform near the present-day Cape Paterson rock pool, bagged and loaded onto whaleboats and transported to ships moored offshore.
In 1859, 500 tons of coal was recovered by the Cape Patterson Coal Company and by 1865, 2,000 tons of coal had been shipped to Melbourne by the Victorian Coal Company. But, after repeated storms damaged the jetty and moorings and insurers refused to cover vessels visiting the Cape, production on the Cape Paterson Coalfields ceased.
Numerous contenders applied for the government reward offered in 1852 but it was Richard Davis who was successful, albeit apparently receiving only £400. Davis had put down the deep bore that proved the extent of the resource and was mine manager for the Cape Patterson Coal Company which recovered the first 500 tons. The original shaft sunk by Davis, which he named the Reward Shaft, is now lost amongst the scrub on the side of the cliff at Harmers Haven.
As I return, I notice rusty relics of the Artisan appear to have melded with the rocks, much as the stories of the wrecked ship and Hovell’s discovery of black coal are strangely interlinked. The Artisan was sailing to collect NSW coal when she was wrecked at the same location where coal was first “discovered” in Victoria, a find that led to the establishment of the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi and Victoria’s liberation from dependence on NSW coal. The curious irony adds a twist to the colourful history of Wreck Beach.
