Falls of Halladale

Meet the site

The Falls of Halladale was a four-masted iron barque of 2,085 tons, built by Russell and Co at Greenock in 1886 for the Glasgow Falls Line and designed to carry bulk cargo fast under sail. On 14 November 1908, 102 days out from New York for Melbourne with 28 crew and a general cargo that included 22,000 roofing slates, coils of wire, corrugated iron and benzine, her master was confused by sea mist and a compass error and put her onto a submerged reef about 200 yards off the cliffs west of Peterborough at full sail. All hands got away in the boats. What made the wreck famous was that she stayed upright, canvas set, on the reef for weeks, drawing crowds from Melbourne by train and coach; photographs of the ship standing under sail in the surf became the iconic image of the Shipwreck Coast. She eventually broke up in storms, and between 1974 and 1986 divers salvaged around 22,000 slates, many of which now roof the buildings at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum in Warrnambool.

The wreck today appears, in the Scuba Doctor's phrase, as a complex lattice of iron beams and hull plates. The port side of the hull stands upright with 5–6 m of structure at the bow tapering to 2–3 m at the stern; the starboard side has flattened outward and the masts lie scattered to the east. Anchors, bollards, the windlass and heavy structural iron mark the bow, and at the stern are piles of slate and coiled wire from the cargo, with iron knees and plates everywhere between. Depths run from 4 m over the highest structure to about 12 m on the sand alongside, making this the most substantial and most diveable of the three Peterborough wrecks. Kelp and encrusting growth cover the iron, crayfish and abalone shelter in it, and wrasse, sweep and leatherjackets school over it. The limiting factor, as always here, is the flanking reef that breaks in anything but calm seas. It is a protected historic shipwreck on the Great Ocean Road Historic Shipwreck Trail, with an interpretive sign on the clifftop, and it suits Open Water divers with experience of surge who can find a boat on the right day.

What you might see

Southern rock lobster, black-lip abalone, blue-throat wrasse, sea sweep, leatherjackets, zebrafish, kelp and encrusting sponges on the iron, rays on the sand

Location

Four-masted iron barque wrecked in 1908 about 200 m off the cliffs 2–3 km north-west of Peterborough toward the Bay of Martyrs, lying as a lattice of iron in 4–12 m.

Facilities nearby

Peterborough boat ramps, toilets and picnic area at Boat Bay, general store and pub; Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum in Warrnambool displays the slates and artefacts; no air fills nearer than Warrnambool.